Learn while having fun at the powwow
A powwow celebrating Native American history and culture is scheduled for today and the public is invited.
The Yuba-sutter Winter Pow Wow (and benefit for James Graham and Lucky Preston, Paradise fire victims) offers a full dance schedule as well as vendors and other events.
Pat Bennett, with the American Indian Education Program of the Marysville Joint Unified School District, reviewed some of the dances that will be a part of the powwow:
She said there will be a potato dance, where two people hold a potato between them while dancing in beat. If the potato drops, they are eliminated and the last couple standing wins a prize.
“Team Dance is a team of three or more youths that get together to choreograph their own dance,” she said. “The team best liked by the audience wins a prize.”
She said the stop/go dance is where dancers dance until the music stops and if they are caught moving after the drum stops, they are eliminated. The last one standing wins the prize.
“One of the most popular dances is the switch dance. The males don the female regalia and dance to that style. The females don male regalia and dance to that style,” she said. “The one that the audience likes best is the winner of a prize.”
Bennett said there will also be demonstration dancing to show the audience each style of dance that takes place at powwows.
“Cake walk is for everyone to participate in where people buy a numbered plate and dance until all the winning numbers are called,” she said. “We usually try to have something for every plate sold – that’s a little different from other cake walks.”
She said there will also be intertribal dances where everyone is welcomed to dance.
“A round dance is WHAT:
WHEN: WHERE:
CALL:
also for everyone to dance, where dancers follow the lead person,” she said. “Sometimes the lead person will take them on a tour of the room, sometimes just in a circle for the duration of the song. It is a show of friendship for both native and non-native peoples.”
Bennett said several people will be honored during the event, including winners of the American Indian Education Program’s Writing and Drawing Contest.
“This year there will be several special honorings –
two young dancers will be ‘coming out’ and the Head Boy and Head Girl will have an honor dance,” she said.
James Graham and Lucky Preston, both of whom lost their Paradise homes in the Camp Fire, will be honored and each will have their own dance.
“James Graham was the supervisor of the American Indian Education Program for more than 20 years,” she said. “He initiated this Winter Pow Wow.”
She said that Graham has also been instrumental in the Native American cultural presentations in Yuba Sutter for more than two decades.
“Lucky Preston has also been instrumental in cultural teachings throughout Yuba, Sutter and Butte counties – if a person learned to dance, Lucky was one of the ones to teach them,” Bennett said. “If a drum group developed, Lucky was instrumental in that development. He also organized the Oroville Pow Wow for 20 years.”
About 35 vendors will be providing information to the community or selling Native American items that are popular with both native and non-native people.
everybody identified problems and a way to address it,” she said Thursday.
The meetings serve as a good way to get to know your neighbors, she said, but also to learn the “lay of the land.” They plan on
meeting monthly.
“When people in the neighborhood get together, things can get accomplished right away,” Mckenzie said. “We watch over (our property) and each other.”