Pow-wow Entertainment
Folklore is expressive culture, including tales , music, dance, legends,
oral history, proverbs, customs, and so forth within a particular
population. The academic study of folklore is covered by ethnography and
is sometimes called folkloristics. Every nation on earth has some sort
of folklore. Turtle Island Native Nations all have different and very
rich folklore.
In our time Turtle Island Native Nations have pow-wows where
different Nations meet bringing their diverse folklore. In brief a pow-wow
is typically, a gathering of Native and non-Native people in one area to
dance, sing, socialize, and meet. Pow-wows can vary in length from a
single session of about 5-6 hours to three days.
A pow-wow has a circle with an entrance to it and a drum space in the
middle of the circle. People watching the pow-wow sit around the circle
and participants enter the circle and move around the drum stepping to
the drum beat. The feet do the movements and the hips and shoulders
don't. (Europeans move hips and shoulders when they try to join in and
go around the drum in the circle which is a mistake.) The participants
are called pow-wow dancers though the stepping motions they are
performing are without hip and shoulder swinging which is different from
the classic idea of a dance. At the time of Rasulullah a group of
Africans that accepted Islam chanted Lillahaillallah and motioned their
feet and hands carrying weapons such as spears similar to what the male
participants at a pow-wow do and call their dance. This concept of dance
is different from the concept of ballet dancing or dancing at balls or
in nightclubs.
The pow-wow participants compete dancing to the drum beat in male and
female separate age categories. They wear decorated clothing from their
cultures which they call their regalia. They usually make their own
regalia or they have friends and relatives help them with regalia. The
regalia reflects the participant's cultural background and expressions
from personal experiences where each color and design carries a meaning.
The pow-wow is a fun event and not a ceremonial event in any way.
However many of the etiquettes of the pow-wow and things done at pow-wows
have sources in ceremonies. On pow-wows traditional male dancers may
make moves that reenact stories from hunts and other events that took
place. This is true for other cultures as well. In Indochina there are
traditional dances that are reenactments of mythological stories. In
these traditional Indochinese the dancers are believed to be joined with
spirits of the characters portrayed in the reenactment dance. In Mayan
cultures there are plays like the Rabina Achi play about a Quiche
warrior who is captured and granted a few wishes among which is his wish
to visit his home after which he returns to his captors and is executed
in an honorable way. The traditional Mayans that are involved with plays
like the Rabina Achi believe that their ancestral spirits join them
during the performance of the play. In many Siberian indigenous cultures
the Medicine man shows his journey in his trance state as an act. For
example if he visions meeting a horse spirit, he will motion in ways
that portray a horse. The same is in Inut culture, if the Medicine man
visions a walrus spirit, he will motion in ways that resemble a walrus.
Pow-wows are purely for entertainment as social events, unlike
ceremonies where performers believe that spirits join them during their
performance.