Thousands gather for festivities
Thousands gather for festivities
Cultural, religious and social characteristics displayed
| CAPTION: David Archambeau/Kelly Fosness/Daily Mining Gazette Dancers were on display over the weekend at the 28th annual Keweenaw Bay Indian Community Pow-wow. |
BY KELLY FOSNESS, DMG Writer
BARAGA — The beat of the drum, Andrew Loonsfoot said, is the heartbeat of Mother Earth.
“It’s been that way for thousands of years. When they hear that drum, that’s what always draws them out,” he explained of the dancers from the arena side Saturday afternoon at the Ojibwa Campground in Baraga. “Whatever moves you, it’s that spirit inside of you that makes you want to get up and dance.”
Echoing throughout the campground during the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community’s Maawanji’iding this past weekend, were several drum groups who carried the beat for the hundreds of dancers clad in brightly colored regalia. Known by the title “Mungozid,” which is Ojibwa for Loonsfoot, Andrew and his four other drum group members returned to their native stomping ground for the weekend to participate in the celebration.
“I’ve been traveling to pow-wows for several years,” he said. “It gives me a chance to gather with old acquaintances, make new acquaintances and just have a good time.”
Scheduled each year on the fourth weekend in July, the KBIC’s Maawaji’iding, arena director Stan Spruce said, is a celebration and this year’s theme is “Teaching Our Daughters.”
“What we’re trying to teach them is to just be yourself,” he explained, while taking a break between events held in the arena. “Teaching them about not drinking, not smoking and just being true to your tribe, your creator and not being led astray.”
And dancers need not be in regalia to dance, Spruce said, it’s just about having a good time. The celebration, which runs Friday through Sunday, can draw in up to 6,000 people overall, Spruce added.
Dancers varied in dress from men’s and women’s traditional, which featured more deeper, darker colors, like browns and oranges and some with leather, to fancy dancers, or ones with ribbons, shawl dancers, jingle dress dancers and even grass dancers.
“They’re called grass dancers because what that meant was that they would stomp down the grass before the grand entry,” Spruce explained. “Nowadays we just weed them in with the Eagle Staff and flags.”
And the jingle dress dancers, which chimed with every beat, were also known as healing dresses.
“There are 365 cones, made usually with the top of a snuff can, representing healing for every day of the year,” Spruce said.
Head female dancer, Punkin Shananaquet, who traveled from Hopkins, Mich., located between Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids, for the pow-wow, said her responsibilities were for the “inside sacred dance space.”
“It’s almost like a marriage relationship with that dance space,” she explained. “I lead all the dancers in the intertribal dance.”
Like a grandmother who quilts, Shananaquet explained, we show our granddaughters those same secrets when we make our regalia.
“Using color ... it’s like a visual education,” she said while directing her attention to the dancers in the arena. “It’s a source of movement. There’s always motion.”
Looking down at her dress, Shananaquet said she was wearing a Potawatomi traditional ribbon style, which uses natural materials, or those chosen from nature, based on her choosing.
“It’s animate and spirit, so we chose are what we believe will protect our personal spirit,” she added.
And in her left hand, Shananaquet held onto a pink shawl.
“It’s part of the pink shawl movement,” she explained. “It’s pink for breast health awareness. It’s a visual reminder for women to do their monthly self exams.
“There are 40 fringes that run across the bottom and they’re 13 inches long, representing the 13 grandmother moons, or women’s monthly menstrual cycle,” she continued. “It represents a cleansing for us, and that’s one of the things we want to teach our young daughters ... that it is a cleansing.”
And while there was a head male dancer as well, both were chosen on a number of criteria including their knowledge of song and dance, their role in the community and for their sharing with others, that knowledge.
Drummers dancers come from not only Michigan, Spruce added, “they come from all over.”
“We have some from Minnesota, Florida, New Mexico ... There are 553 tribes in the country and at any given time, you could have anywhere from 20 to 30 different tribes represented,” he said.
Vendors lined the campground roads, offering hand-crafted gifts and traditional foods like corn soup and fry bread, to brats, cold soda and fish.
Snacking off to the side of the arena was nine-year-old Miranda Galer, of Baraga, and her cousin, eight-year-old Madison Pandzich, of Flint. The two have been attending the pow-wow for the past four years, dancing in their brightly colored jingle dresses made by their grandmothers.
“I think it’s a fun thing to do every single summer,” Miranda said of their partaking in the celebration.
“And it’s fun seeing my cousin, too,” Madison added.
Madison’s mother, who was sitting close by, said she likes being able to take her daughter to the pow-wow because there aren’t a lot of opportunities in their hometown where her daughter can learn the traditions. “We’ve been coming here for the past three years,” she said. “It’s fun watching the dancers and it’s a good lesson for Madison.”
Kelly Fosness can be reached at kfosness@mininggazette.com
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