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Thứ Ba, 5 tháng 3, 2019

Historical Aspects Of Native American Pow Wows

By Laura Butler


While Indian tribes first became well distinguished during the civil war, most have become better known since that time. As the cultural and historical aspects of Native Americans are not generally taught in public schools, most individuals learn about this history through various events such as annual gatherings held by different tribes. While Native american pow wows are quite popular, there are several tribes whom have claimed to have hosted the first pow wow.

The primary aspect of the early pow wows were public dances similar to those taking place at pow wows today. These events were a common practice of tribes residing in the Great Plains. As to which tribe held the first pow wow, that continues to remain a mystery. What is known, is that these were trying times for the Native Americans as the United States had already began fragmenting the tribes in an attempt to acquire land for economic growth and development.

The United States even created a law to limit when and how tribes could gather to celebrate various aspects of Native culture. While this is the case, many tribes continued to meet and hold celebrations in secret. After which, the celebrations led to new pow wows in the Great Lakes region and eventually across the country with many taking place on an annual basis.

Individuals whom plan and organize these events are often tribal leaders and members of sponsoring organizations. For, many of these gatherings are now sponsored by Native American clubs, organizations and communities. Whereas, Native American Studies programs at a number of colleges and universities have also been known to sponsor these events on an ongoing basis, sometimes holding events on campus.

The committee consist of several individuals whom do all the planning prior to a gathering. In many cases, if there is a sponsor, committee members are often part of the sponsoring organization. One area in which the committee is always responsible is in recruiting and hiring staff, publicizing the event, securing a location and recruiting vendors.

Staff members are in charge of day to day operations of the pow wow. These individuals are often hired several months in advance to assure each individual receives proper training and that staff members can handle different assignments. For, the quality and performance of staff during each event often contribute to attendance at future gatherings. As such, it is important these individuals work together to provide the best experience possible for those attending the event.

Most pow wows have an arena director whom is in charge during the event. Sometimes known as a whip man, the whip man is the director's assistant though there are a number of gatherings which do not have a whip man. When this is the case, the arena director often takes on the role of assistant and director.

In the case of events which hold contests, most arena directors ask a different individual to act as head judge. For, it is important that judges have no special bias towards contestants. As such, if the arena director were to know contestants from the local tribe hosting the pow wow, any votes for those individuals could be considered a conflict of interest.




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