Calif. tribe plays host to annual gathering.
"Most dancers typically start at age 3 or as soon as they start
walking, said Badger Wahwasuck, a Potawatomi from Kansas. They learn on
their own, though occasionally an elder will teach a younger dancer.
Progress depends on the individual and on their natural talent.
“It's all in your heart. It's how you feel,” Wahwasuck said. “If you're good in your heart, it comes out naturally.”
In
competitions, dancers are judged on movement and musicality, said Pow
Wow coordinator Debbie Bricker. There are Traditional Northern and
Southern styles of dance, and newer styles like the fancy shawl
performed with a fringed shawl and jingle dress performed in attire
that's adorned with bells.
Dances are intertribal, Wahwasuck
says, and differ from the ceremonial dances that are specific to
certain tribes and closed to the public.
Wahwasuck says the dances and traditions of a Pow Wow are a small percentage of a larger American Indian culture.
“This
is like the tip of the iceberg, where only 10 percent is visible above
water,” Wahwasuck said. “We still have a lot of Indians that live in
the cities that have strayed from their ways. A lot of people work
full-time and don't have time to get into it. ... This gets a lot of
people more back into their ways and they go home and get back into
their traditions.”
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