Recently, You may have noticed I was gone for a couple weeks. My wife and I attended our families annual ceremony……It was the twentieth year for that particular Ceremony…..My wife attended all twenty years…..I missed one about 16 years ago…..The ceremony is a Dakota /Lakota Spiritual Gathering Called a Sundance…..It wouldn’t really be appropriate to talk about the specifics about the Sundance here, and I am more interested in discussing the difference between a spiritual gathering and a Pow wow, which some of you may have attended in the past…..A spiritual gathering for all Tribes Will include , Prayer, Certain songs are sung(language and ceremony specific) and isn’t held in a public forum…..They are usually kept pretty quiet and If you are there, you were invited or helped in some manner…….Spiritual gatherings can be held for a number of reasons….Like offering prayers in church…Healing of Illness, Helping a person struggling in life, or prayers for the greater good……Most Spiritual gatherings have somebody ( a spiritual leader or medicine person) Who conducts the ceremony….
An Intertribal Pow Wow ( a Pow Wow That is not specific to a tribe!….Has similar songs and style,nation wide) is a social gathering based on celebrating life through Native American or American Indian Dance and singing……It is always a public gathering where everybody is welcome to come and enjoy a day or weekend of celebration…..Most Pow Wow’s have several categories of dance for men and women boys and girls…….Depending on the style of Pow Wow…(Northern or Southern) Those categories would include Men and Women Traditional, Men’s Grass Dance, Men’s Fancy feather….Women’s Jingle and Women’s Fancy Shawl……A southern Style Pow Wow would add, Men’s Straight, and Women’s Southern Cloth, and Women’s Southern Buckskin……..There are also two different types of Pow wow’s….Traditional and Contest….A Traditional Pow Wow is usually a little smaller and the dancers and singers may receive a small amount of day money for coming and taking part…..not much, but a little help with gas and expenses…..A traditional Pow wow Would be a place that a community might have to give back to the people……They are a good place to have Specials like a memorial give away (when a family would give away things they have accumulated in honor of a loved on that passed away)…..or Name giving ….or taking of a Relative (Someone could take another person as their Nephew or Niece or Son or Daughter etc.)……A contest Pow Wow is a Pow Wow that a community or tribe may have to draw big name dancers and singers …There are some people that make a living contesting for very substantial prize money!….These contest Pow wows put the dancers in each category in a competition with each other for as little as fifty dollars on up to fifteen hundred dollars for each category……These Pow wows also put the drum groups in competition with each other with the quality and appropriateness of their songs during the Pow Wow….Which Brings me to the next part and very Important part of both the Pow wow’s and the Ceremonies….The Singers!
The Singers are Involved in Ceremonies and Pow Wows…..Some Only sing Ceremony songs and others only Sing Pow Wow songs…..a few of them sing both!….The drum is known as the heart beat of Mother Earth….I have seen drum groups from as small as one person and a hand drum to 15 men sitting shoulder to shoulder around a Big Drum ……At Ceremonies the singers are expected to sing specific songs….at specific times and in the appropriate language of the spiritual leader (If the ceremony is a Navajo Ceremony, the singers are going to know the Navajo songs and the Spiritual leader will tell them before hand what songs to sing)….At Pow Wows the singers will sing appropriate songs for each category but can be in any language including English….Some songs aren’t in any language at all and are called vocable songs or straight songs (songs without words)…..Drum groups are involved in both types and styles of Pow Wows…..The best Drum groups are popular Nation wide and other Drum groups sing their songs…..Drum groups are very competitive on the Pow Wow circuit…..some have huge followings …almost like rock stars…..Drum groups are also style specific as to Northern Style or southern style…..Northern is sung Higher and more choppy ……. Southern style is lower and more melodic…..both are very powerful and sang hard and strong!
I can go on and on about Ceremonies and Pow Wow’s…..But I think I will put a couple links of dancers and singers below…..I am willing to answer questions if you contact me by my contact page or comment….some things aren’t appropriate to answer in this venue, but I could send you an E-mail in those instances…..I just touched on a lot of things without a lot of specifics, but could get more specific , one to one, through E-mail, or skype ….Thanks for reading… and taking the time here on my Blog…..Motivating others by serving others….you can too……Smokey....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bp-AeTK18s8 ....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1f0ekjgBP5E
