About time, too!
Here you go, check it out. I rarely miss the Taos Pueblo Pow wow. For a crazy white man, it’s an incredible opportunity to soak up the cultural vibe of Native America. I won’t do anybody a disservice by trying to put it into words, but one thing it is, is calm… Bet you didn’t think I’d say that. Calm. Dare I say grounded? I don’t know, but my Anglo-Saxon-Celtic background feels like a mental ward by comparison.
The first time my wife and I went to the pow wow was in July, 2000. That was the first time in either of our lives that we’d come face to face with live Native drumming and singing. It was the most astonishing thing to me, to hear it and feel it like that and let it wash over me. Each of us choked up! It was that powerful. (On a more mundane level, the food is great, too!)
I’ll have pictures and video to post here by the weekend, if all goes well.
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For nine years my sister and I have been going to the Labor Day Spokane Pow Wow in Washington. We have acquired a lot of wonderful friends and spend the weekend sleeping in her tent. (earplugs at night to sleep, they drum all night!!) We both end up crying during the opening dance……the friends, the drums the “centering” !! What a euphoric experience !!
Sounds like you get it.
What does it for me is that it takes me out of my “whiteness” by driving home with maximum force that the worldview I grew up with is only one of many and not necessarily the right one, either! There is deep joy in experiencing a culture of fellow humans NOT based on guilt, greed, and destruction of Nature. It always lifts me up.
Wish I was going to be in town next week
Oh yes, that… Well, you can’t be everywhere at once! But next year, perhaps.
Actually, one of my missions for this year is to score another silk-screened shirt from a certain Native artist. I’ve worn last year’s version many, many times…
Man, Jon, You’re sooooo right !!! When we are there, we are in another world/life. AND WE BELONG…..we are known as the “Sarong Sisters”, and we answer to it proudly. This pow wow is far away from any city, so we live in a cool tent/tippi city. There aren’t that many white people that go. It’s a wonderful world.