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About Smoke signals. (Grand Ronde, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 1, 2005)
2 SEPTEMBER 1, 2005 2005 Grand Ronde Contest Pow-Wow Insert - "7" 7pF 'ysv,r k fU, c L-.."..i. imn , . iim.fi . i hi. i mill I. mil' i ii ml i "linmii ' ' i nifflli iMiiii'i ) tent this vear kett thousands at th Under The Big Top The huge tent this year kept thousands at the Grand Ronde Pow-wow - whether competing or just enjoying the annual event - in the shade while 90-plus degree heat baked everyone outside. Here, Grand Entry participants made for a brightly colored show filled with history and culture. 2005 Pow-wow Edition Cover Shot Kody Kibby - YurokSiletz dances during Saturday afternoon's Grand Entry. Kibby finished fourth in the Junior Boys' Traditional competition for 6-12 year olds. More than 200 dancers from throughout Indian Country competed in the various dance events. Pow-wow 2005: A big tent held off the sun while Indians from all over created memories inside By Ron Karten Tribal members Carolyn and Sophie Smith and their friend, Tiffany French, earned some ready cash this weekend, each putting in 28 sweltering hours at the pow-wow entrance where they collected food for the Grand Ronde Community Food Bank, and cash contributions that went back to the Pow-wow Committee. They greeted some 10,000-15,000 pow-wow goers as they arrived and collected the entrance fee. So they saw when somebody pulled into a parking lot first, to avoid the dona tion, and they remembered when somebody gave them a $20 bill, too. In one car, the driver rolled down the window as if about to give a donation, but the car kept going. It's all recorded, buddy. New, and most obvious of this year's changes was the big tent top - an $8,000 rental courtesy of the Spirit Mountain Casino that cov ered the pow-wow circle and the grandstands. The already covered Elder's seating sat outside of the tent, and Elders could be seen leaning forward to see better. Tribal Elder Butch LaBonte said he was disappointed with the tent because "it cut down on seat ing," and that meant that family members were scattered here and there, and in fact, he was on his way to tracking down members of his family. "I was a skeptic at first," said Tribal member Randy Bean, "but this tent is a good idea in the heat. There are a lot more little kids dancing (because of it)." "When you wear buckskins," said Siletz Tribal Elder Agnes Baker-Pilgrim, "you can't hardly take the sun." Though resting in a wheelchair in the care of her daughter, Nadine Martin (Yurok), Baker-Pilgrim was dressed to dance and dance she did under the shade of the tent top. "For heat or for rain, this is a beautiful thing," she said. established at the Bailey property on Hebo Road out by Kissing Rock. A more permanent structure is be ing considered. Baker-Pilgrim also came to the pow-wow represent ing the International Council of the Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers. With a first meet ing last October in Phoenicia, New York, the group "gathered from I in i i mill ill nil n n ii iiiiiiidi i i mi i i .J iiBppi iiiiiiiwmiM nnni 11 i mit i urn mui i r"'" j -rim. 4'J' i X T a r. ...... I , 3 ttT .. 7 C5SL.!L- -Si-fcjr --mlmm,--r i3 1 ft n -1 r .lliillllrtl I rllll.hi III! Tlllllll Sky View - Here's what pow-wow looked like from high above. Surrounding the big tent are some of the 45 concession stands that signed up for the weekend. Dancers and craftspeople alike were kept busy all weekend. The tent is probably only a one-time arrangement, however, according to Tribal member Bobby Mercier, a member of the Pow-wow Committee and in charge of setting up the pow-wow grounds. Next year, the Tribe anticipates that new pow-wow grounds will be the four directions in the land of the people of the Iroquois Confed eracy," according to a website description. "We come here from the Amazon rainforest, the Arctic circle of North America, the great forest of the American Northwest, the vast plains of North America, the highlands of Central America, the Black Hills of South Dakota, the mountains of Oaxaca, the des ert of the American Southwest, the mountains of Tibet and from the rainforest of Central Africa. "Affirming our relations with traditional medicine peoples and communities throughout the world, we have been brought to gether by a common vision to form a new global alliance." Currently, the group has a reso lution "Calling Upon the Pope to Recognize Native People." Citing the "Doctrine of Discovery" issued by Pope Alexander VI in 1493, the resolution says that the "document refers to Native Tribal peoples as 'barbarous nations' and commands that they 'be subjugated and be brought to the faith itself.' "We're taking it to the Pope," said Baker-Pilgrim. "He can re voke what happened. My dream is that it will help indigenous people around the world." Others had simpler agendas. "I love the pow-wow," said Matthew Buff (Siletz). "I go to a pow-wow every weekend." "I love the people," said Crystal Chulik (Tlinget). "The people are great. They're all family to me." "Rick Yazzie (Dine) said that he came for the "dancing, fellowship ping, making new friends, the spirituality of the whole circle, to be as one." "My wife is at the casino," said Portlander Luis Alvarez who was making his third trip to a Grand' Ronde Pow-wow. "You know why?
