2 SEPTEMBER 1, 2005
2005 Grand Ronde Contest Pow-Wow Insert
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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
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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?