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SEPTEMBER 1, 2015
2015 C ontest P owwow
— S moke S ignals
‘Powwow is family’
2015 Contest Powwow attracts largest crowd ever
Photos by Michelle Alaimo
The newly crowned 2015-16 Grand Ronde Royalty Queens, from left, Little Miss Grand Ronde Kaleigha Simi, Junior Miss Grand Ronde
Isabelle Grout and Senior Miss Grand Ronde Promise Rimer take their first dance after being crowned before the start of the 2015
Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde Contest Powwow held at Uyxat Powwow Grounds on Friday, Aug. 14.
By Brent Merrill
T
Smoke Signals staff writer
his year’s Grand Ronde Con-
test Powwow at Uyxat Pow-
wow Grounds drew visitors
from near and far and may have at-
tracted the largest crowd to gather
for a powwow ever in Grand Ronde.
Honorary host drum Bad Soul
(formerly The West Coast Boyz)
started things off with Friday
night’s grand entry under the arbor
as veterans led the way for dancers
into the arena. Grand Ronde Trib-
al Elder Alton Butler, a Marine
Corps veteran, carried the Grand
Ronde eagle staff and Wayne Chu-
lik (Tlingit/Haida) walked next to
Butler with an eagle staff.
Tribal Elder Steve Bobb Sr. (Ma-
rine Corps) carried the American
flag, Al Miller (Navy) carried the
POW/MIA flag, Mike Lane (Army)
the Oregon flag and Tribal Chair-
man Reyn Leno (Marine Corps)
carried the Grand Ronde Tribal flag
into the arena.
Tribal Council members Jon A.
George, Cheryle A. Kennedy, De-
nise Harvey, Tonya Gleason-Shep-
ek, Chris Mercier and Jack Giffen
Jr. entered the arena to the sounds
of Red Hoop followed by Tribal
Royalty.
Tribal Royalty included newly
crowned Senior Miss Grand Ronde
Promise Rimer, Junior Miss Grand
Ronde Isabelle Grout and Little
Miss Grand Ronde Kaleigha Simi.
Longtime Arena Director Freddie
Ike Jr. (Yakama/Wasco) guided
everyone into the arena while
Red Bull drum brought in all the
dancers and the arena was three
circles deep by the time everyone
had entered.
Charlie Tailfeathers (Cree/Black-
feet) acted as head judge, Sidrick
Baker Sr. (Mandan/Hidatsa/Ari-
kara) was the head judge for drum
groups and Fred Hill (Umatilla)
was the master of ceremonies.
Bobb gave the opening invocation
and Leno started the event by ad-
dressing the crowd.
“I want to welcome you here
to our reservation,” said Leno. “I
want to recognize all the Elders
out there and I want to recognize
all of our veterans. This is very sa-
cred ground to us; it’s not just the
powwow grounds. This is actually
where our people settled in the
1850s when they came here. We
would ask you to recognize this
ground.
“I also want to put our prayers
and thoughts out to the Warm
Springs people. Fire season is a
horrible thing and people are losing
a lot out there so we want to put
them in our thoughts.”
This year’s dancing started with
three straight drum songs by Bad
Soul. First up were the kinder-
garteners through fourth-graders,
SEE POWWOW
continued on page 3
Sophia Morningstar Stewart
dances in Grand Entry of the
2015 Confederated Tribes of
Grand Ronde Contest Powwow
held on Friday, Aug. 14.