Photograph by George Sakkestad
Rene Samoya, Vaughn Baker and Robert Lonebar watch a dance exhibition while awaiting their turn to perform.
By Cristy Shauck
In colorful tribal costumes decorated with feathers and beads, Native Americans came from as far away as Washington, Oregon and Alberta, Canada, to dance at the 16th annual De Anza College Pow Wow last weekend
Even the weather cooperated, producing cloudless yet balmy spring days for the event that attracted thousands. The throng strolled among concession booths featuring dream catchers, drums, jewelry, clothing, beads, kachina dolls, hair ties and carved wooden animals.
The aroma of bubbling fry bread tempted hungry observers to sample Indian tacos and tostadas, made with meat, cheese, avocados and tomatoes laid on the fragrant bread. Adventurous folk tried the buffalo burgers.
Dancers and drummers from at least 39 tribes, including Lakota Sioux, Seneca, Otoe, Warm Springs, Washoe, Dinéh, Chippewa, Kiowa, Shoshone, Shawnee, Creek and Northern Ute came to compete for $10,000 in prize money.
By Friday night, more people had registered as dancers alone than had attended the entire powwow last year.
"We estimated attendance at about 10,000 people last year; we expect at least that many this time," said dance coordinator Cheryl Parker. A De Anza student, she has been attending powwows since she was a tot.
On Sunday afternoon, young men with long ponytails or hair shaved behind the ears, who arrived earlier in jeans and T-shirts, stood straighter as they stepped into the arena wearing bright costumes, some with bone breastplates, feather bustles, and porcupine-hair and feather headbands to perform the dances of their forefathers. The dancers become one with the hypnotic beat of the drum and rhythmic chanting of the drummers.
Later, two teenage girls performed wearing dresses with what looked like rows upon rows of bells tied to their clothing; the shiny baubles turned out to be Copenhagen tobacco lids.
Some of the souvenirs for sale--teddy bears sporting Mohawk hairdos and ceramic merry-go-round music boxes with cutesy Indian figures riding horses, for example--seemed rather untraditional. And many costumes, sporting the vivid purples and eye-popping yellows of manmade fabrics, some with miniature U.S. and Canadian flags sewn on, seemed out of keeping with traditional garb.
Nonetheless, the spiritual nature of the powwow tradition seemed unaffected by commercialism and other outside influences.
"Powwows are important to the Indian community because it's a place where they can come and be who they are," Parker said.
"I come because I feel it puts me back in the right direction. It helps me see more clearly what I need to do in my life," she said.
"My heart beats with the same rhythm of the drum," Parker continued. "I listened to the morning blessing and, although I didn't understand the language, I knew what was said in my heart, and it moved me almost to tears."
This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, May 8, 1996.
©1996 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.