Powwow keeps traditions alive through generations
Dominic Redfeather Davis stood on a grassy knoll in the hot sun Saturday, fastening intricate beadwork with pictures of buffalo skulls to his waist, ankles and arms.
On his head, the 22-year-old Native American tied a headdress, also called a roach, made from deer and porcupine hair. On his back he positioned a bustle made of the feathers from two golden eagles.
He was nearly ready for the men’s traditional dance in this year’s 17th annual Spokane Falls Northwest Indian Encampment and Powwow in Riverfront Park.
“I haven’t danced since I was a young boy,” Davis said. “It’s something that comes from the heart, and I forgot how much I missed it.”
The regalia Davis wore Saturday belongs to his father, Markus Davis Jr. The beadwork took the elder Davis five years to finish. “We are never really complete,” the elder Davis said. “These are symbols of our culture, pieces of our past.”
Both father and son competed in the powwow with 200 dancers representing Native American tribes from all over. It continues today.
“It makes me feel good that he is keeping in touch with who he is and how he was raised,” Markus Davis Jr. said of his son. “We teach our kids all that we can to help them understand who they are and where they come from.”
Hundreds of people gathered on lawn chairs in the park’s Lilac Bowl to watch the colorful dancers of all ages spin, twirl and step to the beat of the drums and song.
Dances have names like traditional, fancy, grass and Prairie Chicken-Round Bustle.
Many of the dances are symbols of cultural history passed down from generation to generation. Dances such as the men’s traditional performed by Dominic Redfeather Davis, of the Nez Perce of Chief Joseph Tribe, are a re-enactment of significant events in the lives of men and women from their tribes.
“For the children, it keeps tradition alive,” said Donna Williams, a member of the Colville Tribe of Indians who came to watch her grandchildren, Theo Bourgeau and Paladine Williams, both 9. “Especially the traditional, that’s where they teach them the history.”
Often the traditional dances tell the story of war or hunting.
Young warriors would often return from battle and share their stories through hand gestures, dance and song, Markus Davis Jr. said.
“Each dancer does his interpretation and the story in his own way,” he said. “I teach my son to dance what is in his heart, don’t watch what others are doing. That’s the way my grandmother taught me, and that’s the way I teach him.”