The Bay Mills POW Wow / Bigger but Smaller Sault Ste. Marie, MI…I’ve been to a lot of pow wow’s over the years. I’m quick to notice who’s in attendance and whether it’s up or down from previous years. The first thing I notice at Bay Mills was the attendance was up. The arena was circled by people a dozen deep. The huge drumming tent had a half dozen or so drums. There were a many dozens of hundred dancers wearing numbers. There were a couple Sault Tribe directors there surrounded by their immediate and extended families. There were several Masters of Ceremony and several former masters of ceremony. There were Bay Mills tribal directors and some of their families. There were a dozen or more vendors and vendor employees and some of their families. There were dozens of kids running about and having a good time. There were several dozen camping families and spiritual leaders and cultural teachers and event organizers and security people and photographers and journalist there. But what I didn’t see much of was you… . You weren’t there very much. I circled the arena a few times looking for you but I couldn’t find much of you anywhere. But I guess it didn’t matter, the people there went on with the show without you. They were having themselves a good time of it and dancing hard and socializing and couldn’t’ have cared less whether you were there or not. I recognized the faces of a few of you; some old classmates , kids I grew up with, a few family men and women with their families, working people on vacations, single mothers with children…most not connected to the pow wow in any way shape or form, other than to meet there with friends and enjoy the show. After all that’s what it was: a spectator event. It was attended mostly by those who were somehow connected to it. Not an event that put John Q Tribal Member front and center. But an event where he was subjected to the outsized personalities behind the microphones, whether they wanted to be or not… Thank you, Charles Serena Forgrave
Posted on: Tue, 02 Jul 2013 04:34:27 +0000
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