The first year the Eastern Shawnee held a back-to-school pow-wow they had 100 attend.
This year, their fourth, they had registered more 500 people at the pow-wow before the dancing started mid-afternoon Saturday.
“We keep growing more and more every year,” said Wanda Barrera, director of family and children’s services for the Eastern Shawnee.
The Shawna Stovall Children’s Back-to-School Pow-Wow has a special focus: children. They gave away 250 backpacks and nearly $3,000 in prizes. The pow-wow is funded by a grant from the Eastern Shawnee Child Care Developmental Fund.
“As you can see, people are interested,” Barrera said. “They want to relearn the ways, or if they already know, they want to participate in the Indian way again. Then, there are a lot of people who just like to come and watch us dance.”
The primary goal of the pow-wow is for cultural preservation, but education and tradition join during the annual event. Statistically, fewer Native Americans head to college and that makes the educational focus important, Barrera said.
But, she also stressed connecting to their culture boosts self-esteem for their adult life.
“Relearning is extremely important to us because the Indian children need to stay in touch with who they are,” she said.
Maliah Silverhorn’s shirt is not ruffled like the traditional necklines, and the 10-year-old wears no apron, but her regalia holds special significance to the ladies’ cloth dancer. Her nana, Tresa McGinty, finished hemming her yellow and blue dress as the pow-wow began.
“What we share together is we love to quilt,” McGinty said.
Her granddaughter’s dress is trimmed in prairie points, traditional edging for quilts.
“We incorporate a lot of traditional design, but we put our own twist on it,” McGinty said.
Maliah’s brother, Talon, 11, is a traditional dancer and his eagle feather bustle hung near her shawl. He started dancing when he was 5, and says the best part is getting into the arena and dancing. The Silverhorns have both Eastern Shawnee and Kiowa heritage, but belong to their mother’s tribe.
Their dance, McGinty said, honors her and their mother and father and every pow-wow an eagle passes over the grounds. She tells the children it is her father come to see them dance pow-wow.
“You cannot carry anything bad into the arena with you,” McGinty said. “You’re mixing your footsteps with your ancestors and honoring your ancestors.”
