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Pow wow unites
By Cory Fechtelkotter
Published:
Tuesday, April 15, 2003
The sounds of volleyball, basketball and other sports typically heard in the Halenbeck field house were replaced by the hypnotic drum beats and chanting of musicians at the 10th annual St. Cloud State Traditional pow wow Saturday. The pow wow included an abundance of activities, with vendors selling American Indian crafts, traditional dancing and music being performed live all day.
Putting together the massive event is the primary activity of the All Tribes Council, formerly known as the American Indian Student Organization.
"This is our biggest event of the year, this is what we gear up for," said Whitney Bell, co-chairman of the All Tribes Council. All the programming money the council receives from student activity fees, programming money from the university and student finance committees goes towards the pow wow, Bell said.
Bell continued to explain how this pow wow was different from others. "This is the traditional pow wow, as opposed to a competition pow wow, which pay out money for the best dancers," Bell said. "Native American cultures are social cultures. This is what we do to celebrate life and to celebrate coming together."
According to Bell, inter-tribal differences change the nature of the pow wow from year to year.
"The emcee and the arena director are responsible for running the pow wow as they see fit. So it kind of changes year by year depending on who that person is, (and) which tribe they're from."
This is not a problem though, as the goal is for tribal togetherness. "The main goal would be uniting our people and keeping our cultures going and keeping this tradition alive amongst Native Americans cause this has always been a big part of the culture," Bell said.
Many non-American Indian students came to the event not knowing what to expect, but enjoying what they found. "It's way different," first year student Maslah Hussein said.
"This is my first time (at a pow wow)," said graduate student Abdul Cisse. "It's pretty good, I'm very impressed. I'm very glad to be here."
Bell attributed the success of the event to all the hard work put into it. "We have a really good turn out here," Bell said. "It really is a lot of work and I can't take credit for that myself; it was really a team effort amongst the All Tribes Council members. Everybody really did put a lot of work into this."
Bell emphasized that attending a pow wow is a great learning experience, but not a total one. "This is just a piece of it, we're not just about pow wows and dancing, this is just a part of our culture," Bell said. "This is a great place to come and learn a little bit about the culture. We represent many different tribes and each tribe is unique in its own way, how they put on the pow wow. We welcome and encourage people that have any curiosity about Native Americans to come."
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