This document provides an overview of an upcoming class on Native American Pow Wow dance and song. The class will cover the history and origins of Pow Wows, styles of Pow Wow dance and clothing, tribal-specific dances, and Pow Wow songs. It discusses conflicting accounts of the origins of Pow Wows and how they developed from medicine shows and wild west exhibitions during a time of cultural oppression for Native Americans. The class materials draw from scholarly sources on indigenous knowledge and Pow Wow traditions.

1. Native American Pow Wow Dance & Song
UT Informal Class, Fall 2014
Class I, Oct. 14, 2014
Instructor:
Marvin “Mo” Pair
aka
“Doogie”

2. Class 1 (10/14): History and Background of the modern Pow Wow
Class 2 (10/21): Pow Wow description and etiquette
Class 3 (10/28): Pow Wow dance styles and clothes
Class 4 (11/4): Tribal-specific dances
Potential class trip to Austin Pow Wow: Nov. 8, 2014
Class 5 (11/11): Pow Wow song elucidated

3. Picture of Harry Buffalohead, Ponca, in his spare bedroom, ~1990

4. Marvin “Mo” Pair Harry Buffalohead Travis Vance
Harry Buffalohead and his students in his home, White Eagle, OK, 1990

5. Harry Buffalohead in his kitchen

6. Doogie and Bo singing in Northeastern Oklahoma, late '90s or early 00's
source: Ross Johnson

7. Enemy Horse
photo: Galen Holder

8. Good Sources for pow wow education
Tara Browner
Clyde Ellis
Luke Lassiter

9. “A pow-wow is an event where American Indians
of all nations come together to celebrate their
culture through the medium of music and dance.”
-Tara Browner, “Heartbeat of the People”

10. “As I began researching the origins of pow-wows,
conflicts among the pow-wow origin narratives of
different tribal communities became increasingly
evident and problematic.
Although clearly there is no single birthplace of the
pow-wow, scores of tribes claim to have held the
'first'.”
-Tara Browner, “Heartbeat of the People”

11. “While Chapter 1 explored some commonalities
in the ways traditional indigenous knowledge has
been approached and defined, it also stressed the
importance of localized rather than generalized
(and essentialized) observations and values.”
-Beverly Diamond, “Native American Music in
Eastern North America”

12. Traditional Indigenous Knowledge (TIK):
“...the identification of a distinctive body
of knowledge that indigenous communities
maintain and use”
-Diamond

13. conflicting narratives:
“localized rather than generalized observations
and values”
::
Browner:Diamond

14. Pow wow is probably from the Algonquian language
family of northeastern USA and Canada
pau wau: Narragansett for “he/she dreams”

15. Early Anglo-American folk healers borrowed the term “pau wau”
to delineate their curing practices, borrowed from American
Indian
doctors. Their style of curing is known as “pow-wowing.”
source: http://www.whitetreeaz.com

16. Pow-wowing became associated with medicine shows that often
traveled with “Indian dancing.” In time, this Indian dancing and
pow wow became synonymous.
www.sideshowworld.com

17. During the time period (late nineteenth, early twentieth centuries)
of medicine shows concomitant with indian dancing, the early
forms of pow wow, Indians were having very difficult times:
-Assimilation
-Allotments
-Dance restrictions
-Confinement to reservations
-'Destruction of culture, both material and spiritual'
-Limited legal and human rights

18. During this period of woe for Native Americans,
dancing goes underground, or is only legal at
medicine shows and...

19. Wild West Shows
source: http://xroads.virginia.edu

20. source: http://kids.britannica.com

21. Benefits of wild west shows to Indians:
-Income
-Travel
-Intertribal relations

22. Influences on the contemporary pow wow:
-Wild west shows and other exhibitions
-Warrior society dances
-Reservation-era intertribal dances
-Postwar homecoming celebrations

23. source: http://kids.britannica.com

24. “As I began researching the origins of pow-wows,
conflicts among the pow-wow origin narratives of
different tribal communities became increasingly
evident and problematic.
Although clearly there is no single birthplace of the
pow-wow, scores of tribes claim to have held the 'first'.”
-Tara Browner, “Heartbeat of the People”

25. Clark Wissler's
“General Discussion of
Shamanistic and Dancing Societies”

26. A warrior society dance among the Pawnee:
Iruska
known by other tribes:
Hethushka: Ponca/Omaha
Ilonshka: Osage
Hedoshka: Otoe

27. Collector no. 5 by TC Cannon
straight dancer
source: Visual Art Source website

28. History of “war dance,” referred to as
“Grass or Omaha Dance Complex,” by Wissler:
-Creative origin: Crow-Feather, ~1820's
-Iruska: “the fire is in me”- Pawnee
-“hot dance”
-sold or given to Omaha/Ponca, ~1830's
-Omaha sells to Yanktonai Dakota, ~1840's
-Yanktonai gives to Teton Dakota
-“Diffuses” across northern plains

29. Introduction to Pow Wow Music
a strong root of this music: the war dance or Omaha dance