“Homeland Security … Fighting Terrorism since 1492.”
This was just one of the T-shirt slogans sold at a vending booth by Sidney Rogers at the 40th Annual Mother’s Day Pow-Wow at the University. The saying was accompanied by a picture of four male Indians, including Geronimo. Another slogan said: “Sure you can trust our government … Just ask an Indian,” accompanied by a picture of assimilated Native Americans wearing white clothing.
Rogers is a member of the Gros Ventre tribe, originally from Montana, and now lives in Lafayette, Ore. This was his first year vending at the University, after several students approached his booth at a pow-wow in Florence and invited him to come.
“I like doing it, it allows me to learn about all the different tribes,” he said. “They each have different ways of doing things, but for some reason the government has lumped us all together.”
The pow-wow began Friday evening with a grand entry of dancers in full regalia at McArthur Court. The dancing continued Saturday, and the festivities were topped off Sunday afternoon with a salmon bake and social gathering at the Many Nations Longhouse. The pow-wow is traditionally held on Mother’s Day weekend to honor and celebrate mothers and other important women in Native culture.
“In the Native community, women are the most important part,” said Ed Wolf, a ceremonial dancer. “They get up every day, they feed us and they take care of us. They’re the backbone of the community.”
A Portland resident, Wolf has been participating in pow-wows for the last 14 years. He travels to Washington, Idaho and different parts of Oregon to participate. His native heritage comes from his mother’s side, as part of the Yupik and Athabaskin tribes, which are native to Alaska.
The origins of pow-wows are uncertain. According to the event program distributed by the Native American Student Union, one story says that the “war dance societies of the Ponca and other southern Plains tribes were the origin,” while another story claims the government forced Native Americans to dance for the public after they had been restricted to reservations. They had to parade through the town in the beginning of what is known as the grand entry.
Today, pow-wows are a celebration of American Indian history and culture, attended by both Native and non-Native Americans.
For several international attendees, the pow-wow was a first taste of something truly American. Caichun Chun, a 25-year-old Fulbright Scholar from China, had little exposure to Native American culture in her home country.
“We watch a lot of movies in China; those are the images of Indians that we had,” she said. Chun said she also read a little about Native culture on Wikipedia.
Chun attended the salmon bake Sunday and drew a connection between Native culture and her own: “I think it’s important to remember the ancestors. I know fishing was the main job of Indians in the past, and today we will eat fish to remember that,” she said.
Another international Fulbright Scholar who attended the salmon bake was Houhannes Mikoyan, a 29-year-old student from Armenia. Mikoyan explained how when he was child he loved to read about nature, and excitedly spoke of his passion for reading popular literature about Native Americans in his home country, such as James Fenimore Cooper’s “The Last of the Mohicans.” He said the books he read “described them in forest, very good hunters, know everything about forest, about animals.”
However, Mikoyan had never met a Native American until this weekend, and attending the pow-wow gave Mikoyan a new and different perspective of what it means to be Native American.
“They don’t keep core selves,” he said. “They don’t wear … how do you say … moccasins.”
However, many Native Americans disagree with the overly romanticized or negative portrayals the media presents, giving many an unrealistic idea of what it means to be “Indian.”
“As a community, Native people have to reach out, bring them back into the circle,” Wolf said.
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