The Native American Student Union will celebrate and honor native culture with students and community members at its annual fall Pow Wow.
The Pow Wow will be held Saturday at 6 p.m. in 220 Gerlinger. Since last spring, NASU members and the Johnson O’Malley Program, a Native American youth organization, have been organizing the dancing and drumming that will highlight the evening, NASU co-director Misty Moceikis said.
Moceikis, a senior elementary education major, is part Siletz, an Oregon tribe from the Newport area.
Nick Sixkiller, education specialist for the Siletz tribe, works with children in grades K-12 in the Johnson O’Malley Program. He has been helping the kids prepare for the Pow Wow, which is one effort to get more kids involved with the Siletz culture, he said. He added that the culture becomes increasingly lost in the bustle of urbanization.
“It’s important (the kids) don’t forget who we are,” he said.
Several categories of dance, which originated in the Oklahoma plains area, will be included at the Pow Wow, including separate dances for men and women, and a “tiny tots” dance for children under age six, Moceikis said.
In the women’s “fancy” dance, women wear shawls while dancing with fast footwork, Moceikis said.
Sixkiller added that the dance represents the butterfly emerging from its cocoon. It originated in the early 1900s, making it one of the more contemporary dances. This particular dance is also referred to as “Indian aerobics” because it has one of the fastest drumbeats and the dancers’ thighs start to burn, he said.
Sophomore Jana Schmieding has been a traditional dancer “since birth.” She said dancing is part of being raised in the Native American community.
But, she said, people often have a misconception of Native American dancing because of how it is portrayed in the media and in cartoons.
“That cartoon image is always present in the back of people’s minds, which is why NASU likes to hold Pow Wows,” Schmieding said.
Sixkiller said the Pow Wow is more than a party for Indian people; it is also a way to involve the community in the Native American culture.
“The Pow Wow is a way to dispel myths and stereotypes,” he said. “People can see the drums, and they can see there is no hopping like in the movies. People can see our different styles of dancing that they may not have been aware of.”
He also emphasized that the “regalia” they wear during traditional dancing is not considered a costume.