The Kaua’i Pow Wow Council is hosting its 9th Annual Pow Wow at Kapa‘a Beach Park this weekend. The theme of this year’s pow wow is “Honoring Our Veterans.” Everyone is invited to attend this free event, which will feature
The Kaua’i Pow Wow Council is hosting its 9th Annual Pow Wow at Kapa‘a Beach Park this weekend. The theme of this year’s pow wow is “Honoring Our Veterans.” Everyone is invited to attend this free event, which will feature Native American dancing, drumming, singing, storytelling, arts and crafts, a silent auction and food.
The Kaua’i Pow Wow Council formed in 1997, a year after Kaua‘i resident Dale Jacobs attended a pow wow in Waimea on the Big Island. “As soon as I heard the drumming I started to cry,” Jacobs recalled. “There was an instant connection.”
With ancestry stemming from Cherokee and Mescalero Apache, Jacobs joined with a few other Kaua‘i Native Americans to incorporate and host Kaua‘i’s first pow wow.
“Honoring Our Veterans” was chosen as this year’s theme because on a per capita basis, Native Americans provide more members to the Armed Forces than any other ethnic group. Native Americans have served in the United States military since the American Revolution. During the Civil War, there were both Confederate and Union units primarily made up of Native Americans from Oklahoma tribes. In World War I, 6,000 of the 8,000 Native Americans who served were volunteers, with another 17,000 registering for the draft. This is impressive, especially considering that Native Americans were not recognized as United States citizens until after World War I in 1924.
Although the best known Native American Code Talkers are the 400 Navajo Marines who served in the Pacific during World War II, Choctaw Indians provided similar services during World War I and Comanche Code Talkers helped defeat Hitler in Europe during World War II. Native American Code Talkers transmitted information on tactics, troop movements, orders and other vital battlefield information via telegraphs and radios in their native languages. A major advantage of these native codes was the speed with which messages could be transmitted. Morse Code took hours to send messages that took the Code Talkers only minutes. More recently, between 10,000 and 15,000 Native Americans served in the Korean War; 42,500 served in the military during the time of the Vietnam War; and 3,000 Native Americans served in the Gulf War.
What makes these military statistics even more extraordinary is the fact that from the Native American perspective, war is viewed as a major disruption of the natural order of life and of the universe. Native Americans strive to live a life in balance. They have a fully integrated paradigm of self, spirit and nature. By their military service, warriors risk not only physical danger, but also spiritual danger. Even so, Native American veterans stand ready to serve.
In conjunction with the pow wow, there will be a school outreach program today from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., at Lydgate Park Pavilion, located on Nalu Road, in Wailua. Fifth-graders will be introduced to various dance styles and the Native American drum. There will be a table where children can explore and touch the materials used to make traditional dance regalia, including deer hide, furs, feathers, and bone hairpipe. Wild Horse Drum from Southern California will be on hand to answer questions and sing songs.
The gates to the pow wow grounds at Kapa‘a Beach Park will open at 4 p.m. today. For the second year in a row, Dr. Jane Ely (Cherokee/Mikmaq) and Steve Wolf (Cherokee) will be leading a Stomp Dance, starting about 7 p.m. and going until 830 p.m. Tomorrow gates open at 9 a.m., with grand entry starting at 10 a.m., and a full day of pow wow until 6 p.m.
Sunday Grand Entry will again be at 10 a.m., with an earlier retreat at 4 p.m. Head Staff at the pow wow includes: Head Woman Dancer, Rose Olney Sampson (Yakama); Head Man Dancer: Melvin John (Plains Cree); Host Drum Wildhorse from Southern California; MC: John Dawson (Apache) and Arena Directors: Steve Wolf (Cherokee) and Danny McDaniels (Choctaw). Other special guests include: Rick Sanchez and his family from the Muckelshoot Tribe. Mark Jeffers of the Storybook Theater will be on hand to tell stories to children in the teepee.
For the second year in a row, the Pow Wow will begin with Stomp Dancing on Friday night. Stomp Dancing is part of the cultures of the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muskogee and Seminole. Although it has a deeply spiritual significance, Stomp Dancing may also be a purely social occasion where friends, families and communities come together in fellowshi
In Oklahoma, a Stomp Dance might begin at midnight and last until dawn. A fire is lit by the Stomp Dance leader and tended by assistants who do not let it die until the dance is completed. The women dancers wear turtle shell rattles or “shakers” on both legs, stretching from their knees to their ankles. As they move, a wonderfully rich and rhythmic sound fills the air as the Stomp Dancer Leader calls the people to dance. The leader calls out the songs which are sung by the men as the women keep the beat with their shakers.
