Rocky Boy powwow celebrates youth

The youth powwow at Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation kicked off Thursday, welcoming kids and adults from across the country and Canada to celebrate youth during Rocky Boy powwow week.

The youth powwow was held in conjunction with the Rocky Boy's 54th Annual Celebration, taking place at the powwow grounds for children and youths 3 and older to dance, eat, see relatives, celebrate and learn about the culture.

"The children are the holy ones," Joe Tohonnie Jr., a member of the Apache Crown Dancers, told the crowd as the Apache Crown Dancers danced to bless the youth powwow. He added that children are the holy ones because they will carry on with the culture.

The event had more than 200 youth dancers, dressed in regalia, in celebration of the powwow. The event also had many competitions for the young dancers to participate in and, by the end of the night, all dancers walked away with gifts and prizes.

One of the young dancers was D'Shari Big Knife, 5, who was dressed in a jingle dress and jeweled butterflies which her grandmother had made for her, her aunt Kaylene Big Knife said.

D'Shari Big Knife has danced in the youth powwow at Rocky Boy before and she was very excited to dance again, her aunt added.

"My dress is for dancing," D'Shari said as she began dancing around her aunt.

Kaylene Big Knife added that her family members had all pitched in to get her niece ready for the powwow, including one of them showing her some dance moves.

She added that many of the kids at the youth powwow have custom, hand-made regalia, either from a community member or family member who makes the regalia for the dancers. Some regalia, though, such as those with eagle feathers, Big Knife said, have to be made by specialists for legal reasons.

The regalia adds to the tradition.

"Celebrating in the most colorful and fantastic way possible," Big Knife said.

She said the dress that her niece was wearing was a jingle dress, which traditionally was a prayer dress worn for special dances to honor and carry prayers for people.

Big Knife said the regalia is specific to the dances and that members of her family have danced for generations, such as her grandfather, who was a chicken dancer, and her maternal grandmothers who had also been avid dancers.

She added that she has designed regalia as well in the past. A lot of work goes into each piece, she said; female fancy dancers, for instance, have capes, break-ties, leggings, moccasins and medallions.

Big Knife added that the youth powwow is good for the kids because it allows them to try out many different kinds of regalia and what fits best for them. She said many of the dancers have many different styles of regalia because they compete in different competitions.

"It gets very competitive as they get older," Big Knife said.

Big Knife said she had been coming to the powwows since she was a child, although she is not a dancer, and when she was young she remembers being able to hear the songs and drums from the porch of her house.

She added that the powwow is great because it brings families together that may live very far apart or are from different communities.

The powwow is also inclusive, she said, and gives an opportunity for the elders to interact with the young adults of the tribe as well as the young adults being able to interact with the children.

The powwow celebrates Native American culture and the people, Big Knife said, and it is unique to them.

Big Knife said that this was also the second year that she had designed the posters for the powwow. Big Knife is a graphic designer out of Rocky Boy who has worked with the reservation on multiple projects including the sobriety walk.

"To me, the powwow is to celebrate resilience and what we still have," Big Knife said.

She said these dances, and the culture, are something that wasn't given to the tribe, something that didn't come from the outside, western culture.

She added that it was not that long ago that powwows and Sundance ceremonies were outlawed by the United States government, and she is happy tradition is still alive and will be passed down for future generations.

The Apache Crown Dancers also said they were very happy to be at the event, and Tohonnie said it is important to keep the culture alive and sacred.

The Apache Crown Dance, Tohonnie said, is a dance symbolizing the Apache mountain spirits, who act as teachers to the people and provide blessings. The dance has six spirits, four representing the directions and two the trickster spirits, or clowns.

The dancers stand with large, flat, crowns that symbolize the spirits that they are.

Garb covers the dancer's face and eagle feathers hang from their heads. Their bodies are colored white and they wear black pants and have the symbols for the four directions painted on their backs and chests.

Dancers wear a belt with bells as well as a covering with a mountain range sewn on it around their legs.

The Apache Crown Dancers dance to spread blessings from the spirits and they will only dance at a powwow if they are invited, Tohonnie said, adding that they are originally from White River Arizona.

His family has been doing this tradition for generations, he said, starting as children as young as 6 or 7 years old.

These spirits are to help people and to thank Mother Earth, he said.

Participants dance to songs meant to "bless the little ones," Tohonnie said, and to give thanks for the morning and bless the powwow and all those who attend.

"We are all human beings ... be thankful," he added.

The celebration continued this morning with a sobriety walk at 9 with more scheduled through the weekend.

The powwow grand entry is at 7 tonight at the powwow grounds along Laredo Road.

Saturday grand entries will be at 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. at the powwow grounds.

Sunday grand entry will be at 1 p.m. at the powwow grounds.

Admission is free for all events throughout the week.