A Year in Montana: Pow Wow Weekend

Women's Fancy Dancers at the MSU Billings Pow Wow
Phew, what a weekend! The Pow Wow circuit has begun and this week's spot was MSU Billings. I went Friday afternoon right after school with Lorna's crew (it's always fun being with them!) Her oldest daughter Brittany was chosen as princess for Big Horn District, so she had to be there for the Grand Entry. She had to rush to get ready once we got there.. and there's so many parts to the outfit! The pieces are so beautiful though. We ran in and she somehow made it at 6:24 for the "6 o'clock" grand entry... once again thank goodness for Indian time. Their family isn't usually pow wow people but now that Brittany's princess they'll have to be this year. It was really fun going with them and seeing all the different types of dancers that were there- lately we've only been seeing traditional Crow dancers, but here there were Fancy Dancers, Grass Dancers, and then Jingle Dress dancers from other tribes as well as other tribes' traditionals. So many colors and sights and sounds and ah!

Brittany, Big Horn District Princess

Grand Entry.

Thomas being a goofball!

Boys' traditional dance contest... even the real little ones are out there!
Saturday morning I went over to watch some of our little kids' basketball (there's of course another tournament this weekend here at Pretty Eagle) and then we went to Hardin for a spaghetti dinner/silent auction fundraiser for my little friend Macariah's father. He's really sick with a tumor on his lung and they're raising money for surgery to remove it. She and her sister are the sweetest girls and they are being so brave and graceful, but I know it's been hard for them. Please keep them in your prayers!

From Hardin we headed to Billings and Sarah & I went to a bunch of fabric/craft stores to get all of our materials for the handgame outfits... I'm so excited (and a little nervous) to make them!! ...hope I can do it! We ran into a couple of other ladies also from Big Horn district picking up their materials too, which was fun and they helped us figure out everything we needed. One of them we hadn't met yet, but she was genuinely excited to hear that we would be playing with them; I'm continually amazed and humbled by how welcomed we have been as outsiders, even by those like her who don't even know us.

With Dixie and Carrie at the pow wow!

Dixie, Zoe, and their big sister Bergen... beautiful girls!

Carrie, our 3rd grade pow wow princess. She goes to all of the pow wows with her grandmother and is always so poised. She will definitely be an actual Crow princess someday!

We went back to the pow wow around 6 and oh my gosh, it was SO much fun. We ran around seeing tons of people from school, went in and watched the Drum Call- they take turns going around to the drum circles and some of the men have to get up and dance (it was all kind of goofy) and if they don't dance they have to put money in the pot... then whoever is picked as the best dancers win the money. Random and so entertaining!- met Miss Debbie from school, found Lorna again, took tons of pictures, and ran around alternatingly dancing/exploring with Dixie and her little sister Zoe... Zoe ran around dragging me by the finger the whole time haha.. she was hard to keep up with but so darn cute! I had so much fun with them! And then I danced a lot, too! They had a lot of "inter tribals" (when anyone/all tribes can dance) between the contest dances so I kept dancing with Dixie and Zoe or with Carrie. So much fun, being there with everyone, seeing so many friends, and enjoying the traditions!