The busy week- Powwow

Monday, July 6, 2009

This whole week has been pretty hectic so forgive me for not having posted sooner but there really has not been any time to do so. What has been keeping us busy you may ask? Well let me tell you.

This all began Friday, July 3rd when we got a call that an older man had passed away in his house. He was found when his son showed up at the house to take his father see the doctor. I revisited this case again when later that afternoon Erin, Operations Deputy and the owner of a biological cleaning service that cleans houses and vehicles after a loved one has passed away, returned to the house to clean it. It is tough for family members to clean a room after a loved one has died in it. So Erin’s business helps with that problem and from the many scenes she has dealt with, she has learned a couple tricks, which she passed on to me when I worked as her tech assistant on this project. Erin told me that it is difficult for her to find tech assistants because she has to find individuals that can be around biological matter and, depending on the scene, bugs and decomposition smells. Not everyone likes to work under these conditions. It was quite an experience for me.

That night, Friday the 3rd of July still, we went to a Powwow for Shoshone Days. This was a fun event for me because we went with Ed’s sister Cynthia Hamilton, and she and I had a blast watching the activities together. At a Powwow, Native Americans from all over the USA gather together to dance. They dress up in elaborate traditional costumes made from buckskins, beads, eagle feathers and more. All of the dancers present for a Powwow enter the dancing area in the Grand Processional. In this procession the flags are carried by vets. Next the royalty made up of young women dressed in their buckskins with tiaras made out of buckskin, feathers and bead work describe who they are. Some even had buckskin sashes with bead work naming their title. The traditional women dancers follow the royalty. These women tend to be dressed in buckskins that also have bead work but it is not as elaborate as other dancers. Over their left arms the women carry buckskin purses decorated with beads of various designs. The women dance in a slower fashion making sure they don’t miss a beat.

The next set of dancers were traditional male dancers. These men dressed in buckskins with decoration similar to that of the traditional female dancers. They carried a war club and/or a spiritual stick in their hand that was usually decorated. Also on top of their heads they wore eagle feather headdresses.

Next came the Fancy Dancers, men that were dressed in shorter loin cloths with tights or short shorts underneath. I did see one man that did not have this underneath, and he was a bit more revealing. They were all elaborately dressed with lots of colors and decorations, including big bells around their ankles to help make more noise.

Jangle Dress Dancers are women dressed in skirts that have bells sewn on them that make a lot of noise like the Fancy Dancers’ bells. These skirts tend to have 365 bells on them representing the 365 days of the year. Some of these jangle dress dancers are also shawl dancers and carry cloth (and a few leather) shawls that were beautifully decorated with designs on the back that matched the rest of their outfit. These shawls tended to have longer fringes and when the shawl was swung around rapidly, the colors really caught your eye.

Grass dancers. These men were dressed in buckskins or cloth that was very colorful and had feathers on their heads and on their buttocks. Their outfits consisted of the loin cloths and leggings that were highly decorated with lots of colors and often fringes that caught the eye when the dancers moved fast and enthusiastically. They also carried coup sticks with them and as they moved it added even more to the commotion of their outfit.

One of the drawing points to get people to travel around the country dancing in these Pow Wows is that the dancers compete for great prizes. The categories are based on the different type of dances being performed and the age groups. Roni and Ed were telling me that this teenager they knew started dancing when he was 3 and by the time he had graduated from high school he had enough money saved up to go to college.

Saturday, July 4, 2009, Ed, Roni, Cindy, and I returned to the Powwow staying the afternoon and well into the night. In the afternoon there was a small rodeo which we went to for about an hour. Then we hurried over to grab seats for the Powwow. We had snow cones because it was hot and that night we had Indian tacos, which are always amazing! That evening I saw a man that had rows of small scars on his upper arm. These Roni told me were indicative of him performing a Sioux Sundance. The Sioux believe that the giving of flesh to the heavenly creator is sacred. After fasting for an extended period of time during their sundances, there is a ceremony where they cut small pieces of the upper arm away as offerings to the creator. I will be able to discuss sundances better later as I will be actually going to the Shoshoni Sundance later this week. Then I will be in a better position to explain what occurs at a sundance.

While we were at the Powwow there were two calls. One was in Lander with a single car rollover. The individual that passed away in this crash was a few years older than me. He did not have a seatbelt on and was ejected from the vehicle. The other call was in Riverton at the hospital where an older gentleman died from a heart condition. I was upset that we had missed the one in Riverton but Ed reminded me of the important lesson that all emergency responders learn- you can’t keep your life on hold waiting for a call.