Native American Pow Wow

Good Morning everyone, I hope your week has been treating you well. I decided to share with you and experience I had last weekend but I wanted to wait until I wasn't so emotional to write about it.

You see, I started out writing about this Native American pow wow I went to right after I was there so it would be fresh in my mind and by the end of the blog it turned into me ranting about everything I hate about Christianity. That's not good. I have too much love and compassion in my heart to house any hate and yet somehow it still found its way in there and made a bed there. So after asking the elements to take it from me, I sent that hate an eviction notice and I settled on posting this much later and editing out the words that might make anyone reading it feel like I am attacking them, their beliefs or Christianity.  

From the Original Blog Post:

Today I sat outside a circle and watched Native American's share with the community their spirituality. As I listened to the chants and the drums I literally wept for such a brilliant and humble way of life that was destroyed by ignorance, fear and hate. I cried for every spirit that was crushed and I cried "happy tears" that we now live in a world that cherishes what was almost completely eradicated.

I have a special connection to all Native American culture regardless of the tribe. A not-so-distant ancestor of mine is one Col. John Chivington, who is noted in history as the mastermind of the Sand Creek Massacre. It's not something I am proud of but then again I'm sure the relatives of Ted Bundy don't say that they are related to him either. Perhaps that is why I feel such desire to help Native American people in any way that I can.
 

A family joke that we have is my mother is married to a Cherokee Indian and whenever he wears his "Homeland Security, fighting terrorism since 1492" t-shirt we ask him what it is like to sleep with the enemy and he usually replies with the old saying "keep your friends close..."

This is how the rant started and spiraled out of control:

One of the hardest things for me to bear, and perhaps this is because of my family history, which was why I shared the story, is the blatant snub that I saw while at the pow wow. There was a giant banner in one of the vendors tents that had a Bible verse on it.

I thought it was insensitive and when I brought it up to my friends who are also of Pagan/Wiccan beliefs,  my mother instantly goes "yes but that is where their beliefs lie now, do not knock it." So I naturally go "yes, because our ancestors exterminated a whole tribe for not believing in what we forced them into believing was right. It was the white man's God or death."

Unfortunately, that is completely true. My ancestor was a Methodist pastor. He was supposed to believe in the preservation of life, "thou shall not kill" and "thou shall love thy neighbor" and apparently those were just words to him. He wasn't even punished for his misdeeds. So the only thing I can think of him was he decided that these savages were "Godless" and that perhaps they did not want his God and then he decided like many do that if they reject his God they are not allowed to live so he killed them. Again, this is purely speculation on my part but this is how many religious zealots think. I think this theory is fairly logical and probable but the world will never know why these things happen.

Another excerpt:

Even though we've all studied history and we know it is wrong and what the white man did was wrong we're still going to persist with this idea that you should believe in a God you didn't know existed until we forced it upon you. So now, that you are back to being free to believe in anything you want including the ways of your ancestors we are going to again remind you that Christianity is the only thing that can save your soul.

I said I wasn't going to speak on religion but I guess I am. I understand where these people come from. I've been exposed to it and I've turned away for a reason.

I'm not sure where I was going beyond what I've posted. There was a lot more but it was just ranting and talking about my pet peeves when it comes to other religions, specifically Christian Missions and recruitment. I guess I just don't understand why people think it is ok to tell another person their beliefs are wrong and then when they refuse to convert to the cause you support you then condemn them to some horrible end. That just doesn't make any sense to me. If I was going to start a religion I wouldn't give a person an ultimatum. Fear is an excellent motivator but I believe the expression goes "you get more bees with honey."

After all this post was supposed to be about the pow wow and the Native American spirits. It was supposed to be about the drums and the dancing and the celebration and social embracing of a culture that we tried to eradicate flourishing despite oppression. Pow Wows are a symbol that they weren't before - a sign that American's have finally done something right. We have allowed freedom of religion, the very reason our country was founded, to actually exist within our country. It gives me hope that one day Witches, Wiccans, Pagans, ect can practice in the open without there being out cries for Witches to burn or pay for their sins the same way we no longer call Native American's savages and try to assimilate them. We celebrate them now and one day that will be the case for all religions.

So, join me in relishing in this celebration through photographs I took and I promised that no souls were taken and trapped in these photos! There are more photos and a video on my instagram account. If you're not following me there you're missing out!

The Aztec tribe had their own drums

They smudged themselves with sage, sweet grass and a combination of other herbs before entering the circle.

They wore colorful and elaborate costumes

look at the little guy!

They even smudged themselves and the circle during one of their dances

She went around the whole circle and smudged each individual

This included the drummers...

and their offering area

This is as close up as I could get but each one of them wore some type of nut as a bell.
I thought brazil nuts at first because Aztec would be central american or northern south america but perhaps they are hazel nuts? I am not sure. Does anyone here know what type of nut those are?

Part of their friendship dance - they invited people into the circle. The point was to never break hands but...

Hello Cutie Pie... my friends really liked him.

It got really confusing because it became a mix between a conga line and follow the leader... it didn't end well.

Best shot I could get of the back of the "leader's" costume.

In addition to a lady carrying a baby (and very poorly I might add - she almost dropped the baby the whole time. I was about to jump in and show her how to hold an infant because she apparently never took any parenting classes.) there was also a lady holding a dog. She might be in these photos somewhere....

Ah, the lady with the dog is in the pink shirt in between the lady with a baby and the Aztec dancer at the very left. You can't see the dog though darn it. One of the Native American's from another tribe was really upset with that lady for having the dog in the circle. He yelled at her several times because the dog was wandering into the circle.
I know this because they were sitting next to us in the grass.

Again, this photo is more for my friends ;)

YES! I knew I got a photo of her carrying the dog. She had a whole brat pack of kids with her too.

Throw your hands up in the air? No, it was just part of the dance.

More of the Dog Lady....

 I had a lot more than this but most of them turned out to be blurry messes because I didn't have a very fast lens with me or one with much zoom so a lot of my photo's turned out to be less than satisfactory but these were the best of what I took. I mainly took photo's of the Aztec's because of their costumes and because I felt more connected to the other tribes and enjoyed watching them dance. I wanted to listen and be apart of the spirituality of it all than be a photographer. Alas, I got some great stuff!

Thanks for reading and putting up with me and my commentary. Blessed be!