Post by blackcrowheart on Sept 7, 2006 11:02:21 GMT -5
Powwow focuses on nature and the Creator
By Bob Withers
The Herald-Dispatch
HUNTINGTON -- Attend a powwow and you stand a chance of getting closer to nature -- and its Creator.
There are elk-skin "possibles" bags, with deer horn buttons, holding the tobacco that dancers scatter on the Earth to bless her. Abalone shells hold white sage leaves for "smudging" -- the smoke is believed to chase away evil spirits. Dance fans made of turkey feathers and a deer's hip bone help the smoke envelop you. And dance wands -- with a mud turtle's head or a muskrat skull attached -- are ready for age-old ceremonies.
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The Native American Indian Federation Inc., Sunrise Warriors and the Lone Wolf Trading Post filled beautiful downtown Guyandotte with the fragrance of sweetgrass and the chant of drummers as their two-day powwow got under way Saturday. The event -- designed to commemorate and honor the Native American heritage -- continues today at noon with singing, dancing, demonstrations, vendor sales and food.
Little Dove of South Point, Ohio, -- Toni Jones is her given name, but she seldom uses it -- was dressed in full Cherokee regalia, a deer-skin dress with hanging blue-dyed bird feathers, a burgundy dancing shawl and a hairpiece crafted from owl feathers, as she awaited the "Grand Entry" huddled in a figured blanket and sitting by a wood fire.
"I have a tent, but I camped last night in the back of my Blazer because the ground was wet," she said. "I used to camp on a blanket, without a tent. People thought I was crazy, but as long as it didn't rain, I was fine."
Why go to all that trouble?
"It's my heritage, and I want to acknowledge it," she said.
A vendor named Mad Fox, from Chloe in Calhoun County who hailed from Iroquois country in New York's Adirondacks, explained the peace pipe to a visitor.
"We believe the smoke takes our prayers to the Creator," he said.
When Indians and the white man in early America made peace treaties, they smoked the "sacred herb" in a peace pipe.
"We called the pipe a 'tobac,' " he said. "The white man thought we were referring to what was in the pipe instead of the pipe itself. That's where the English word 'tobacco' came from."
At another tent, Ann Wicker (Comanche) of Bluefield, W.Va., fanned plumes of white sage smoke all around Nancy Young (Cherokee) of Ashland.
"She had a migraine," commented Braveheart -- Cathy Thornbury -- of Grayson, Ky. "She came over here for a little smudging."
And Young said it worked, too -- at least in part.
"It has lessened the migraine," she said after Wicker put away her fan. "It hasn't had time to work completely."
Wicker said she burns sage at home.
"That chases away what my ancestors called evil spirits," she said. "Then you burn sweetgrass; that seals the whole area. Then cedar leaves, to invite the good spirits in. And then tobacco leaves, as a sacrifice to the Creator."
Braveheart pointed out that most -- if not all -- people of Native American heritage are not pagans. Many of them are Baptists and Methodists, just like others who believe God is Father and Christ is Savior.
"People think we are pagan because they think we worship rocks," she said. "We don't worship rocks; we worship the Creator and thank him for the rocks."
The perceived religious differences, she continued, result from matters of terminology. Christians refer to God and Christ on the one hand and Satan and his minions on the other. Native Americans refer to good spirits and evil spirits. But, she said, they speak of the same entities.
"We thank the Creator for everything," she said. "If we take a deer to feed our family, we thank the deer for his life."
Nor, she adds, do Native Americans worship the Earth -- which Native Americans call "Mother Earth."
"If we don't take care of Mother Earth, she can't take care of us. But we know God created the Earth," she said. "He's first in all things."
www.herald-dispatch.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060903/NEWS01/609030348/1001/NEWS10
By Bob Withers
The Herald-Dispatch
HUNTINGTON -- Attend a powwow and you stand a chance of getting closer to nature -- and its Creator.
There are elk-skin "possibles" bags, with deer horn buttons, holding the tobacco that dancers scatter on the Earth to bless her. Abalone shells hold white sage leaves for "smudging" -- the smoke is believed to chase away evil spirits. Dance fans made of turkey feathers and a deer's hip bone help the smoke envelop you. And dance wands -- with a mud turtle's head or a muskrat skull attached -- are ready for age-old ceremonies.
ADVERTISEMENT
The Native American Indian Federation Inc., Sunrise Warriors and the Lone Wolf Trading Post filled beautiful downtown Guyandotte with the fragrance of sweetgrass and the chant of drummers as their two-day powwow got under way Saturday. The event -- designed to commemorate and honor the Native American heritage -- continues today at noon with singing, dancing, demonstrations, vendor sales and food.
Little Dove of South Point, Ohio, -- Toni Jones is her given name, but she seldom uses it -- was dressed in full Cherokee regalia, a deer-skin dress with hanging blue-dyed bird feathers, a burgundy dancing shawl and a hairpiece crafted from owl feathers, as she awaited the "Grand Entry" huddled in a figured blanket and sitting by a wood fire.
"I have a tent, but I camped last night in the back of my Blazer because the ground was wet," she said. "I used to camp on a blanket, without a tent. People thought I was crazy, but as long as it didn't rain, I was fine."
Why go to all that trouble?
"It's my heritage, and I want to acknowledge it," she said.
A vendor named Mad Fox, from Chloe in Calhoun County who hailed from Iroquois country in New York's Adirondacks, explained the peace pipe to a visitor.
"We believe the smoke takes our prayers to the Creator," he said.
When Indians and the white man in early America made peace treaties, they smoked the "sacred herb" in a peace pipe.
"We called the pipe a 'tobac,' " he said. "The white man thought we were referring to what was in the pipe instead of the pipe itself. That's where the English word 'tobacco' came from."
At another tent, Ann Wicker (Comanche) of Bluefield, W.Va., fanned plumes of white sage smoke all around Nancy Young (Cherokee) of Ashland.
"She had a migraine," commented Braveheart -- Cathy Thornbury -- of Grayson, Ky. "She came over here for a little smudging."
And Young said it worked, too -- at least in part.
"It has lessened the migraine," she said after Wicker put away her fan. "It hasn't had time to work completely."
Wicker said she burns sage at home.
"That chases away what my ancestors called evil spirits," she said. "Then you burn sweetgrass; that seals the whole area. Then cedar leaves, to invite the good spirits in. And then tobacco leaves, as a sacrifice to the Creator."
Braveheart pointed out that most -- if not all -- people of Native American heritage are not pagans. Many of them are Baptists and Methodists, just like others who believe God is Father and Christ is Savior.
"People think we are pagan because they think we worship rocks," she said. "We don't worship rocks; we worship the Creator and thank him for the rocks."
The perceived religious differences, she continued, result from matters of terminology. Christians refer to God and Christ on the one hand and Satan and his minions on the other. Native Americans refer to good spirits and evil spirits. But, she said, they speak of the same entities.
"We thank the Creator for everything," she said. "If we take a deer to feed our family, we thank the deer for his life."
Nor, she adds, do Native Americans worship the Earth -- which Native Americans call "Mother Earth."
"If we don't take care of Mother Earth, she can't take care of us. But we know God created the Earth," she said. "He's first in all things."
www.herald-dispatch.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060903/NEWS01/609030348/1001/NEWS10