Post by Okwes on Jul 24, 2007 9:04:19 GMT -5
Native heritage studied at powwow
By David Blymire
March 11, 2007
Frank Wilson Angelo of McClure, Pa., didn't always think about the Indian part of his heritage that he traces to Crisfield, Md. on the Eastern Shore.
His mother's ancestry is parts English and Native American and his father, Italian.
He's known since he was 11 or 12 that his ancestors included Blackfeet Indians, but he continues to learn more about his heritage.
“The more I get into it, the more fascinating it becomes,” he says.
An avid fly fisherman and teacher, he says “for many years, I wondered why I loved the outdoors.”
Angelo was in Carlisle Saturday for the 15th annual Red Creek Mid-Winter Festival and Powwow, what organizers describe as a “big family gathering.”
Angelo was among the more than 100 dancers in colorful Indian regalia who took to the floor Saturday at dickinson College's Kline Center off Cherry Street.
The “gourd dance” - accompanied by the pounding of a large drum and Indian singing - opened the day-long festival at the college campus.
Saturday's gourd dance had to be shortened for the festival, but in traditional Native American societies they could last all day, says Don Hockenberry, a Seneca from Aspers, Adams County who leads a Boy Scout troop in Biglerville.
Tom Krug, 9, of Hershey, gets some assistance from his father, Dale Krug, putting on his men’s fancy dance outfit for the Red Creek Mid-Winter Festival and Powwow at dickinson College on Saturday afternoon. (Jason Malmont/The Sentinel)
“It's an old dance with a very strong history,” he says.
The songs sung during the dance were more than 100 years old. Some were military songs composed to reflect on the warriors coming home after battle, he says.
The gourd dance preceded the “grand entry” - something like a parade. Saturday's grand entry participants circled around the gym floor over an area the size of a basketball court.
Not all of the participants were of Indian descent.
Ted Severe from Baltimore, Md. said he started attending powwows in 1965 and got interested immediately.
“I discovered very quickly I had a lot to learn,” he said.
More people continue to discover their roots and some find out their ancestors included Indians. They might visit the powwow to learn more about Indian culture and history.
“With some of us, its an adopted thing - we're trying to do it right, be respectful of the traditions,” Severe said, noting that it is “ironic” that the Red Creek festival brings people with Indian roots to Carlisle to celebrate their culture just a few miles from the site of the former Carlisle Indian School where their culture was once suppressed.
Zach Beamer, a junior at Biglerville High School, says he has been coming to the Red Creek festival for nine years. He said he started going after Hockenberry, his scout troop leader, asked if anyone wanted to join the dancers.
He became interested and started reading up on Indian religion, culture and “anything I could get my hands on,” he explains.
O.L. Durham, also known as Blue Eagle, gestures with his hands as he talks to a friend. (Jason Malmont/The Sentinel)
“What really surprised me was the actual Indians aren't what textbooks call ‘savages,'” he says.
Wolf Patterson of Vineland, N.J. is a descendant of the Susquehannock, a tribe once declared “extinct” by the English government in Lancaster County, he says.
“We're not extinct, we're here,” says Patterson, who was attending his first Red Creek festival.
He says he's been known as Wolf for 30 years, but more recently a clan mother bestowed the name “Changing Wolf” on him.
Patterson, who lived in Lancaster County before moving to New Jersey in 1990, describes himself as a spiritual advisor who has gone through training, similar to that of a priest.
By David Blymire
March 11, 2007
Frank Wilson Angelo of McClure, Pa., didn't always think about the Indian part of his heritage that he traces to Crisfield, Md. on the Eastern Shore.
His mother's ancestry is parts English and Native American and his father, Italian.
He's known since he was 11 or 12 that his ancestors included Blackfeet Indians, but he continues to learn more about his heritage.
“The more I get into it, the more fascinating it becomes,” he says.
An avid fly fisherman and teacher, he says “for many years, I wondered why I loved the outdoors.”
Angelo was in Carlisle Saturday for the 15th annual Red Creek Mid-Winter Festival and Powwow, what organizers describe as a “big family gathering.”
Angelo was among the more than 100 dancers in colorful Indian regalia who took to the floor Saturday at dickinson College's Kline Center off Cherry Street.
The “gourd dance” - accompanied by the pounding of a large drum and Indian singing - opened the day-long festival at the college campus.
Saturday's gourd dance had to be shortened for the festival, but in traditional Native American societies they could last all day, says Don Hockenberry, a Seneca from Aspers, Adams County who leads a Boy Scout troop in Biglerville.
Tom Krug, 9, of Hershey, gets some assistance from his father, Dale Krug, putting on his men’s fancy dance outfit for the Red Creek Mid-Winter Festival and Powwow at dickinson College on Saturday afternoon. (Jason Malmont/The Sentinel)
“It's an old dance with a very strong history,” he says.
The songs sung during the dance were more than 100 years old. Some were military songs composed to reflect on the warriors coming home after battle, he says.
The gourd dance preceded the “grand entry” - something like a parade. Saturday's grand entry participants circled around the gym floor over an area the size of a basketball court.
Not all of the participants were of Indian descent.
Ted Severe from Baltimore, Md. said he started attending powwows in 1965 and got interested immediately.
“I discovered very quickly I had a lot to learn,” he said.
More people continue to discover their roots and some find out their ancestors included Indians. They might visit the powwow to learn more about Indian culture and history.
“With some of us, its an adopted thing - we're trying to do it right, be respectful of the traditions,” Severe said, noting that it is “ironic” that the Red Creek festival brings people with Indian roots to Carlisle to celebrate their culture just a few miles from the site of the former Carlisle Indian School where their culture was once suppressed.
Zach Beamer, a junior at Biglerville High School, says he has been coming to the Red Creek festival for nine years. He said he started going after Hockenberry, his scout troop leader, asked if anyone wanted to join the dancers.
He became interested and started reading up on Indian religion, culture and “anything I could get my hands on,” he explains.
O.L. Durham, also known as Blue Eagle, gestures with his hands as he talks to a friend. (Jason Malmont/The Sentinel)
“What really surprised me was the actual Indians aren't what textbooks call ‘savages,'” he says.
Wolf Patterson of Vineland, N.J. is a descendant of the Susquehannock, a tribe once declared “extinct” by the English government in Lancaster County, he says.
“We're not extinct, we're here,” says Patterson, who was attending his first Red Creek festival.
He says he's been known as Wolf for 30 years, but more recently a clan mother bestowed the name “Changing Wolf” on him.
Patterson, who lived in Lancaster County before moving to New Jersey in 1990, describes himself as a spiritual advisor who has gone through training, similar to that of a priest.