University of Washington Winter Powwow

Saturday was the Winter Powwow at the University of Washington. There were two Grand Entries, at 1pm and at 7pm. A good crowd was present and at least two hundred dancers in regalia. There were thirteen drums. The host drum was Wild Rose from Yakima, Washington. Each drum with its singers has a name. I'm always cognizant of the names of the drums just as I am always fascinated by the names of rock groups (I see many each week in the entertainment section of the Seattle newspaper). The drums who were present at Saturday's powwow were Wild Rose, Medicine Whistle, Broken Rope, Eagle Stone, Midnight Echo, Northern Plains, White Eagle, Pejuzta, Northwest Connection, Sage Crow, Sitting Horse, Black Lodge and The Outlaws. Each drum plays and sings in progression. With that many drums they each probably only sang five or six songs at the most during the whole time, excepting for the host drum. The host drum is called upon to sing the second song for any competition dances, so they may have sung as many as fifteen.

As usual we saw many old friends from the powwow circle. Lots of greetings, lots of hugs. And as usual, with such a large extended family, there was bad news as well. A Lakota elder and good friend of ours had a heart attack and stroke while in the hospital for a procedure and is now in a coma. We learned of another friend, whom we had not seen for a while, who spent two weeks in the hospital and only recently has gone home. Our friend from Portland, who had his leg amputated, is healing and looking forward to being fitted with a prostheses. So good news, bad news. All in all we had a wonderful day. What more could you ask for.