Crowds fill civic center for powwow
Kayla Gahagan, Journal staff
RAPID CITY -- It wasn’t their turn yet, but members of the Thunder Valley singing group simply couldn’t wait. They softly tapped the tips of their drumsticks in unison with the beat of the drummers next to them and listened for their group name to be called.
In a couple of minutes, it would be their turn. The thick yellow blanket protecting the drum in the center of their circle would be pulled off, and the youngest group at the 21st annual He Sapa Wacipi Na Oskate -- or Black Hills Pow Wow -- would put rubber to rawhide and beat out their own rhythm.
With prompting from the echo of an announcer, 13-year-old Jerome LeBeaux and seven other members of the group began their percussion and song, their youthful voices drawing attention from a crowd used to adult singers.
That’s what they dream about, said Jerome, whose sisters, Tacie, 9, and Tea, 10, also are in the group.
“We can pretend we’re in a tie breaker with some big famous group,” he said.
For now, they practice back in Thunder Valley once a week and try to recruit young singers -- usually as young as kindergarten age -- to join the group and travel to powwows. Their youngest member, Jai Knight, is 6. She started a year ago.
Young people, just as much as old people and everyone in between, are what they like to see at these powwows, Mousseaux said, because “it gives us a good future.”
This year’s powwow, held Friday through Sunday at Rushmore Plaza Civic Center in Rapid City, attracted people of all ages and from all over the country, with 813 registered dancers and almost 40 different drum groups. Thirty five tribes were represented, Mousseaux said, and $50,000 in prize money was awarded.
Robert Simpson of Helena, Mont., was one of the many dancers to leave the floor Saturday afternoon, breathing heavy and sounding jingles and bells with every step. Simpson said he’s from the Northern Cheyenne tribe of Lame Deer, Mont., and attends a powwow “every weekend that I can.”
He doesn’t come for the money, although it does help with travel expenses, he said.
“I dance for the people,” he said, motioning to the spectators camped out in the bleachers. “I dance for the people that can’t dance … and maybe, it will help one person feel good.”
His tribal regalia -- yellow, blue and red beadwork, fringe and feathers -- blended into a sea of colors filling the auditorium.
“I make it all myself,” he said. “When you go to powwows, you learn. The beadwork lasts forever. The fringes, I have to keep redoing.”
The beautiful colors and dancing were only one of the sights visitor Bertie Parker was taking in. Toting a digital camera and her family, Parker didn’t hesitate to stop and ask some of the younger dancers to pose for a picture.
“It’s incredible,” she said. “It’s exciting.”
The powwow was on a list of must-sees in the area, she said.
“We came here to see the traditional Indian, the buffalo hunt, the wild horses,” she said.
First-time visitors are more than welcome, Mousseaux said, adding that the board specifically tried this year to get the local community more involved. It worked, she said, with local business and non-Native volunteers giving time, money and security assistance to the event.
“It’s a positive thing because now, we can get other people from the community here, and it will open more doors,” she said.
In conjunction with the powwow, the Black Hills Pow Wow Association also sponsored the Black Hills Thunder Classic softball tournament and the Second Annual Wacante Ognake skateboard tournament Saturday.
All the hard work has paid off, Mousseaux said.
“We do this for the community and because the dancers keep coming back,” she said, noting all the hard work of the volunteers. “We do it because we want to do it.”