Powwows, one of the most visible expressions of Indianness today, were once seen as part of a “melting pot Indian culture,” Pan-Indian in form and function,[1] and a “powerful synthesis of related traditions.”[2] Today, they are considered more of an amalgam of various sources and practices, both generalized and particular, allowing individual communities to maintain ties with their specific tribal traditions by incorporating elements and symbols that affirm specific tribal identities rather than just a generalized sense of being “American Indian.”[3]

In order to more fully understand the role powwows play in the lives of Indian people, it is necessary to have a firm grasp of not only their forms and functions but also their constituents. Providing a systematic, cross-cultural understanding of powwows in general is, however, not the focus of this article. Rather, it offers insight into an essential element of powwows: the people who dance at powwows. It is, more specifically, an analysis of powwow regalia, and of the factors that guide dancers’ aesthetic choices in putting together their outfit. More importantly, it looks at powwows outside their usual geographic and social contexts, focusing on events east of the Mississippi, and thereby on powwows that are far less studied and understood than their counterparts in Indian Country.

In what is called Indian Country, substantial American Indian populations have ensured the continued practice of powwows for over a century. In the 1950s, advances in technology and travel promoted their spread from the Great Plains to all regions with American Indian populations. During the 1960s-1970s, in the midst of a more general revival of Native cultures, a need for a more recognizable American Indian identity marker emerged. Because powwows communicate Native values to non-Natives, they became such a prominent expression of Indian identity that many tribes with no historical powwow traditions started incorporating powwows into their culture. Consequently, Indians and non-Indians alike came to associate Indianness with the wearing of beads and feathers worn at powwows.[4]

Powwows transformed into intertribal, public cultural performances that strengthened a sense of Native identity and aided in the revival of many moribund traditional practices. Competitive dancing, one of the most important aspects of the powwow for Indians, led to the development of many clothing styles, incorporating highly decorative featherwork, ribbonwork, and beadwork, which in turn prompted a revival of textile arts. For many American Indians, powwows have become a lifestyle choice, providing an outlet for artistic creativity and skill, as well as a means of livelihood: dancers and singers compete for substantial prize monies; vendors of arts, crafts, and dance regalia find a market that is being continuously renewed; and sizeable audiences drawn by the visual extravagance of the event assure the visibility of the organizing community on the cultural map of mainstream America.

In the Midwest, the success of forced assimilation and the absence of reservations or tribally held lands have rendered the Indian populations virtually invisible. In 2004, their official numbers in Indiana, the primary site of my study, were at 17,532, or about 0.28% of the total population of over 6 million.[5] Today, the unofficial number is around 30,000, which includes people who are bi- or multi-racial, as well as those who did not participate in the official census. The Miami Indians of Indiana are the only state-recognized nation, albeit one without a land-base and thus federal recognition. (Since powwows “affirm in concrete, tribally specific terms their status as Native people,”[6] they have become one of the means of trying to gain such political recognition from the federal government since the 1980s.) Other tribes that have historically occupied territories in Indiana include the Delaware, Iroquois, Kickapoo, Ottawa, Piankashaw, Potawatomi, Shawnee, Wea and Wyandot. Today, however, representatives of Native nations from all over the continent, from Navajo to Gwich’in, can be found living in Indiana, having moved here for work, family, or other obligations.

Due mainly to the above-mentioned absence of populations federally recognized as American Indian, most Indiana powwows are officially defined as “hobbyist” powwows, with the majority of dancers being non-Indian. Nonetheless, a great majority of those dancers consider themselves Indian, even if to the “untrained” eye they do not seem to conform to what the general public expects an Indian to look like. The “trained” eye, however, one that knows what to look for in terms of regalia and movement, can easily discern Indian dancers from non-Indian dancers. A long history of intermarrying with Euro-Americans resulted in a significant loss of “Indianness” both in terms of coloring and public expressions of that identity.

Coming to Indiana powwows after having experienced powwows in Oklahoma, I found an interesting assortment of dancers. The findings of six years of attendance as a spectator and three years of focused fieldwork as an ethnographer at these Indiana powwows can be distilled into five major types of dancers. The terms for these categories were generated from conversations with dancers, organizers, vendors, craftspeople and spectators, and are thus emic to the community of powwow-goers in Indiana.[7]

Based on their clothing and dance style, then, Indiana powwow dancers fall into the following categories:

·         status or card-carrying Indians: members of federally or state recognized tribes, locals or visiting/transplanted from their home states;

·         non-status Indians: mixed-race, adopted, or relocated Indians raised with little or no knowledge of their heritage, now returning to their roots through powwow connections;

·         hobbyists: mostly non-Indian enthusiasts, committed to historically accurate and authentic reproductions of Indian culture - material and visual;

·         historical reenactors: Indian or non-Indian enthusiasts, committed to historically accurate representations of Indian life in specific time periods before the present;

·         Indian Hearts and wannabes: persons of undocumented Indian heritage, seeking spiritual rather than material associations, such as the so-called New Agers.

My interest in studying these Indiana dances was initially prompted mainly by the diversity of clothing seen at these events and their apparent departure from Western powwow regalia. Upon closer study of the dance regalia, I found that they are consciously used by many of the dancers as a vehicle for expressing their identities within the powwow circle. And while this may be true for powwow dancers in Indian Country as well, here in the Midwest it is more expressly so.

The following chart offers an overview of the continuum of the above listed identity categories and their basic signifiers.

This second chart offers a comparison of the categories of dancers that comprise mostly non-Indian dancers.

A brief definition of a powwow and of the categories into which powwow dancers are generally organized will introduce the basic vocabulary of the powwow regalia canon, which is based on Western Oklahoma standards, the cradle of powwow culture.

Indian people gathered at various times of the year to renew family, clan and tribal ties, as well as to forge social and political alliances, celebrate victories, and to practice religious and spiritual ceremonies. These gatherings involved music and dance, gambling games, athletic competition, and ceremonies. Dances were performed for various occasions and purposes: some were used to communicate with the powers of the universe, others to honor the spirits of powerful beings, and still others were owned by specific societies and performed only by members of those societies, such as the Omaha military society’s Grass dance.

During the reservation period of the 19^th century, however, tribal customs and practices were outlawed by the United States government, along with the use of Native languages. Powwows emerged in the 1870s in Oklahoma as a new way of practicing these outlawed ritual customs in the guise of a social festival, which involved family reunions, courtship, singing, dancing, games, food and crafts. Around the turn of the 20^th century, Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Shows employed many Native American men, prompting significant changes in the dance styles and dance outfits, making the war dances they usually performed fancier, more visually enticing. The modern powwow evolved from a combination of such practices, gaining in popularity since the 1940s, when they were revived as occasions to honor and welcome back returning war veterans. They evolved into a venue for Indians to not only socialize, but also to remember the old ways and to preserve their cultural heritage. They serve as places to reinforce the values of working together as a family and bonding as a community, as well as to expose young people to the language and teachings of their elders. Most importantly, they provide a viable means of expression of the survival of Native cultures, a common meeting ground for Indians of all tribal affiliations, as well as interaction between Indians and non-Indians.

Today the two most common types of powwows are the traditional powwow and the competition powwow. Traditional powwows involve a mixture of social, religious, and political activities that directly affect the organizing community, such as adoptions, namings, honorings, or “first” dances. The competition powwow, on the other hand, is more theater than ceremony, more intertribal and public than tribally specific and locally meaningful. It allows dancers to make a semi-professional living of competing for prize monies. But only registered, card-carrying Indians can compete for these monies.

It is nonetheless the competition powwow that gave powwows the four major categories of dance style repertoire: men’s and women’s Northern and Southern Traditional, Grass, Jingle Dress, and Fancy.[8]

These dances have a strong personal and spiritual dimension, with many different interpretations for each dance style, depending on tribal and family background. Similarly, dance regalia are also very personal and artistic expressions of the dancer’s life, feelings, interests, and spiritual quest. An outfit evolves and changes as the dancer evolves and changes in life. Changes are made each season depending on the fashion of the time or a personal change in taste, and one’s dance outfit is never “finished.” When a dancer wants to get a new outfit, he or she may gift the old outfit to a younger dancer who is just starting out in the powwow circuit. Various regalia elements are also given as gifts by elders or treasured people in the dancer’s life, and are to be worn with pride and responsibility.

What characterizes traditional Indian dance clothes is unity of composition: all elements have cohesion, make sense, and complement each other to communicate something specific about the dancer (e.g., tribal, clan, or family affiliation). The degree of this unity or cohesion is often seen as an indicator of the dancer’s knowledge of powwow rules and practices.

Each regalia style also developed as a direct reflection of the dance it corresponds to and has specific markers that identify it. The men’s traditional dances, for example, are variations on the war dance, the oldest form of dance in Native culture, in which warriors would “dance out” their hunting or war exploits. Hence you will see a lot of crouching and movements imitating the stalking of animals or battling of enemies. The dancers are often veterans and carry items that symbolize their status as warriors—shields, weapons, honor staffs and medicine wheels.

Various tribal influences and different traditional outfits have been blended together into a more general style, influenced mostly by Plains traditions. Because the dance outfit is a very personal expression of creativity and artistry, you will never see two outfits that are exactly alike.

Several elements in the men’s Northern Traditional or War Dance outfit reflect items worn by early warriors: a bone breastplate worn for protection against arrows, a neck choker for protection against knives, ankle bells or jingling hooves, and a hide shield decorated with tribal symbols. The most distinguishing element, however, is the circular or U-shaped bustle of eagle feather spikes tied at the waist. Other elements generally worn by a northern traditional dancer include a feather war bonnet, a coyote hide headdress, or a porcupine roach,[9] beaded moccasins and leggings, a breechcloth, and various beaded accessories, such as belt, armbands, cuffs, and necklaces, as well as a flat eagle feather fan. Face paint is often employed in different styles derived from the designs of the dancer’s family or nation. 

The men’s Southern Traditional or Straight Dance comes from Oklahoma tribes. It is an understated style in which the dancer keeps a steady, flowing pace that is not interrupted with fancy moves or extra footwork. Many of the articles a Straight dancer wears are unique to his style and cannot be seen anywhere else. The regalia usually consist of a roach headdress or otter-skin turban, a headband of white handkerchief rolled up and knotted on the forehead, an otter-tail or broadcloth trailer decorated with beadwork, ribbonwork, or silver or brass conchos, a ribbon shirt, a vest, breechcloth and leggings, beaded moccasins, fingerwoven sashes, and bandoliers worn from each shoulder, crossing the chest. The dancer always carries a fan (loose, flat or wing), and often a dance staff that is shorter and thinner than in other dance styles.

The Grass dancer wears a yoke and breechcloth fringed with rows of brightly colored or white yarn, which replaces the long prairie grass tucked into a belt in the old Omaha dance. He also wears a roach headdress with two upright eagle feathers in sockets that allow them to spin, rock and twirl with each movement. The dance is a very fluid and bendable style, in which the dancer tries to move his fringes in as many places as possible at once. Movements consist of many sways, dips and sliding steps, as if flattening the tall grass to make a new camp site, one of the legendary purposes of the dance. It is also said to reflect the need for balance in life: each movement danced on one side must be repeated on the other. The dancer keeps his head moving side to side or up and down with the beat of the drum, nodding quickly several times to each beat, which keeps the roach crest feathers spinning, and must finish with both feet on the ground on the final beat.

The Fancy Dance is the most contest-oriented of the powwow dances, and thus also the most indicative of the latest fashion trends in the powwow world, both in motion and in regalia. It allows the dancer to demonstrate his athletic ability, stamina and originality. The freestyle footwork and flashy clothes are meant to make him stand out in a crowd. The dance features jumps, twirls, splits and back flips, and the dancer must follow the changing beat of the drum and stop when the music does, with both feet on the ground. The signifying elements of the outfit are the two bustles of brightly colored feathers, ribbons, fluffs and horsehair, one on the waist and one at the back of the neck, and sometimes smaller bustles on each arm. The colors and patterns of the bustles are repeated on beaded arm- and headbands, harnesses, moccasins, yoke and breechcloth, side tabs, and other accessories. A roach headdress trimmed with colored horsehair features two upright eagle feathers decorated with plumes and reflective tape, in a rocker spreader designed to keep them either spinning or rocking. Angora anklets and sleigh or hawk bells just below the knee complete the outfit, and a dance stick decorated with ribbons or feathers.

Women’s traditional dances also require enormous stamina, concentration and grace. The movements are very focused. The feet move in time with the drum and never completely lift off the ground. The dancer has to stay in perfect rhythm with the drum, stepping lightly, slightly bobbing up and down, and allowing the fringes of the dress and shawl to sway like the prairie grass.

Northern Traditional dancers may wear one of two styles of regalia: buckskin or cloth. A well-dressed Buckskin dancer usually dresses from the feet up: she begins with beaded knee moccasins of white buckskin tied just below the knee, followed by a long white buckskin skirt with a cotton tank attached at the waist, and a fully beaded buckskin yoke with long strips hanging down below the knees. Sometimes a breastplate will be worn over the dress. A choker or a neckerchief is worn around the neck. Hair can be worn loose or braided, with a single feather attached in the back with beaded clips or barrettes. Dancers carry a fringed shawl folded over one arm and an eagle feather fan, as well as a beaded awl and knife case on the belt. The beautiful beadwork is usually made in colors and patterns reflecting tribal affiliations.

The other style is a cloth (velvet or wool) dress decorated with elk teeth, cowrie shells, or dentalium shells, complete with leggings and moccasins, fan and shawl, and many other accessories of the Buckskin dancer.

The Southern Traditional Dance comes from Oklahoma tribes, and incorporates Southeastern dance styles. It is slow and graceful, the dancer swaying side to side, her feet barely touching the ground, bending forward from the waist at specific beats. The outfit reflects the constant intertwining of white and Native cultures as the settlers crossed the Plains. One type of the Southern Traditional outfit is the Southeastern-style long tiered dress, called the Cherokee tear dress, which is often complemented by a fringed shawl matching the dress in its patterns.

The Southern Plains style outfit features a tee-dress over a full slip, made of any fabric suitable to one’s region or climate. The apron worn above the dress wraps around the waist and overlaps to the left. A concho belt[10] keeps it in place. Over the shoulders, a breastplate is secured by ribbons, and around the neck a neckerchief is usually worn. Knee-high boot moccasins, beaded or plain, complete the look.

A third type is the Woodlands/Prairie style outfit characterized by a wool wrap skirt with elaborate ribbonwork or beading, center-seam moccasins without leggings, and a long decorated fabric drop attached at the back of the neck. Most dancers carry a fringed shawl on their left arm, a purse, and a fan.