chazziff

I was just wondering ... what are pow wows like in your neck of the woods? How large are they? Mostly indoor or outdoor? Or are they mostly "traditional" or "contest"? What are the prize structure? Lots of specials? Good drums all the time or just a few times? Number of drums during the pw?Lots of visitors?

I was just figuring that the pow wows have to be different all over this continent.

Around these parts (central sask and alberta) most are put on by each first nation/reserve as an annual event - hardly any family/group pws. Most are contest with adults/golden age first place running from $1000 - 1200 (CDN) and teens $300 - 500 during the summer. There are a few during the winter months - those are usually traditional. With the number of dancers coming in at around 300 - 500.

Most are outdoor and if it gets rained out some move into the nearest town (if they have an arena or hockey rink) or the first nation has their own.

As for the drums - some of the big name drums are from around this area like blackstone, big bear, northern cree, wild horse and so on and so on. There are usually around 15 - 20 drums every weekend. With the drum contest running around $2500 - 5000 for first.

Some pow wows have lots of specials others not even one - outgoing princess, tiny tot initiations, memorials etc.

There are a few Americans that come up every year and a few new ones every year who become "regulars."

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badmaninc

On Vancouver Island where I live they are on the small side. My family puts on an annual powwow. The adults are traditional so they don't contest on the weekend. Although sometimes there are specials. This summer one of my uncles is having a three generation women's team traditional special. A grandmother, daughter and granddaughter or mother daughter, grandaunt or some combination are put into teams and they have their own team dance special. The winning team will get $1,000.00 Another uncle is having a men's traditional special. Think its for 500 and a bustle. Another cousin is having a men's all around for 5-3-2. We have competition for the Teens and Juniors. We also have a drum contest but it is for small prize money. This year I am also having two junior specials. One a girls fancy shawl and the other is a boys grass. My kids have moved to the Teen categories. Our powwow only gets like 75-85 dancers and usually 5-6 drums max. Although one year we had 16 drums. Mystic River showed up too, that was cool. It was during the North American Indigenous Games. Probably more dancers this year cause we will be having some specials. We also try to feed the people every morning and at least one other meal throughout the weekend. We are sort of a hybrid powwow. Both traditional and contest. It is our 12th annual and it is always held the Long weekend in August. There are 3 other powwows on the Island each year as well.

There is one the following weekend after our powwow. Usually the host drum is a well known drum. Blacklodge, Dine Nation Jrs., Pipestone Creek, Cathedral Lakes have all been host drum in the past. They have good prize money for the adult categories, I think it pays 5-3-2. The junior categories are combined for two contests. One for the boys and one for the girls.

There are two other ones in a nearby city. Sometimes they have big name drums be host. One year Northern Cree and then next it was High Noon. There powwow committees are sometimes in a state of flux but I have had fun there.

There is a small powwow on Newyear's eve. Hope that is enough for you.

chazziff

i always wondered what pws were like in different places...been to pws in washington state (celilo, simnasho, white swan for example), oklahoma (apache, lawton, shawnee), montana (bozeman (?), rocky boy) , idaho (pullman), tenessee, one in toronto, arizona, of course gatherings and schemitzun - some of them they are "small" compared to ones around here but "big" for their area.

We hardly ever get american drums up here except when they are host - mostly mystic river and southern cree. but i would like to see more of them - ayez!! gettin kinda sic of seeing the ones here..jks!!

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