Originally Posted by Gledanh Zhinga

I remember the "parade in" at Ponca in the 50's. The drum was already in the center but the dancers had an entry where the veteran's groups were ID'd by the announcers (Dana Knight and Logan Deloge). There were many women's groups at that time, especially war mothers, many of whom had their shawls with club insignias. After parade in, the round dances started, and the women dominated. Many of the women had beaded high heeled shoes. The parade in was more tribal specific at that time, although dancers from other tribes were present at the powwow, of course.

The later, larger grand entries grew because of the point system.

Originally Posted by Furiously-Fancy

Here's a skewed and somewhat unorthdox approach......inform dancers that the committee reserves the right to award points at anytime throughout the pow-wow, then advertise Friday night as "social dancing"-----and award points to the die-hards and pleasure dancers who show up Friday night.