As the drum started beating, the dancing began. Men and women dressed in bright colors, feathers and beads – their regalia, sacred Native American attire – moved and sang to celebrate their culture and community.
That’s what a powwow is all about, said Willow Green. Year after year, it’s where people gather as family.
“We pass on our traditions, our beliefs,” Green said. “We get together, we dance together, we feast together. It’s a way of life that we love.”
Green’s daughter, Liz Charlebois, attended her first powwow at age 10. She didn’t have a choice.
“This is what we do. This is how I made my living,” Green said. “It’s not just a weekend thing. You know each other’s kids, you know each other’s families.”
Now Charlebois is the education director for Mt. Kearsarge Indian Museum in Warner, the site of Saturday’s powwow. This year marks the 17th annual event and the museum’s 25th anniversary.
In addition to music and dancing, the powwow featured storytelling, museum tours and a number of vendors selling food and Native American crafts, such as beaded jewelry, quilts and accessories. From May to October in the New England area, there is a powwow almost every weekend, Charlebois said. That’s how the singers, dancers and vendors all get to know each other.
It’s a social event, she added, meant to be a time for people to catch up and foster community.
“It’s a chance for Native people to celebrate being Native,” she said.
Ernie Proper of Epping said he can go a year without running into friends at a powwow – but when he sees them again, it’s like no time has passed.
“That’s kind of the fun part – reconnecting with people face-to-face, instead of on Facebook or social media,” he said. “It’s a time to forget all the work, all the money. It’s a time to come in here and refocus on people – as in everyone, not just native people.”
Proper is the lead singer of Black Thunder Singers. He and his band formed one of the four “drums” – a group of traditional Native American singers and dancers – invited to the Warner powwow.
“Most dancers have reasons they dance, just like most singers have reasons they sing,” he said. “It’s just a different way of connecting to one another, to nature, to the creator of what we’re doing.”
The Abenaki tribe was the largest in the New Hampshire region, but it is not recognized by the state. Proper said this is because they did not receive any land grants from the U.S. government.
The Warner powwow will continue today at the Mt. Kearsage Indian Museum. It’s an inter-tribal event, so anyone can dance, shop, eat or watch, Proper said. The powwow community will be out there rain or shine. All they ask is that people come with respect.
“I never thought I’d be doing this with my life,” Green said. “But now I can’t imagine doing anything else.”
(Katie Galioto can be reached at 369-3302, kgalioto@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @katiegalioto.)