Powwow

Smile, you’re on Candid Camera, said the world to the Moon. As a thin crescent, with Saturn and Venus both in the right place, we should have seen a big smiley face in the sky just a bit before sunrise. Not me. I got up in time, the sky was clear but I couldn’t see through the Sandia mountains to the east. So I crawled back into my pit.

Liesel, me, Gabe, Elizabeth (Gabe’s daughter who I met for the first time today), Buzz, Lisa, Hannah and Leslie: we all visited Frontier for breakfast, a very popular eating spot here in Albuquerque. It’s a big place too, it was quite a challenge carrying the meals from where they were served up to where we were sitting.

There were far too many interesting things to take pictures of in here, even though the main point of our visit was to eat breakfast. Which was very good, actually.

I assume the weapon is real and I was glad to see it glued to the wall so well.

The rest of the day, we spent at The Gathering of Nations, north America’s biggest Powwow. It was a beautiful day, and even apart from the performances, it was fun to watch people changing into their various tribal outfits, whether in the car park, or in the queue to get into the venue, or later on, on-site. It was a very colourful display.

Buzz, Leslie and Lisa went into the indoor arena and reserved seats for the rest of us while we wandered around, admiring the various food offerings and watching people.

In a couple of the buildings, more jewellery and artwork was on display and for sale. Again, we wanted to buy more than we could afford, or store. The different Indian nations each have their own style, and I think, slowly, we’re beginning to pick them out.

Liesel did buy some earrings, made by an Alaskan Athabascan. I bought a print of a painting that caught my eye from across the room.

We found our family inside the Tingley Coliseum in good time for the Drum Roll Call and the Grand Entry of Dancers. The auditorium seats over 11,000 people and it was pretty full. A number of drum groups were located around the outside of the floor, they woke us up with their very loud rhythms.

We witnessed Elders, Chiefs and other Dignitaries lead the parade, with dancers from the many tribes joining the throng in the arena, dancing round until the whole floor was covered. It was a very colourful sight, exuberant and quite loud. I went as far as tapping a foot and trying to drum out the rhythms on my leg.

I took several picture like this during the day. You can see how busy the place was, but it’s hard to focus on any one individual, so here are a few of those:

Liesel and I went outside for a quick walk and found lunch, an Indian taco in my case, and very tasty it was, too. When Liesel returned to her seat indoors, I found some shade to sit in and eat while I listened to a band, Sandia Sons, performing a couple of songs.

One of the main events at the Powwow is to select Miss Indian Nation 2025-26. The incumbent for 2024-25, Kassie John, performed a dance for us, very nimble footwork.

There were of course a few speeches, all uplifting and positive, apart from one lady who went on and on losing everyone’s attention: this event wasn’t supposed to be about her and her personal religious beliefs.

Some of the performers had cool names: Sharpshoort Singers, from Saskatchewan; Iron Bear; Albert Nicotine; Dark Canyon, although didn’t he used to be a Musketeer?

Outside again, and Liesel commented that she’d forgotten to bring her hat. Let’s buy a new one, then, I suggested. So she did.

I get the impression that Liesel’s not as fond of it as I am, but at least it will keep the Sun off, to a certain extent.

By now, Liesel and I were on our own. Everyone else in our group had gone home. They don’t know what they were missing.

Near to the place where we found this hat, we saw badger with feet, grey fox, Arctic fox, coyote with feet, river otter, dyed black coyote and silver fox. No, not a display of local, wild animals, but a selection of fur coats up for sale. Well, I hope they’ve all still got fleas.

Back outside, we lined up with thousands of other people for the next event, The Traditional Horse and Rider Parade. Here are some of the runners and riders:

Back inside for one more session, I realised that at least one of the MCs reminded me of the DJ who appears at the beginning of The Carpenters’ song Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft, just a bit over-excited.

One of them got the audience to perform what can only now be referred to as a New Mexican Wave. When the folks to your right stand up, arms in the air, woohooing, it’s your turn to do the same. And so this wave goes round and round forever, well, four times on this occasion.

The Sacred Eagle staff was carried by an important representative from the Pawnee nation, but he couldn’t get far without being closely pursued by the paparazzi.

To our ears, many of the songs sounded the same but the rhythms of the drums kept up the overall sense of excitement.

At one point, relations of the performers were invited to join them on the dance floor, and then, so were we, the rest of the audience. I thought there was no need for me to be stomping on other people’s feet, so I stayed seated. There came a time when Liesel and I both felt we were fully saturated in Indian culture, and it was time to go back home.

The event has been run continously, apart from a couple of years for Covid, and this was the 42nd Annual World Celebration. When invited, a few people in the audience claimed to have been to every one, so far. Well, this was our first and what a fun, educational and entertaining day it was too. Not so say,exhausting. Thanks to Buzz for sorting out the tickets for us.

The next day was a day of rest, of writing, reading and relaxation, the alternative three Rs. I caught up a bit with emails, Liesel caught up on a bit of TV.