Powwows are important cultural events for Indigenous tribes, and a notable one is coming to UNLV this weekend, called Powwow for the Planet.
Powwows stem from cultural preservation practices that tribes adopted when faced with colonization. They include traditional dances, with regalia personalized to dancers and tribes. To kick off the ceremony on Saturday, there will be a grand entry at noon where they bring in the colors and an eagle staff with the powwow royalty.
This year the Powwow for the Planet adds a drumming contest to the ceremony as the previous powwows focused primarily on community. But spectators can expect to see a wide array of traditional dances as tribal members from across the nation will participate in a contest for a piece of the prize money.
"We also have intertribals and that's where spectators can come down into the circle, " says Paloma Marcos, the Head Woman Dancer of the Powwow and a UNLV Native American Student Association (NASA) member. "Walk, dance, feel that drum and that medicine and participate in it."
The goal of this year’s Powwow for the Planet is to bring awareness of national monuments in Nevada. Avi Kwa Ame near Laughlin and Gold Butte, northeast of Las Vegas, are two existing monuments that are on regional tribes’ ancestral lands.
Two more are being proposed: the 32,000-acre East Las Vegas National Monument and the Bahsahwahbee National Monument in White Pine County. Powwow organizers also want to raise awareness of the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area.
For a landmark like the Bahsahwahbee National Monument, where three massacres took place on the western Shoshone people, tribal members still hold the site near to their hearts.
"It's also particularly an important sight because of the junipers that grow there," says Analiesa Delgado, a UNLV PhD candidate for Native American studies. "It's very rare for those junipers to actually grow in this area. There have been accounts of elders speaking about these three massacres happened there that their ancestors bodies are the ones that fertilize these trees."
The East Las Vegas Monument and the Red Rock National Conservation Area are important to the southern Paiute people, which are integral to cultural practices and ceremonies. These are sites that tribal members can go and reconnect with their culture and ancestors.
Guests: Paloma Marcos, head woman dancer of the powwow and member, UNLV Native American Student Association; Analiesa Delgado, PhD candidate, Native American studies
