As the population of Native American students at the University of Idaho began to grow, they recognized the need for a celebration of their culture.
Sydel Samuels, director of the Native American Center, said that”s what makes the 17th annual Tutxinmepu Powwow so special – that it was not only started by students, but that it also continues to be student-run to this day.
Kelly Weaver | Courtesy
Richard Rock participates in the Native American Student Association Tutxinmepu Pow Wow in 2010.
“Our powwow is particularly important because it was started by student associations,” Samuels said. “Students said, “This is what we want to have, how do we get it going?””
The 17th annual Tutxinmepu Powwow will begin at 2 p.m. Saturday and will continue at 1 p.m. Sunday in the Kibbie Dome. The two-day event is free and open to the public. Access to the Kibbie Dome will be allowed through the west entrance.
Lindsey Schneider, the Native American Center program coordinator, said the event, which is organized by students and funded by student fundraisers, includes music, dancing, concessions and other vendors.
Each powwow welcomes a host drum, Head Man and Head Woman and Master of Ceremony, or MC, who are invited to the event by students. This year”s powwow features The Boyz as the host drum, Quincy Ellenwood and Acosia RedElk as Head Man and Head Woman and Shonto Pete as Master of Ceremony.
“The students make a lot of the decisions, like the drum they want to be the host drum and the folks we have who come in as head staff,” Schneider said.
In addition to fundraising and inviting performers to campus, Schneider said the students also manage all aspects of the event throughout the weekend.
“They help at the powwow, Vandal Nation, our student drum, is drumming the whole time and you have students running around checking on the MC and seeing if there”s any help needed in the kitchen,” Schneider said. “They”re helping with registration, getting people checked in, and with the scoring and judging and keeping track of all that – from beginning to end, they”re pretty involved.”
UI freshman Lucas Thomas helped organize the powwow for the first time this year. Thomas said the planning process involved many meetings and a great deal of coordination.
“We have meetings every few Wednesdays and we discuss about fundraising and other things that go along with putting on the powwow,” Thomas said.
Despite the extensive planning that goes into the event, Thomas said fundraising has been the most challenging part.
While raising the money to host the event at the Kibbie Dome posed a new challenge, Schneider said the change in venue has been worth it.
In previous years, the powwow was held in the Memorial Gym and the Moscow Junior High School. Now, Schneider said the event is too large to hold anywhere other than a larger arena.
“We estimate last year we had about 500 attendees. We had about 130 folks who registered as dancers and I think we had 10 or 11 drums, which is eight people who are drumming,” Schneider said. “It”s a pretty big event.”
Unlike tribal ceremonies, Samuels said the purpose of a powwow is to celebrate culture and community connections.
“Powwows are not so much a ceremony, but a celebration. They do incorporate our traditions and ceremonies within, as we honor the songs, drum, and those respected ways of those before us,” Samuels said. “Tribes all around the U.S. and Canada have powwows and many colleges as well, this is to create that feeling of connectedness for our native students to their culture.”
Schneider said the Tutxinmepu Powwow is just that – a place to celebrate culture and community. She said it also provides students and community members the chance to build a relationship with UI”s native community.
“I think it”s important for students and community members who don”t know as much about the native community or aren”t as familiar with that,” Schneider said. “I think the powwow is a really good place for them to start, sort of a jumping-off point.”
Corrin Bond can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @CorrBond