Pow wow circuit

[darlington]

I visited crow, Cheyenne and ogalala Lakota pow wow at wakapamni in the late last century1999' question I would like to ask I have noticed why do the dancers from the tribes throughout the USA/ Canada all look the same..what I mean cultural identity in the style of clothing headwear for example crow male dancers wearing the style of woodland tribes ie the roach...whatever happened to crow way of headwear from way way back...at wakapamni I saw only a few traditional looking lakota men dressed as the way in old times, I know it's a celebrate of dance but the pow wow circuit makes all tribes look same......at northern Cheyenne I was introduced to a Cherokee and he had a full length plains war bonnet now I know they never dressed that way.....

[darlington]

Ps....I'm from Middlesbrough northnyorkshire England

[tkavanagh]

Darlington:

Perhaps it's because (1) there never were the kind of distinct "cultural identit[ies] ... from way way back" of the kind you are looking for; or (2) powwow is not timeless, but is contemporary, and as such requires that this year be different than last year.

Now, if you want 'different', go to an Oklahoma powwow. preferably Comanche Homecoming in mid-July. ;-)

[ladonna]

The pow-wow culture started in the 1910 to 1920 and it has its own culture and social norms. The pow-wow culture was a way to preserve some of the social dances and social way of life for tribes. The Native people dance according to the style of dance like grass dancer, Traditional dancers, Southern style, jingle dance just to name a few not their according to their tribal nations, of course if you know about the different cultures you can pick out the different style of bead work; the color of the bead work and the style of the dress then you can tell which nation they come from.
When attend a pow-wow remember this is a social dance and that we have different dances that happen within the tribes that are more cultural dances which are not attend buy tourist.
Plus we are modern people.

[darlington]

Thankyou for replying...now I understand..as an outsider I just wondered why a cherokee was dressed like a northern plains