Powwow
A powwow (also pow wow or pow-wow) is a gathering with dances held by many Native American and First Nations communities. Powwows today are an opportunity for Indigenous people to socialize, dance, sing, and honor their cultures. Powwows may be private or public, indoors or outdoors. Dancing events can be competitive with monetary prizes. Powwows vary in length from single-day to weeklong events.
This article is about Native American/First Nations gatherings. For other uses, see Powwow (disambiguation).In mainstream American culture, such as 20th-century Western movies or by military personnel, the term powwow was used to refer to any type of meeting. This usage is now considered by Indigenous Americans to be an offensive case of appropriation because of the cultural significance powwows hold.[1]
History[edit]
The word powwow is derived from the Narragansett word powwaw, meaning "spiritual leader".[2] The term has variants including Powaw, Pawaw, Powah, Pauwau and Pawau.[3] A number of tribes claim to have held the "first" pow wow.[4] Initially, public dances that most resemble what are now known as pow wows were most common in the Great Plains region of the United States during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a time when the United States government destroyed many Native communities in the hopes of acquiring land for economic exploitation.[4] In 1923, Charles H. Burke, Commissioner of Indian Affairs in the United States, passed legislation modeled on Circular 1665,[5] which he published in 1921, that limited the times of the year in which Native Americans could practice traditional dance, which he deemed as directly threatening the Christian religion.[6] However, many Native communities continued to gather together in secret to practice their cultures' dance and music, in defiance of this, and other legislation. By the mid-twentieth century, powwows were also being held in the Great Lakes region.[4]
