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Family atmosphere attracts Native dancers to powwow
By Anthony McConnell
This document was published online on Monday, June 23, 2008
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| The colorful assembly of young Native American dancers gather during the grand entry portion of the 27th annual Plains Indian Museum Powwow on Sunday at the Robbie Powwow Garden. (Photo by Ken Blackbird) |
Every summer for the last 28 years Danita Goodwill has attended about two dozen powwows.
“I started dancing when I was 5,” says Goodwill, now 33, a member of the Osage and Sac-Fox tribes of Oklahoma. “I've been doing this my whole life.
“It would be weird if I wasn't dancing,” she added. “It's a part of who I am. I'm so glad my parents were into this.”
Goodwill was one of more than 300 Plains Indian dancers who gathered Saturday and Sunday at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center's Robbie Powwow Garden for the 27th annual Plains Indian Museum Powwow. The dancers were joined by 10 drum groups and many vendors.
This was the first time Goodwill had attended the powwow in Cody and says she'll return next year. It's the familial atmosphere that draws her to travel across the country to various events.
“We just came from a celebration in California,” said Goodwill. “I know many of the people here.
“That is what's so great about powwows,” she added. “I live in Montana, my parents live in Oklahoma and I can go to Minnesota and see them because they'll all be at the celebration.”
Goodwill got her start because her parents were dancers. The first style they tried her in was southern buckskin. But the five-year-old wasn't suited to the traditional dance style.
“When you learn to dance no one tells you to do this or don't do that,” she said. “I liked to hop around and that's not part of buckskin.”
It was, however, a characteristic of fancy shawl dancing.
“My parents got me a different dress and a shawl and I was a fancy shawl dancer,” Goodwill said. “Now I dance southern Buckskin again.”
When teaching children to dance she said it's better to adapt the dance to the child rather than the child to the dance.
Her costume features a white buckskin dress hand beaded with eagles and a hand-beaded crown.
“I told my husband I wanted a new dress and he said, ‘If you want it, all you have to do is make it,'” she recalled. “We did all the bead work ourselves. It took about a year and a half.”
The crown is a common feature of southern Plains Indians, but is not necessarily a sign of Native royalty, Goodwill said.
“All the little girls come up to me and ask if I'm a princess,” she said. “It's really sweet.”
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