Dancers dressed in traditional, colorful regalia transformed Free Speech Plaza into a powwow Wednesday afternoon as they shared their Native American culture with the University community who stopped to watch the spectacle.
“It’s shared by everybody,” said Tyler Greymountain, member of the Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation located in Utah. Greymountain shared the chants, drum beats and stories associated with each dance.
“It doesn’t pertain to one certain tribe — it’s shared amongst all the Indian people, and I think all the tribes have their own ceremony stuff that they keep to themselves, but powwow is pretty much for everybody.”
Sponsored by the Native American Student Association, or NASA, 11 dancers performed their Grand Entry and demonstrated four dance styles twice in approximately two hours.
Greymountain said most of the dancers were from the Coushatta tribe of Louisiana, including digital art junior Skye Byrd, vice president of NASA.
Oglala Lakota Tribe and NASA member Jaclyn Wagers, mass communication freshman, performed in a Jingle Dress with three other women. The story behind the dress is that a medicine man was visited by a spirit in his dreams who told him to make a dress with 365 cones to represent each dayear in order to heal his ailing granddaughter.
More than 40 students watched the first round of demonstrations, and a small gathering was present for the second instance. Some students, like computer science senior Jacob Diaz, stayed to watch both.
Diaz heard about the dances a week before and decided to watch the performance. He said the performances were “rhythmic,” and he was impressed with their dedication to the details of their regalia.
“I respect any kind of dedication, really,” Diaz said, “Just looking at the Jingle Dress, I don’t know how long that took.”
NASA is inviting dancers to perform the Gourd Dance at 12 p.m. April 13 at the LSU Natatorium Field. Admission is free, and Greymountain expressed his willingness to attend, should NASA invite him.
“Powwows happen nationwide here in the U.S. and Canada. Every weekend, you have something during the weekdays,” Greymountain said, “It’s big, but down here in the South, it’s not so much as big as what it would be up North or out West.”
