For Natives in the military and others with good advice

[chirapachegurl]

I was wondering if there are any of you who are in the military and are still able to go to all the powwows that you want to attend. I've been in the military now for a little over 2 years and i find it hard to go to powwows that are out of state. The mentality around here is, "Country first then family", really messed up but that's the way it is. I am a single mom and i am on a very tight budget, so i was wondering if any of you found a way to be able to be in the military and still go to powwows?

[Ndnsoldierboy]

you signed the contract, you do the time...this isn't about you...its about the country you are sworn to defend...if you can't handle the job, then find another line of work.
I don't go to many powwows since I signed up back in the 1980's...You have to give up somethings in life...and this is one of them...going to powwows. I used to go to powwows alot before I joined, but not much anymore...

[chirapachegurl]

don't get me wrong i understand the whole "i signed the contract and so therefore my duty is to defend the country" concept but there are a lot of things that people still do when they did as a civilian and still do even with being in the military. For example going to concerts, hunting, going to church, go to disney land so i am just trying to see how i can balance my work with being able to go to powwows, and stay in touch with who i am and listen to the songs and dance and to be able to expose my daughter to powwows. i am not saying that i absolutely have to go to every single powwow possible, but like 3 or 4 a year would be fine.

[Joe's Dad]

Maybe you can find an ndn center close to where you are stationed. They may have a schedule of local powwows you can get to in a weekend. Or maybe you can use your leave when you want to travel a distance further than you can cover on a weekend.

If you don't mind putting down your location here, maybe somebody on here is from that area and can help you.


Now, if you are stationed in BFE, can't help you there.

[DANCINGEAGLE]

Maybe, just maybe, you can find other Natives on base that can help you out some. I know we used to drum a p/w at Ft. Lee, VA and used to run across alot of Soldiers that were Native. They would tell us how they really needed to come to the p/w. It was great to see the smiles on their faces.

[Ndnsoldierboy]

don't get me wrong i understand the whole "i signed the contract and so therefore my duty is to defend the country" concept but there are a lot of things that people still do when they did as a civilian and still do even with being in the military. For example going to concerts, hunting, going to church, go to disney land so i am just trying to see how i can balance my work with being able to go to powwows, and stay in touch with who i am and listen to the songs and dance and to be able to expose my daughter to powwows. i am not saying that i absolutely have to go to every single powwow possible, but like 3 or 4 a year would be fine.

Since your not infantry, you as are more privy to more powwows than I am in the infantry cause I deploy alot...mebbe you can meet more Ndns on your base who know about powwows, or even mebbe sing and / or dance like DANCINGEAGLE sez...good luck...but like I said, get another job of you can't handle it. Its not for everyone...

[chirapachegurl]

I am at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri. It's like an hour east of Kansas city. I've only ran into like people that say that they're like aunt's mother's brother's sister was like 1/16 cherokee and they don't know about powwows so I basically have to explain to them what it is. Leave is kind of hard for me to take because aside from my regular job for 2 weeks every other month I do honor guard where I perform honors for people who have served in the military. So I have had my share of sacrifices being a single mother and having to spend a lot of time away from my daughter, and to almost being deployed, and I am able to handle being in the military but since I am on stateside right now I don't see why not go to powwows. Getting into the military I knew that I would have to make sacrifices but just because I would like to go to powwows doesn't mean that I am all of a sudden trying to give up being in the military. I go above and beyond in my job and take my job very serious but parting myself from who I am shouldn't have to come into it. You need to balance your job with who you are to stay grounded. The town that the base is at is really small so there is no Indian center here, so if anyone is close to Kansas City, Missouri or St. Louis or somewhere north in Kansas let me know of any powwows or events going on. The Indian Center in Chicago had mother's day powwows, college gradguation powwows, powwows just because. It was great