Pow Wow dance in Europe, is this against Native traditions?

[GoggenGH]

I was on a Pow Wow dance in the country I live, France, but I have a feeling that some of you are against this activity.
Is this so?
Do you consider this kind of Pow Wow as something positive for your culture, or are you against it?
Is it just a way to gain money on your traditions?
To be more direct, do you consider the persons taking part in this dance as persons having adapted the white mans style of life, where money make a big part?

[wanjica_the_one]

There are some who have a good heart when they powwow in Europe then there are those that run around with turkey feathers.

[GoggenGH]

So if the person is doing a Pow Wow with a good heart, it is okay,
even if it's done in a white man's land and for the white man?

[wanjica_the_one]

So if the person is doing a Pow Wow with a good heart, it is okay,
even if it's done in a white man's land and for the white man?

powwows are a social activity. everyone is invited. it doesn't matter on who's land it happens to be on.

[WhiteWolf89]

powwows are a social activity. everyone is invited. it doesn't matter on who's land it happens to be on.

True. Whenever I go to Pow-Wows, there are plenty of white people there. It's a good way of spreading culture.

[Grits & Beans]

if i ever go to europe it won't be to pow wow. i'd drink tea and beer in london. and i would pass out shaving razors to the women in france. and i would pass out toothbrushes to the british. i would publicly and personally thank the white people for coming over to our country. which started out really f***ed up, but it is kinda good for us ndns now.


a little ndn humor for you my norwegian friend lol

[NancyJo]

"I was on a Pow Wow dance in the country I live, France, but I have a feeling that some of you are against this activity.
Is this so?" Pretty much, yes.......but I don't imagine my opinion is going to stop it.

"Do you consider this kind of Pow Wow as something positive for your culture, or are you against it? " I am against it......because, frankly.....where are the Indians at? If its to benefit someone's culture, I would think that culture would need to be involved, don't you?

"Is it just a way to gain money on your traditions?" Our pow wow's.....no. Your pow wows, if you're charging money for people to watch you to represent our culture, than its not good........your making money on our traditions.

"To be more direct, do you consider the persons taking part in this dance as persons having adapted the white mans style of life, where money make a big part?" Depends.........are you charging people money to watch you represent our culture and are you a white man doing that???

[BigChef]

and i would pass out shaving razors to the women in france. and i would pass out toothbrushes to the british. .

Gaawwww lmao

[injunboy]

plz post some pictures in this thread for us to see lol

[WhiteWolf89]

Wait, I think I missed something. Are these white people dancing and dressing up as Indians, or are these Native Indians in Europe who are Pow-Wowing

[OLChemist]

I was on a Pow Wow dance in the country I live, France, but I have a feeling that some of you are against this activity.
Is this so?

That depends. Was the powwow run by Indians or French people?

The problem I have is appropriation. There are non-Indian people who dance, who remember that they are guests in the culture. Then there are those who study and become self-proclaimed experts. They see themselves as have attained a level of cultural expertise where they can displace us by interpreting and enacting our cultures. They ultimately feel they are more authentic than we are -- usually on the basis of mastery of the skills of our past material culture. They will even dismiss the opinions of modern Indian people as the ramblings of misguided fools ignorant of their own culture. Conveniently, they forget that it isn't their culture to interpret or live.

That is what I have problems with. The people who feel that they have read a few books, so they can take up our traditions and then tell us how it should be done, because they feel they know better some romanticized version of our past.

Do you consider this kind of Pow Wow as something positive for your culture, or are you against it?
Is it just a way to gain money on your traditions?

A hobbyist powwow has nothing to do with my culture. It about a bunch of people escaping white guilt by enacting their own "Man Called Horse" or "Dances with Wolves" fantasies.

Is it just a way to gain money on your traditions?

In Native communities many powwows are fund raisers for various causes and organizations.

To be more direct, do you consider the persons taking part in this dance as persons having adapted the white mans style of life, where money make a big part?

"...He promised/ that life would go on as usual,/that treaties would be signed and everyone --/man woman and child -- would be inoculated/ against a world in which we had no part,/a world of money promise and disease."

The Man From Washington by James Welch from Riding the Earthboy 40

We're modern people money is part of our lives. Making money is necessary. Contest dancers are our professional athletes. Don't romanticizes us out of modernity.

[NancyJo]

"So if the person is doing a Pow Wow with a good heart, it is okay,
even if it's done in a white man's land and for the white man?"

If this is how you are doing it, then it's not good.

If your saying this in reference to our pow wows, then remember we are indigineous people living in our own land. Our pow wows are social events amongst our own people. Yes, all people are invited...........but the pow wow is a social gathering for Indian people.

[n8v_singer 4_life]

Somewhere??

I remember reading somewhere that some of the male Native performers that traveled with the "Buffalo Bill Wild West Show" around Europe ended up having and leaving illegitimate children over there.

I also remember seeing a story on it on TV quite a while ago about how some of the performers might have stayed over there and/or went back after the tour.

Anyway, I'll have to look it up. Because I know there was something about this and also the people that pow-wow in Germany are either children or direct decendents of the half-breed's that were left behind. So to speak....

Either way, I guess I'm not a big fan of it. In most cases it is simply a white person "acting/pretending/emulating" to be a Native American/American Indian dancer. Some are making big money at it, which I feel is also wrong. Not only that, most non-Native's then tend to think these types know more about our culture than us! I won't get started here.....

[GoggenGH]

(To delete!! Done by error.)

[GoggenGH]

(To delete!! Done by error.)