Post by Moon Seeker on Aug 4, 2009 12:12:47 GMT -5
Preservation of Native American culture at Thunderbird American Indian Mid-summer Powwow
By John Lauinger
Daily News Staff Writer
Tuesday, August 4th 2009, 4:00 AM
They came from all across the land, hundreds of people traveling hundreds and even thousands of miles for a common cause - to preserve Native American culture.
The Queens County Farm Museum recently hosted the Thunderbird American Indian Mid-summer Powwow, an intertribal gathering dedicated to celebrating the rich traditions of Native American music and dance.
"This is how we keep our culture alive and how we identify with it," said Louis Mofsie, director of the New York-based Thunderbird American Indian Dancers, which organized the annual event.
The three-day powwow, held July 24 to 26, drew roughly 500 participants, including members of tribes such as the Navajo, Apache, Hopi, Iroquois, Sioux, Cherokee and Blackfoot.
The long-running event is significant, Mofsie said, because it is held in New York City, far from the modern-day roots of most tribes.
"There are a lot of these gatherings that go on out West, but then as you come east, there are fewer and fewer," he said.
The powwow featured dance competitions in which 200 people wore traditional dress and demonstrated dances developed many centuries ago.
There were traditional dances for men and women, as well as ones with more unique names, like "shawl dance" and "fancy dance." Each dance has its own history, which narrators related to those in attendance, Mofsie said.
For example, dancers performed the "grass dance," which was developed by tribes that followed buffalo herds on the Great Plains, Mofsie said. When the time came to break camp, scores of dancers, sometimes as many as 200 people, would set out ahead of the tribe to dance at the new camp site.
"What they were doing was basically taking their feet and crushing down the tall grass so that they would have a nice area for the camp," Mofsie said. "Three or four hundred years ago, they didn't have lawn mowers."
www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/queens/2009/08/04/2009-08-04_native_american_culture.html
By John Lauinger
Daily News Staff Writer
Tuesday, August 4th 2009, 4:00 AM
They came from all across the land, hundreds of people traveling hundreds and even thousands of miles for a common cause - to preserve Native American culture.
The Queens County Farm Museum recently hosted the Thunderbird American Indian Mid-summer Powwow, an intertribal gathering dedicated to celebrating the rich traditions of Native American music and dance.
"This is how we keep our culture alive and how we identify with it," said Louis Mofsie, director of the New York-based Thunderbird American Indian Dancers, which organized the annual event.
The three-day powwow, held July 24 to 26, drew roughly 500 participants, including members of tribes such as the Navajo, Apache, Hopi, Iroquois, Sioux, Cherokee and Blackfoot.
The long-running event is significant, Mofsie said, because it is held in New York City, far from the modern-day roots of most tribes.
"There are a lot of these gatherings that go on out West, but then as you come east, there are fewer and fewer," he said.
The powwow featured dance competitions in which 200 people wore traditional dress and demonstrated dances developed many centuries ago.
There were traditional dances for men and women, as well as ones with more unique names, like "shawl dance" and "fancy dance." Each dance has its own history, which narrators related to those in attendance, Mofsie said.
For example, dancers performed the "grass dance," which was developed by tribes that followed buffalo herds on the Great Plains, Mofsie said. When the time came to break camp, scores of dancers, sometimes as many as 200 people, would set out ahead of the tribe to dance at the new camp site.
"What they were doing was basically taking their feet and crushing down the tall grass so that they would have a nice area for the camp," Mofsie said. "Three or four hundred years ago, they didn't have lawn mowers."
www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/queens/2009/08/04/2009-08-04_native_american_culture.html