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SALT LAKE CITY — Powwows offer color, drumming and, for the non-Native American community, a peek into the culture of the original inhabitants of what is now the United States.
For those at the center of the activity, though — the dancers and the drummers, for instance, who typically come from a diverse array of tribes — they offer much more.
"When they come together, they're all hearing the drum; they're all following the drum," said Alan Barlow, executive director of the Urban Indian Center of Salt Lake. "And so it really is a unification and meeting of hearts and meeting of purpose before you go back out to whatever life has in front of you."
Spring is the traditional season for powwows, Barlow said, and the University of Utah's American Indian Resource Center is staging its annual powwow on Saturday with around 300 dancers in colorful regalia expected. It's free, with doors opening at 10 a.m. and the grand entry — when the varied participants formally take center stage — to begin at noon. It'll be held at the Jon Huntsman Center at 1825 S. Campus Drive on the U. campus.
The event, organized by the U.'s Native American population, allows the broader Salt Lake City-area community to see Native representation at the university. "It's a safe way to be involved and participate because it's open and welcome to anyone who is interested in attending," Tashina Barber, the resource center program manager and a member of the Navajo tribe, said in a U. story on the event.
Significantly, it's also a means of exposing Native American youth to the university and the possibility of pursuing post-secondary education. "We can celebrate our students and really create that sense of belonging for future students who want to pursue their educational dreams," Barber said.
This year's installment is dubbed the "Weaving Communities and Making Connections Powwow."
'A gathering of tribes'
The Urban Indian Center is helping sponsor Saturday's powwow, and Barlow said the purpose of such events has evolved in some ways, though the aim of promoting Native American unity remains. The Urban Indian Center assists American Indians along the Wasatch Front area with an array of social, health and other services.
In days of yore, powwows would be held to celebrate a positive turn of events — a good hunt, for instance. They would also be held between different tribes or the varied components of the same tribe as a show of unification, typically with the participants and tribe members the only spectators.
Modern powwows, Barlow said, serve as "a gathering of tribes," usually with multiple groups represented and individual participants trying to impress with their moves and skills. Spectators are typical, though they are expected to follow "powwow etiquette." Among other things, those watching should stand respectfully during the grand entry and other special songs and shouldn't touch dancers' regalia. If feathers fall off an outfit, don't pick them up. Rather, find a powwow staffer to help.
Barlow, a Navajo who grew up in Montezuma Creek in San Juan County, maintains that powwows these days are as important as ever in the Native American community. In fact, with the spread of tribes to their own defined lands and reservations across the country, the import of powwows in bringing the far-flung community together has "intensified," he maintains. Moreover, with 60%-70% of Native Americans now living in "urban" areas, off tribal lands and reservations, powwows help them maintain their connection with the community.
"There's this migration from rural reservations to areas with more opportunity, more education. And when that happens, you're leaving the heart of your culture," he said. A powwow, he went on, "is one of the few ways that you can kind of feel that kinship."
What powwows mean to individual participants is personal and runs the gamut.
"For some people, it's very spiritual. For other individuals, it really is a fun thing to go and do," he said. "For others, they're just coming to meet friends. They're just coming to meet people."
Other sponsors of Saturday's powwow include Salt Lake Community College and the Utah Division of Indian Affairs. Weber State University in Ogden held a powwow on March 26.
