Dressed in a south-west-style dress made with family-made family photos, Kylie Saal, 21, arrived early in Balboa Powwow on Saturday with her parents to get a shaded place with a magnificent view of the arena.
There, with the help of her mother, the student of the UC San Diego applied the final touch to her tribal insignia and her hair – the latter braided, banded and decorated with real wigs of otters – in anticipation of the events of the day.
“I have always been to Powwows, as long as I remember. (My parents) have always taken me, ”said Saal, whose family is Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes. “We are here to dance.”
More specifically, Saal was there to dance in the traditional female style of the South as part of the great entry and the intertribal dance sessions which followed. The large entry is the Powwow star ceremony procession where groups of dancers, arranged specificly and accompanied by battery, follow the carrier of the colors and Eagle in the arena and form a large circle.
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The dancers enter the arena during the large entry of the 37th power Balboa Park annual WOW. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
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The dancers enter the arena during the large entry of the 37th power Balboa Park annual WOW. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
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Now in its 37th year, the Balboa Park Powwow is a showcase of traditional Native American signature and dance. The Chéri community rally takes control of the lawn just west of Park Boulevard and south of the Way presidents, this year with 45 craft vendors and eight food sellers who line the land.
The heart of the Powwow is the arena, a circular area surrounded by pop-up tents, portable stands and spectators. Here, singers, dancers and winners, the most dressed in traditional tribal outfits or traditional tribe and a few bare feet, occur throughout the day.
Saturday’s event began with kumeyaay bird singers interpreting spiritual songs, accompanied by Rattles, which were described as having been transmitted from generation to generation. The song was followed by Gourd Dancing, a male dance that comes from the Kiowa tribe and begins with sweetness and slow but which resumed rhythm and beat more than an hour.
The large entrance came afterwards. Then, unique to this year’s Powwow, a ceremony honoring the military.
“My favorite element is the element of unity and happiness and joy, mixed with spirituality,” said Randy Pico, master of the event.
Pico, 64, is Luiseño and grew up in the Indian reserve of Pechanga. He now lives in Liverpool and went to the Powwow to find family members.
“You will see a lot of tribes and groups represented here … When you see them all dance in the arena and support each other, and hear these songs go to the Creator. It’s just a nice thing,” he said.
The Balboa Park Powwow is organized by the San Diego American Indian Health Center, a non -profit organization that provides medical, dental and behavioral health care services to all the San Diegans of its establishment Bankers Hill, and uses a mobile medical unit that travels to the city. The organization intervened to put the Powwow of the Balboa Park 11 years ago, in part, due to the appreciation of their service by the president of the chairman of the board of directors.
“I grew up in Oklahoma in the 1950s, and I still remember very well these power-wows to which we went when I was a child,” said Brim.
The organizers expect between 2,000 and 3,000 people to attend a part of the two -day affair, which continues on Sunday at 10:00 am
Originally published:
California Daily Newspapers
