Hundreds participate in Four Corners powwow to bring COVID-19 healing to affected tribes

TOWOAC, Colo. — The Ute Mountain Ute Tribe of Towaoc, Colorado, within the Four Corners area, hosted its annual Ute Mountain Casino powwow last week for the first time in two years, due to the COVID-19 virus significantly affecting native tribes and causing shutdowns on reservations throughout the nation.

Native Americans from Utah and all over came together for the Ute Mountain Powwow, Towaoc, Colorado, Aug. 20, 2022 | Photo by Nick Yamashita, St. George News

The participation in the event had nearly 600 dancers compete in the powwow, which started on Friday, Aug. 19, and ended on Sunday, Aug. 21, after midnight. Participants included dancers from the four local states of Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico. However, there were others who came from all around nationally and even internationally.

Reggie Lopez of the Weeminuche band of the Ute Nation of Indians, the director of the powwow and spiritual leader for the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, was joyous about the event’s success.

“We wanted to really bring healing to the people, and the dances performed here are for healing,” Lopez said. “In fact, the jingle dress dance is done to bring the spirit out to heal the body. That is what we wanted to do for our people and fellow tribes, heal them.”

People were smiling and laughing, and reconnections to family, extended family, and friends were done. The drums kept the beat going, and the dancers impressed the crowds.

The powwow: the celebration of healing

Powwows are divided into age groups and dance categories, along with grand entries and gourd dances to honor special guests. The native royalty is present as guests. This event had Jade Warren, Southern Utah University’s Miss Native American SUU present. Warren was crowned in Nov. 2021 in Cedar City.

Native Royalty, including Miss Native American SUU Jade Warren, in the Grand Entry at the Ute Mountain Powwow, Towaoc, Colorado, Aug. 20, 2022 | Photo by Nick Yamashita, St. George News

Participants are divided into age groups of tiny tots (under five years of age), youth (five-12 years of age), teen (13-17 years of age), adult (18-49 years of age), and golden age (50 and over years of age). Depending on the event, sometimes they divide the adult category into two categories, junior adult (18-34 years of age) and senior adult (35-49 years of age).

Participants are also divided into the types of dances they perform. For males, they are – fancy, grass, traditional, and prairie chicken. Females perform one of the following: fancy, jingle, and traditional.

There were two sessions per day for the powwow, one in the afternoon and one in the evening. Each session had a grand entry where all participants are welcome to walk out on the powwow grounds and dance before all spectators.

After the grand entry, the powwow moves into inter-tribal dances where anyone is invited to come out and dance, even spectators, signifying a connection between the tribes, and even non-native races.

The dance competitions start, but at the same time, there is another competition in full course – the drum groups.

One such drum group was Indian Creek out of the Utah and Arizona area of Red Mesa. Group member Norman Lameman relayed the history of the performance group.

“We started out in the 80s and 90s but had to stop for a while because we all had kids and families. Now that the kids are all grown, we are back at it again,” Lameman said.

Cal Lameman plays drums with Indian Creek at the Ute Mountain Powwow, Towaoc, Colorado, Aug. 20, 2022 | Photo by Nick Yamashita, St. George News

Native drum groups are so influential that there even is a Grammy award for Best Native American Music, which was first awarded in 2001.

Lopez explained each dance and each song have different spiritual meanings to bring about healing and spiritual guidance.

Tribal Trade Blog offers a brief summary description of each dance, noting some of the spiritual meanings of each dance, especially the jingle dress with the jingles sounding like a noise representing water.

“Cleansing of the spirit and body,” Lopez said.

As part of the event, ceremonial songs are done as a tribute or honor to special guests. The special guests are surrounded by gourd dancers, and the special guests are honored with song and dance, while the community members pay their respects through participation and gifts such as money, when the guest recently went through a hardship such as a death in the family or even accomplishments such as college acceptance, etc.

The native community is very patriotic and holds tributes to US military personnel and veterans. Respect is given as all in attendance stand for such honors as well as for the golden age dancers, showing respect to the elders of their culture.

The Handgame tournament

A unique event held in accordance with the powwow was the handgame tournament. The handgame is a traditional native game that also is known to some tribes as the stick game. The game consists of two teams facing each other. For each team, there is a team leader, a hider, a guesser, as well as ones who provide drumming and shaking of rattle to provide distraction. The objective of the game is to be able to guess which hand of the hider has the unmarked or “female” bone and not the marked or “male” bone. With each guess, right or wrong, the losing team gives one of their sticks to the other team until all sticks are in possession of one team. The game is mainly non-verbal communication except for singing and distraction noises. Guesses and other communication are made with hand gestures.

A participant in the Handgame Tournament shows the ‘bones’ during the Ute Mountain Powwow, Towaoc, Colorado, Aug. 20, 2022 | Photo by Nick Yamashita, St. George News

The tournament was done in a double-elimination bracket setup.

The handgame director, Arlene Onco, told her stories of her family, including her mother, playing the game and running tournaments. she remembered the best part was the laughter and joy it brought to them.

Everisto Lehi, Assistant Marketing Manager for Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, explained how the game was played and how it brought about a friendly, almost family bond between the teams, but brought out the competitive spirit at the same time.

“Some people take it very seriously,” said Lehi.

The payoff for the traditional game was $10,000 in prizes for the winners. For a simplified version of the game and how it is played, click here.

COVID-19 on native lands

According to a 2021 Princeton study, the researchers discovered that COVID-19 mortality for the sample of Native Americans was 2.8 times higher than the white group in the study. The conclusion of the study was that most risk factors for COVID-19 are disproportionately high among Native Americans. Those risk factors were much higher for those who reside or live in their homelands or reservations.

Also, earlier in October of 2020, the Center for Disease Control reported Native Americans and Alaska Natives were 5.3 times more likely to be hospitalized than their white counterparts.

Currently, the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, host to the event, has mask mandates for indoors as well as social spacing recommendations enacted.

The largest tribe in the nation, the Navajo Nation, is prevalent with masks worn by individuals. Current mandates are listed officially as recommendations, but most businesses and centers require masks. The Navajo Department of Health and Health Command Operations Center still considers the COVID-19 pandemic as ongoing as of May 11 in the Navajo Safe Practice Guidelines.

The Navajo Nation reports 71,316 positive cases of the virus with a confirmed 1,879 deaths as of Aug. 25. As of Dec. 2021, the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, with an estimated 2,116 registered members, had an estimated one out of every 264 members die from coronavirus, as reported to media sources. The publication by 5280.com also reported one out of every 475 Native American deaths.

The goal of the powwow

Youth were energetic, dancing around the grounds to the music. Several thousand people were in attendance. Parents were taking their children out to walk in the grand entry, and grandparents were connecting with their grandchildren. The event had a dance category that had to do last-minute fundraising to gather prize money for the competition.

“We were lucky enough to get the funds to provide (a prize for) the winners of the chicken dance. In the 80s, the dance was almost extinct, but today we had 16 dancers, so I am going to have to add another category for next year,” Lopez said.

Of the chicken dancers, almost half of them were youth.

Matteo Mitchell is one of many youths who has been part of the resurgence in native dancing amongst youth, Ute Mountain Powwow, Towaoc, Colorado, Aug. 20, 2022 | Photo by Nick Yamashita, St. George News

“Many of the youth were even more into the dance than the older ones. It is great seeing the resurgence of interest in their background and culture for the youth, especially in the traditional and chicken dancing,” Lopez said.

Matteo Mitchell of Utah, a young grass dancer who took second place, said how he was happy to be there. The other dance that saw another resurgence of youth learning and competing is the traditional dance. Once viewed as a dance more designated for the golden age, it saw several youth participating in the competition.

The weekend was a colorful display of artistic and cultural movement. A moment where all people, regardless of tribe, race, belief, gender, and age, came together to celebrate life and lineage.

And most importantly, a moment to heal.

Ed. note: Native American drum music is provided by Indian Creek of Red Mesa, Utah/Arizona. All rights reserved.

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Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2022, all rights reserved.

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