October 11, 2002Powwow a family affairBy Heidi Bell Gease, Journal Staff WriterRAPID CITY — Tate Bear bounces and sways to the rhythm of pounding drumbeats, keeping time with tiny feet in beaded moccasins while his parents tie on his headpiece. He is eager to join the crowd of dancers on the floor at the 16th annual Black Hills Pow Wow & Arts Expo, which began Friday at Rushmore Plaza Civic Center.
At 20 months old, Tate is a powwow veteran. “He’s been dancing since he could walk,” said his grandmother, Carmen Clairmont, a Sicangu Lakota from Rosebud who now lives in Denver. “His mother already had outfits all ready for him. We were carrying him in outfits when he couldn’t even walk.”
Clairmont wears the beaded regalia of a traditional dancer. Her son is a grass dancer, one daughter is a jingle dress dancer, and Tate’s mother is a fancy shawl dancer. “All three of my kids dance with their families now,” Clairmont said. “That’s how I brought them up. We live in an urban environment, but I brought them up in traditional ways.”
And nothing makes her happier. Clairmont didn’t begin dancing herself until she was 18 years old and a student at Haskell College. Her parents attended boarding school during an era when students were punished for speaking Lakota or practicing cultural traditions. Later, Clairmont and her siblings also attended boarding school.“We knew Latin before we knew Lakota,” Clairmont said, shaking her head at the thought. “It makes me mad. It makes me real sad.”
Her parents’ generation was taught to be ashamed of their heritage, Clairmont said, but her generation has helped change that. “I’m real proud of who I am and what I am, from the inside out. And that’s how my kids are, also.”As a young woman, Clairmont decided she would raise her children with strong roots in their Lakota heritage. She gave them all Lakota names. They began dancing at powwows when they each were barely a year old. They learned the Lakota language, as did their mother.“I was going to make sure that’s what I did,” said Clairmont, whose Indian name —Oyate Wacinyahpi Win — translates as “Helper of the People.” “If I didn’t, who else would teach them?”
Her daughters taught themselves to bead, though, and have helped create many of the family’s dance outfits. “I just didn’t think I had the patience to do it,” Clairmont said. (The top to her outfit contains so many beads that she estimates it weighs 25 pounds.)Clairmont’s son and his family were unable to attend this weekend’s powwow because of work, but the whole crew often travels together to powwows across the country. They share expenses, baby care, and time, visiting with old friends and making new ones.“That’s a really good family activity for us,” Clairmont said. “It keeps us together as a family.”
The whole family lives in Denver, where the children grew up and Clairmont is an operations analyst for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Living in the city makes it a bit harder to follow traditional ways, but because it takes more effort, “I think we appreciate it more,” Clairmont said. “We go home (to the reservation) to take care of our ceremonies and sundances.”Coming back year after year to the Black Hills Pow Wow feels a bit like coming home, too. “I was real anxious to come,” Clairmont said. “It just feels real good to be here.”Questions or comments on this story? Call reporter Heidi Bell Gease at 394-8419, or e-mail her at [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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