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Kris, this is a very good story. Thanks for
sharing it.
Rhonda
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everyone, han...thought this was a good story....our people
are coming back to thier culture!
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]
Kris
"All things share the same breath..the beast, the tree, the
man; the air shares its spirit with all the life it supports."
Chief
Seattle
Visit and show your support for the Grass Roots Oyate
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Clemency for Leonard Peltier. Sign the Petition.
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Visit and show your support for the Grass Roots Oyate
http://members.tripod.com/GrassRootsOyate
Clemency for Leonard Peltier. Sign the Petition.
http://petitiononline.com/Release/petition.html
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