National Pow Wow of the United States 2010 - 2020

Reconstruct the Body

Reconstruct the Mind

Reconstruct the Spirit

Leave the rest behind.

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The National Pow Wow is a cultural tradition, so-named only since 1996, that brings Indigenous Peoples and their descendants from all around America and Canada.

I visited Washington DC as a kid in 1969 and witnessed the demonstrations and the dancing with tht rest of the hushed crowds around the Lincoln Memorial. A 19-year old buzz-cut US Marine in full dress uniform stepped forward and spoke about defending his country and his principles in Viet Nam, stepped away, and returned in full Southwest Native American Fancy Dance regalia and performed. We were stunned. He was my hero.

They - The People - come together to celebrate their heritage, their languages, their customs, their dances, drumming and music; and their reverence for Nature. They dance with confidence and share Native foods and folklore with everyone that attends.

We have Pow Wows locally in Ohio -- in Cincinnati, Columbus, Cleveland, the Dayton and Springfield area and others; but none of them are as large as the National Pow Wow. Local Pow Wows are often held on Memorial Day in May and Labor Day in September, in order to honor not only Native Peoples as veterans and workers, but all of America and her various cultures coming together.

In August 2007, the National Pow Wow featured Native American US Soldiers from the War in Iraq. In Iraq, they had built a ceremonial drum from the bedding tarp of a cot and a 55-gallon oil drum. They drummed in the dessert and called their drum Desert Thunder. They brought it to the Pow Wow for a special performance honoring all the service men and women of the US who are in Iraq and other foreign nations.

The remaining Navajo (and other) Code Talkers from World War II gave a speech and presentation. No one could break their codes for the US Government during the war - not the Japanese, not the Germans, not the Italians, not the Russians - no Allied or Axis nation's peoples could break it.

A special recognition presentation and ceremony was also held for all Native Americans past and present who served in the Armed Forces.

Despite a past popular belief that Native Americans are all alcoholics, they allow no drugs, alcohol or smoking - even tobacco - on or around the National Pow Wow premises.

Famous Native Americans remembered at the Pow Wow and in the National Museum of the American Indian.

Jim Thorpe was a famous Native American from the Sac and Fox nations. At his vocational high school, he trained in track and field and football under the legendary Pop Warner. Thorpe was later an Olympic athlete, winning Olympic Gold Medals in both the pentathlon (5 events) and decathlon (10 different events) in the 1912 Olympics in Sweden. He was penalized for playing semi-pro baseball before the Olympic Games, because having accepted payment for any sports participation cancelled out anyone eligibility for the Olympics at that time. Other athletes got around this rule by playing baseball and other sports for pay under false names. The AAU decided that Thorpe should lose his medals.

The AAU and the Olympic Committee took back his medals in 1912 and did not return them to him after his death in 1953, but not until 1982, a full 70 years later. He had played major league baseball from 1913 - 1919 and professional football form 1920 - 1926 and again in 1928. The Associated Press chose him as Athlete of the Half Century in 1950.

Actor Jay Silverheels, of the Mohawk nation, was born the son of a chief on the Six Nations Indian reservation in Ontario, Canada. He trained to become a professional lacrosse player, lacrosse being an indigenous sport for many Native American nations.

He later became a stuntman and then an actor, finally winning the role of Tonto, the Lone Ranger's friend. He was the first Native American actor to play an Indian on TV.

Ben Nighthorse Campbell is a Northern Cheyenne chief and a US Senator from Colorado through 2004. He nearly always attends the National Pow Wow. Like Jim Thorpe, Campbell has also been an athlete - a U.S. Judo Olympic champion three times.

Actor Graham Greene of the Oneida Nation has been in the movies Dances with Wolves and The Green Mile and CBC TV's The New Red Green Show. Like Jay Silverheels, he was also born on the Six Nations Indian reservation in Ontario.

Will Rogers was an American humorist whom everyone assumed to be a cowboy. He was a Cherokee born in the Oologah Indian Territory (Oologah, Oklahoma) in 1879. He was on a par with Mark Twain in his humor and stage presence and he made a few films, including A Connecticut Yankee in 1931.