Ho-chunk @ MindSay

Second part of Pow Wow Pictures

1.  This is the Woman's Head dancer and the start of the women's part of Grand Entry.  Golden Age women follow the Head Lady dancer.  Again the Head dancers help out in the areana and make sure folks are where they need to be at.

2.  These lovely ladies are the Golden Age women.  Primary tradational dancers with a few Jingle Dress Dancers.  I loved watching these ladies!  They can move!  Put some of the younger women to shame I tell ya!

3.  This is the Women's tradational dancers.  There is a variety of dresses because it all depends on what tribe they are representing and what specific catagory in tradational they are dancing.  Aren't these dresses and hair peices beautiful?

4.  This is the back view of the Women's tradational.  I thought you all should see how some of the hair peices are and more of the dresses.

5.  These ladies are the Fancy Shall Dancers.  Notice that a lot of the Tradational Women Dancers carry shalls also, the difference is the tradational ladies have their shalls looped over their arm to dance, the Fancy Shall dancers are drapped over their shoulders and they dance and make the shalls fly when they dance their stories.

6.  This is the Women's Jingle Dress Dancers.  This specific style is usually what most young girls do because they make so much noise!:D  I have a lot of friends that use to dance this style when they were competing for their tribe's Pow wow princesses when we were teenagers.

1.  Grand Entry on Thursday.  The first two gentlemen carry the Eagle Staff's.  One of them at all times is the Winnebago NE's Legion or VA's staff and the other one each day is a visiting organization staff.

2.  This picture is of the various pow wow princesses from other tribes and last year's Ho Chunk princess.  One of these girls came clear up from NM!  Now contrary to popular beilf.  Tribes do NOT have Indian Princesses.  They have Chef daughters and most Chefs are not chosen from family but the best warrior.  This is a white man thing.  The Pow Wow Princesses represent not only their respective tribe but their communities!  The Ponca Tribe had 2 Princesses.  One for the tribe and one for the Warrior Society.  The Ho Chunk Tribe of NE had 2 also.  One Sr (16 and up) and one Jr (16 and below).  Don't ask me which Ponca tribe it could have been the OK one or the NE one.  They didn't say!

3.  Color Guard!  I should have had it underneith Grand Entry!  The various military flags are represented.  The Ho Chunk Tribe of NE was the first Tribe in the US to have a Congressional OK for their Pow Wow.  This is called the Homecoming Pow Wow to Honor the last Chef of the Ho Chunk tribe (of NE)  Cheif Little Priest.  Little Priest and many of the Ho Chunk warriors served Fort Omaha Scouts and they held a pow wow with the gov'ts okay (at the time no large gathering of indians could happen with out gov't okay) to welcome their warriors home!  Today this Homecoming Pow Wow of the Ho Chunk Tribe still happens and all Warriors from all walks of life are honored through out the celebration.  They have a song for each of the Military Branches and all Veterans and Family of Veterans and those serving are welcome to dance.  My children and I danced in all of the Military songs but the Coast Guards!  That is the only branch we have no family in or served in.  They even have a Mother's of Warriors dance for all the mothers and grandmothers!  A few of my friends from highschool signing in some of the drum groups went and talked to the head of pow wow commetee and suggested they have a drum group compose a Spouse of Warriors song because of how many of my age group that were there have spouses that served.  I was the only one from my class (from my town) that paid honor to my family; my friends from Bago danced along side of me.

4.  The first gentleman in this pictures is called the Head Man dancer.  He helps in the areana while the men are dancing.  He leads all the men and boys in during Grand Entry and during retreat leads them out.  The men behind him are the Golden Age Dancers (Men over 50) 

5.  This Golden Age Dancer is a Fancy Dancer.  These are the most watched men's dancers out there so for this guy to be dancing in his 50s or 60s this fast of paced is something else.  And let me tell you, this gentleman can keep up with the Men's if he wanted too!  He was my favorite out of the Golden Age men!  Scared me a bit on Friday evening, he staggared a bit during a Special.  But he was okay and kept right on dancing after his granddaughter ran him out some water!

6.  I play softball with this gentleman and his wife!  I know his wife but I can't for the world of me think of his name.  He dances Grass Dancing.  He won his Special and boy can he move!  My girl Mikal has herself a handsome man!  All my friends in the drum groups next to us were laughing their asses off because I said:  "Boy, now I know why Indian families can get so large!  If I had a man who could move his hips like some of these men do I would want to bed him all the time!"

7.  These guys are the Men's Fancy Dancers.  These are the ones you want to watch!  They go extermly fast to the beat of the drum, go down low, and usually end in splits!  They are extermly fun to watch on a Sneak up dance!  Sneak up dances are when they tell the story of sneaking up on either an enemy or game.

8.  I don't know what these guys names are but they were our Pow Wow buddies for the weekend!  They traveled up from one of the Southwest states.  We sat next to them all weekend long.  They are dressed in their tradational style and were the only ones to partake in what is called the Chicken Dance.  Which I think (but don't quote me) a Southwestern dance.  The dance tells the story of the prairee chicken mating.  We helped the long haired guy's wife out giving them water because she had an injuried hand and they helped us out by keeping an eye on the kids!  Which came in handy on Sunday when my girl Bree had to work and I had to help her ol man Arjan get the kids ready.  They helped me get Trystan's roach on him tight!  That is the thing on the top of their heads!

I think this is enough pictures for tonight.  I have to a few more to post of the women and of the young boys.  Not to mention of my neice and nephew!  Hope you enjoyed these pictures

First Day of Pow Wow done and thanks to my girl I am sporting a summer cold! 

We had a good day yesterday.  The first half was kind of ruined by a couple of drunk ass girls who unstaked our tent and moved it.  So after we ran down to my house to grab my big 8 man tent, grabbed Trystan's roach, and stopped at Bree's cousin's house we staked out our tent next to some of Bree's relatives and some folks from LA (the state not the city:P)

Bree and I would like to camp out at least one night but tonight would have to be the one night instead of just using our tent as a place to stash the chairs, cool down, and get Trystan and Arjana ready for dances but Randy gets home this afternoon and he would like me home tonight.  Bree can't do it tomorrow night because she has to work Sunday.  So no camping this year.

My busy day of pow wowing and taekowndo got added to thanks to Randy and his dayum job!  Instead of leaving at 3 from Pow wow and picking Randy up from the shop and going to taekowndo, we have to leave at 2:30 (an hour and half after Grand Entry) to run back to the house, follow Randy to the shop and then go to taekowndo.  After taekowndo, Randy is going to drop me back off to Pow wow grounds and take the kids home with him.  Coltin is a tad bit pist over that but DeLaney is okay with it, she really isn't feeling good.  I'll take them out after taekowndo tomorrow morning for another full day of pow wow.

I bought some nice jewlery for $10 bucks yesterday.  Two necklaces with matching earings.  I might buy Coltin a fancy shirt and DeLaney a shawl.  It doesn't help that Bree, her mom (Mamma Berdina), her Grandma (Grandma Church), her dad and step mom (Daddy and Mamma Bass), and a lot of my other friends are saying it and telling me to get my own shawl.  Once Randy gets home I am nabbing the debit card and going to get myself some barrets, maybe a shawl and fancy shirt for the kids, and hopefully I ran into my boy Jason if he isn't working (he just recently got back form Iraqi a few months ago and I didn't know-plus he was my first crush-lots of long late night convo's on the phone when he was in highschool and I was in Jr High!) 

I am a tad bit put out about having to pick up Randy but oh well at least he will be getting a new work truck sometime next week!  But it just never fails my already busy day gets added too!  At least I got dishes done, a couple of loads of laundry done, the bathroom cleaned up, and the litter boxes changed!