Beautiful costumes, impressive drumming and the joy of watching tiny tots dancing to the music. I only wished I had understood the songs and the meaning behind the dancers’ movements.

A couple of weekends ago, I had the pleasure of attending the Poplar Indian Days Wacipi (powwow). I am using Wacipi because powwow has become a word that represents a mere get-together, making commonplace a term of great cultural significance to Indigenous Americans.

There are various accounts of powwow’s origins. Some credit the Poncas (Pong ka) with holding the first inter-tribal powwow in the early 1800s. The Ponca Indians are the original people of Nebraska and South Dakota. Others claim that the Plains Nations created the inter-tribal powwow dances. The term Plains Nations describes a number of different peoples, from southern Manitoba to Texas, the Mississippi to the Rocky Mountains. They include the Sik-sika, Cree, Crow, Blackfeet, Mandan, Arikara, Hidatsa, Ojibwe, Arapaho, Cheyenne and the Nakota and Dakota Nations.
The word powwow is believed to be an Anglicization of the Pawnee word “pa wa” (to eat). But others suggest it came from “pau wau” (he or she dreams) in the Algonquian language family. Either way, Wacipi has been associated with Indian dancing since the 1800s.

Powwows arose as a response to the governments of Canada and the United States when they sought to assimilate the Indigenous peoples of North America by making laws against Native cultural ceremonies (including the Canadian Indian Act of 1878 and the U.S. Code of Indian Offences in 1883). Our Native communities went underground, seeking to preserve their culture by secretly practicing their traditions.

Many countries that were a part of the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) did much the same during the Cold War era. Nearly all formed secret underground communities to preserve their cultural identity. They met in homes until it became too risky, and then they met in the woods, in caves, and in secluded places where they could sing their songs, tell their stories and preserve their national traditions.

First-century Christians also faced this problem. As Christianity grew, the Christian problem, once localized in Palestine, became a empire-wide problem for the Roman government. First-century believers were considered subversive and branded as members of an illegal organization by both Jewish and Roman authorities. Hated, hunted and killed, by the second century, believers in Rome had to descend into the catacombs under the streets of Rome to survive.

As I continued reading about these practices, I discovered that every ethnic group in the world has its own spin of a Wacipi, albeit called by different names. From Africa to Asia, Greenland to New Zealand, people everywhere have community get-togethers. Early America had its barn dances. The Irish have their ceilidhs (kay leez). Jigging was the custom of the Metis of Alberta, and the Thai had the Yi Peng Lantern Festival. The people of India engage in their Holi Festival of Color, the Germans celebrate Oktoberfest and the Spaniards are known for their enthusiastic tomato-smashing street party, La Tomatina.

Community get-togethers are invaluable for the mental health of all ethnic groups because when communities fellowship, there is camaraderie, trust building, bonding and a sense of belonging, which is vital to preserving not only one’s culture but one’s sense of identity. Community get-togethers are where opinions are expressed and challenged and where values and beliefs are disseminated and instilled.

Some of you have traveled to other countries and understand. Cultures around the world do things a little differently than we do in the States. Even within the States, from one to the next, the food is different, and the words sound different and have different meanings.

This coming week, invite your friends and neighbors to engage in and build your community Wacipi within your neighborhood, workplace and especially your place of worship.

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