Lenape Honoring Festival
A brief account of a two day Pow-wow
As usual, we were later than we planned as we hitched up the camper and rolled away
from the curb on Friday night. I had packed the last of the food and my shaving
gear just a few minutes before.
Just over an hour later, we arrived at the pow-wow grounds. The driveway into the
grounds was at the top of the hill and below us, the small fires around the camping
areas were beckoning. The moon was almost full and we could hear that one of the
drums had already set up. It would be a great pow-wow. I knew.
We found our trading space in the dark - not too difficult when you are married to
the person in charge of vendors. I maneuvered the camper to the back of the space
and unhooked. As much as I enjoy camping with the dancers and drummers, I knew that
my wife likes having the camper close to the vending area so she can hide and get away
from the Chief groupies. She doesn't thrive on her groupies the way I do on mine.
I set up the trading marquee and we took most of the tables and other display things
out of the vehicles and put them in the booth for the night. I had good intentions
of taking the short walk over the gentle hill to the camping area, but several folks
had already come down to chat and Georgie Jessup spent some time with us. We talked
about the possibility of a European tour in the Spring. It had gotten late. I
helped cover the booth and sat down to relax with a puff on my pipe. It didn't take
me long to realize that the bed was the only place for me to be.
I have always enjoyed the wonderful night noises, and this night was no exception.
We must have been at least a mile from anything and the serenade of the night critters
was all there was in the world. The critters and the drums. Sleep took over.
I awoke slowly and opened one eye. The sun was up. I knew I had a lot of work to
do before Grand Entry. I needed to help with the rest of the booth and I had to
get the drum canopies and a tent up for the drummer's changing area. We were expecting
four drums plus Georgie's setup and would need the space
I enjoy camping, if you consider sleeping in a pop-up as camping. Even more, I enjoy
having running water to wash up in the morning. There was none here unless I pumped
it from the camper and that was always a pain. My other option was the cattle trough up the hill by the spectator entrance. The round concrete structure had a spring
feeding it from the bottom and there hadn't been any cattle there in at least a week.
Me and my washcloth took a walk. It wasn't as refreshing as the stream at the buffalo ranch but it did the job. Back to the camper and a toothbrush and I was ready to
pow-wow.
By now, some of the other drummers had started to arrive and I was able to delegate
some of the work. By 11:45 we had set up the six-person tent for changing, the 10x16
marquee with three extensions for all the drums and I had climbed into regalia.
I knew we'd be doing the Hawk Calling Song before grand entry. I got the drum set up and
started getting myself psyched.
It was twenty minutes after grand entry had been scheduled. There was a crowd gathered
and Snow Owl wasn't around yet. We were smudged and ready. I took the mike, welcomed
the crowd and talked about Indian time and other matters. Snow Owl, our MC, arrived and took over for while. Then it was my turn again. We would play off each
other all weekend like we did at Halifax two weeks ago.
*****
Some time ago, one of our medicine people was gifted with seeing a Red Tailed Hawk
make a strike in a field. As the hawk shredded his kill, he lifted his head and
screamed the call of the hawk. He was calling - demanding - that the people come
together. And in a dream, one of the Old Ones came to the Medicine Person and danced for the
people. Danced for the people to come together. And he told her that the Hawk was
calling too. Calling the people ... all the people, to come together before it is
too late. And the Hawk Calling Song was born.
The drum sings two distinct beats. The slow methodical beat of the Old One dancing
and the rapid, almost frenzied, beat of the hawk dancing. Together they call ...
that we, not as different races of people, but as one race - the human race - will
come together. Come together - to heal the earth mother before she is too sick to be healed.
Come together - to heal the people before they have destroyed themselves. Come
together, in harmony, for the good of all.
*****
And so I completed my explanation of the song. It is necessary for me to do that...it
is part of the vision and part of the gift. To do the song without explaining it,
would be like starting in the middle of the song. Whenever we have done this song,
someone at the event has been totally awe struck by it.
I struck the first beat and the pow- wow was underway!
There were about thirty dancers. Most of them I knew, at least by sight. The lead
dancers, Bear Heart and Blue Bear from Virginia, have danced to our drum before and
they are wonderful people. Bear Heart has one of our Women's Traditionals named
after her. She heard it at one of our practice sessions when we wrote it and was moved
to tears by the sound of it. Singing Deer writes beautiful songs with an almost
haunting quality about them.
We did the Grand Entry, the Flag Song and the Veterans honor song. All the drums
had agreed to let us do the opening since it was, in a manner of speaking, our Pow-wow.
It was the Lenape Honoring festival, this was Lenape country, and we are Lenape
Red Thunder.
The Group was at their peak today. I have never heard them sound so good. The men
were belting out the songs and our beautiful backup voices, the Woodland Women Singers
were right on the money. I know the recording will be good and who knows, we may
get a tape out of this.
After the opening songs, we sat back for a while and enjoyed listening to the other
drums. We are very close to New Buffalo. This is our fourth time drumming with
them and it's always been a pleasure. They all drum from their hearts. It's always
fun because we know most of each other's songs from drumming together and sharing tapes.
Confusing the MC has been our game since we did our first gig together in Virginia
last year!
The women's drum, Grandmother's Heart, has come such a long way since they bravely
struggled to give us some impromptu help last year at Halifax where we were the only
drum for the two days. A finer bunch of young women you couldn't hope to find and
their repertoire goes on forever! I love our sister drum to pieces, and I've always known
they think we're kind of special too.
Red Deer is relatively new, but they have powerful singers and a great repertoire.
They learned a lot of their songs from Cedar Tree Singers. Pete Black Wolf, their
lead singer, has been a friend for a couple years. They have gifted us one of their
songs and we will be learning it over the winter.
Late in the first set, it was time to bring out one of our new songs. I explained
to the crowd that it was tradition to do a new song for the elders and get their
permission to use it. I also explained that we don't all live in the same village
anymore and sometimes we have to depart from tradition a bit. We did our new Men's Traditional
for Chief Whipoorwill Thompson, but did it as an Honor Song for him. The Chief and
the other drums threw copious amounts of tobacco on the drum. Singing Deer had done
it again! This lady can really write songs! After the song was over, I announced
to the crowd that our song would, from that moment forward be known as the Whipoorwill
song.
We broke for a rest and Georgie Jessup did her concert. Georgie's album, American
Holocaust, is a dynamic album of the contemporary soft rock genre calling attention
to the plight of the Native Americans. We were fortunate enough to work with her
at a benefit concert in 1995 and she had a mobile recording studio there to lay down some
tracks for the album. She asked if she could record us and the rest is history.
We are so fortunate to be a part of her album. After she had completed her regular
set, several people asked her to do her new song, Back to the Heart. She did the song and
I joined her on vocal backup.
At the start of the second session, I took the microphone and spoke to the crowd.
I have never drummed a Pow-wow where something very special hasn't happened. The
Lenape Honoring Festival was certainly no exception and this was the third one.
Two years ago our beautiful 26 year old daughter had been stricken with MS. She had been fitted
with a custom wheelchair and I'd just installed ramps in her home. She was not expected
to walk again. My wife and I had asked the dancers if they would dance for her to give her strength to deal with her problem. A month later, the wheelchair became
a plant stand in the living room and has not been used since.
Last year, in this same special place, a young woman came to the Festival, her husband
pushing her in a wheelchair. She had been stricken with a rare degenerative muscle
disease. She had expressed to the lead dancers that she wished she was able to dance in the Circle and feel the strength of our drum. Two warriors scooped her up out
of her chair and supported her as we drummed her around the Circle with an honor
song. She was able to make it almost once around before she had to be carried out.
I emotionally told the crowd that this young lady was here today, and wanted to go into the
circle again. I put the microphone in the stand, sat down at the drum, and we drummed
one of the Woman's Traditionals that we wrote this year. I watched and sang through my tears as Kim danced her thanks, unaided, twice around the circle with her infant
child in her arms.
It was a good weekend.
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