We last checked in with you as we lounged around Albuquerque for a week. During that time we met up with some old Air Force friends for dinner. We met at El Patio for a casual dining experience. This is apparently their regular Friday night hole-in-the-wall dinner hangout and almost everyone in the place knew them. But, wow, talk about more good food. I had the chile rellenos and they came out with a nice thick layer of cheese (instead of the skimpy little dab you usually get) and a thin coating of cornmeal that was enough to cover the chiles, but not so much that you felt as though you had ordered stuffed polenta. Heinz got enchiladas and was raving about them as well. As a nice touch, the accompanying dish was potatoes instead of the same old rice side. I only feel that it is fair to warn you that if you make it to Albuquerque and get to El Patio, the green sauce is HOT!! Be prepared to have a fire in your mouth for quite a while. After tasting it, I understood why our friends had ordered their food with the sauce on the side…some friends, they could have warned us!
During the week, we took in a couple of movies, The Conspirator and Water for Elephants. Both were excellent flicks. Water for Elephants takes place during the Depression and explores circus life, moral decisions, illusion vs. reality and of course, relationships. The Conspirator was directed by Robert Redford and is about the trial of the only female accused of being a member of the conspiracy to kill Abraham Lincoln. The case was unique in its time as she was a private citizen tried by a military tribunal, denying her the right to a jury of peers as guaranteed by the Constitution. The movie is more concerned with the legal precedents the case established, and what should be the correct means and venue of determining guilt or innocence of a person rather than the actual guilt or innocence of Mary Surratt. We highly recommended both films.
As Friday rolled around we headed off to the International Gathering of the Nations Powwow. The Powwow occurs every April for 3 days in Albuquerque. This year there were around 3,000 dancers from approximately 400 Indian nations, 30 drum groups, 200+ vendors, and 80,000 visitors from around the world.
The day started with the Grand Entry where all of the dancers entered the arena in a procession of color, drum beats, and native singing. The dancers were dressed in feathers, buckskin, fringe, jingles, beadwork, ribbon work, blankets, turquoise, shells, bells, and quills, just to name some of the items used.
Prepping in the stands
Dancers at the beginning of the Grand Entry
During the Grand Entry
End of the Grand Entry - 2,500 dancers on the arena floor!
Following the Grand Entry, the drum, singing, and dance competition began. Music for powwow dance competition and other activities is provided by a “Drum,” a group of performers/singers who play a large, specially-designed drum and sing traditional songs. The number of members of a drum may vary, but are usually at least four to ten people. Drums from different nations rotate the duty of providing songs for the dancers, each taking a turn and being judged. Prizes are awarded at the end of the powwow for the top three drums/singers.
The following is a brief description of some of the dances. I quoted the descriptions off the Internet, but the pictures are ours.
Men’s Dances:
Fancy Dance: a dance featuring vivid regalia with dramatic movement, including spins and leaps. Often this is the biggest crowd-pleasing competition of a powwow. Aside from bright colors and non-traditional materials, fancy dancers are also distinguished by use of a two-bustle design on their regalia. There are also two styles of the roach (headpiece): in the North, it is the same as the Grass Dance headpiece; in the South the roaches have rockers, two feathers on springs that rock back and forth.
Two-bustle regalia design
Feather roach - Southern style
Fancy Dancers in action
Northern Traditional: a dance featuring traditional regalia, using authentic design and materials, single or no bustle, and movements based on traditional dances.
Traditional Dancers
Grass Dance: a dance featuring regalia with long, flowing fringe and designs reminiscent of grass blowing in the wind. Dance movements are more elaborate that the traditional dancers, but less flashy than the fancy dancers.
Grass Dancer
Women’s Dances:
Jingle Dress: a healing dance. The jingle dress includes a skirt with hundreds of small tin cones (originally made from polished snuff can lids) that make noise as the dancer moves with light footwork danced close to the ground.
Jingle Dress
Fancy Shawl: a dance originally danced in the northern part of the country, by a few women who were ostracized for their efforts by traditionalists. It gradually gained acceptance over the years and has evolved to its present form. The dance itself is a combination of intricate footwork that is choreographed extemporaneously in response to the beat and tone of the music from the drum and singers. The appropriate style of this dance is one of a constant whirl of beauty and grace, rather than wild movements. In addition to style and footwork, judges look for endurance, agility, and a good measure of showmanship.
Fancy Shawl Dancer - this looks like quilted material, but is actually all bead work.
Fancy Shawl Dancer - on this one, the cowl is beaded, but the rest of the shawl is quilted.
The Powwow also had the Gourd Dance that originated with the Kiowa tribe and is a society dance for veterans and their families. Unlike other dances, the Gourd Dance is normally performed with the Drum in the center of the dance arena, not on the side. It is also not a competition dance. The dance was originally danced by warriors and has expanded to include military veterans, their families and those who have done exceptional things in their life. For the Kiowa, the men wear red and blue blankets. Red commemorates the Kiowa’s war against the Spanish and the blue against the U.S. Cavalry (other sources say that the red represents day and the blue is for night).
Gourd Dancers
Silver "gourd"
Gourd Dancers
The following are random photographs from the Powwow.
Getting dressed for the Grand Entry
Once dressed, she decided to join the dancers, even if they were 10-15 years older.
Traditional Dancer
Junior Dancer waiting to dance
Drum judge
This young woman was sitting just down from us, she told us that her regalia had been passed down from her grandmother.
Too young for regalia, but determined to get dressed up somehow:)
We were supposed to go back to the Powwow on Saturday, but the truck lost all electrical power on the way home on Friday night and it took Heinz two days to finally pinpoint the issue and put in a temp-fix - we'll fix it permanently once we get to his sister's house in Kansas.
Monday we hit the road again and drove east to Overland Park, KS. Heinz’s sister is doing some projects on her house and we volunteered to be extra hands. When not working on the house we are going to be spending time finishing up the inside of the trailer, so more pics to come on those upgrades.
Sunrise over the Sandia Mountains
Along the way, somewhere in Oklahoma
Rain, rain, go away - at least while we're on the road.
We spotted our friends for the day at the Gathering of the Nations Powwow.
Red Shouldered Hawk (I think...)
American Bald Eagle
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