Indigenous Performers Put ‘Wow’ in UMD Powwow
Dancing, Drumming Star at Celebration of Community
Second-time UMD Powwow participant Charles Gray, a Piscataway Conoy tribal member, shows off his footwork during the Men’s Northern Traditional Dance at Ritchie Coliseum on Saturday. Dancers often convey hunting or war stories in what is considered the oldest American Indian dance.
Photos by Riley N. Sims
Tribal members donned their brightest regalia and stepped, stomped and sang through the University of Maryland’s annual Powwow on Saturday.
The gathering hosted by the Native American and Indigenous Student Union and Multicultural Involvement and Community Advocacy drew Native people from near and far to celebrate their culture and community. Highlights included a craft fair, contests and traditional dances.
Keith Cox of Baltimore (center) sings and drums with the Warpaint Singers. They and the Zotigh Singers (not pictured) provided a steady backdrop of music throughout the powwow, often alternating performances.
The Missing Murdered Indigenous Relatives Red Dress Special was held to raise awareness of the crisis experienced by Native American women, who are far more likely to be murdered or abducted than other women in the U.S.
Angela Gladue from the Cree-Frog Lake First Nation in Edmonton, Canada, leads a hoop dance, a healing and storytelling dance for people of all ages.
Jeremy Harley ’23 (left), from the Piscataway Conoy tribe, and Neely Bardwell, from the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians in Michigan, concentrate on keeping a potato suspended between their foreheads during the potato dance. The pair were finalists in the competition to keep the potato from falling.
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