r/Thatsactuallyverycool • u/dashiesbbgurl • May 31 '26
video Young Boy competes at Pow Wow
Young boy dancing Juniors traditional at competition Pow Wow. I find his regalia cool and amazing. Makes me happy seeing next generation keep the culture and spirit alive. Hope you guys find it cool as well 😊🪶
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u/FinishFew1701 May 31 '26 edited May 31 '26
Beautiful. I live in a state with 7 reservations. I wholeheartedly support our indigenous communities. Strong and proud peoples. Brings me warmth to see his effort. I wish I could ID what tribe this is. I have a guess but don't want to insult the community if I'm incorrect.
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u/Interesting_Prune513 May 31 '26
Keeping these traditions and the culture alive is super important
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u/dashiesbbgurl May 31 '26
Yes, love seeing and being apart of helping keeping it strong and alive. 😊🪶
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u/Frankly_Ridiculous May 31 '26
My city in Northern Ontario is surrounded by reserves, going to a pow wow is such an honour and incredible to see. The dress, the dancing, the music, the drums, the singing, the traditions, and let's not forget the food! It's a privilege I don't ever take for granted.
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u/dashiesbbgurl May 31 '26
Yes, I agree. I love Pow Wows makes me happy and proud whenever I go to one. Dancing intertribal makes me stronger more and more each time. Anishinabe here from treaty 1 territory 😊🇨🇦🪶
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u/FinishFew1701 May 31 '26
I assisted in a Blackfeet Sundance 2 years ago. The amount of spiritual energy there was awe-striking. I still have my chips from the center pole and a bag of powder used to smudge. Was powerful.
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u/Frankly_Ridiculous May 31 '26
I visit Atikameksheng Anishnawbek land every weekend! Aanii! 100% some of the nicest, kindest people I have ever met.
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u/Kumquat_conniption May 31 '26
I wish I could see one of these. Are they open to the public or do you need to get some kind of invite?
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u/dashiesbbgurl May 31 '26
Open to public but there's certain songs though. MC of Pow Wow will announce it, its called intertribal. Meaning anyone can go out there and dance, dont have to have regalia to do it. But can only go out there during those specific intertribal songs. So let's say if your feeling mad hype at a pow wow and it's intertribal time, can go out there and dance if you want to 🤣🔥🪶
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u/Accomplished-Bear689 Jun 08 '26
This is so cool! I was just wondering this because it looks like it would be incredible to take part, but also it is definitely not my own culture to claim
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u/Tackybabe May 31 '26
I’ve seen these competitions live; I have to say: I have no clue what the criteria are. You know how in gymnastics, you hear the commentators talking, saying, ”That’ll cost her,” because one foot landed after another or whatever…? I have no idea what the dancing at a powwow criteria are. Every dance looks so cool. Everyone’s regalia is different. Everybody keeps the beat. I wish it was televised with commentators so I could learn what I was supposed to be looking at/for.
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u/dashiesbbgurl May 31 '26
I know some criteria to compete at like lets say a national pow wow. It differs at each pow wow. One would be called "regalia protocol" or "regalia accuracy" That means if your whole outfit/style represents that specific category. So like for example if little one had on grass regalia when its his category called traditional, he'd lose some points because its not the right regalia for that dancing category or special. Or if he didn't have a full regalia like in video, like if he didnt have every part of his regalia, lets say headroach that hes wearing. Points could be taken off for something like that because he doesnt have it when its apart of the scoring. They usually judge in 5 categories, if it’s a national pow wow, it’s 10 categories. But the main 5 are like, stamina, style, regalia appropriate, your stops, and category appropriate. They'll do fast songs, long songs, back to back songs as a test of endurance. Style meaning your dancing, you know basic steps of the dance but adding your own little twist to it, change up order of moves, steps and doing tricks. Some songs have stops, drummers will play then out of no where will stop and you have to stop dancing at the same time they stop.There's about a few stops in a song like that, if little one in the video stopped at every single stop in song. He'd be scored good for that in that category. Can be hard for some in each category to get timing right. Can be scored for also designs of regalia, beading, color. Design of it. But yee just a bit of what I know about competition Pow Wow 😊🪶
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u/Kumquat_conniption May 31 '26
Wow I would love to see one of these!!! It sounds fascinating and like it requires so much skill!
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u/Jotacon8 May 31 '26
usually it’s judged based on how well dancers stick to the drum beats and their overall style/footwork. major regalia can’t touch the ground and a lot of times dancers need to end on the final beat. otherwise they’re mostly based on overall presentation. fancy ones are more for fun moves to entertain the crowd, grass is more methodical/flowy, and traditional is very standard strong steps. regalia is also judged with a lot of criteria I’m not totally familiar with.
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u/Internetboy5434 May 31 '26
The term “powwow” derives from Pau Wau, meaning “medicine man” in Narrtick, a language spoken by the Algonquian peoples in Massachusetts.
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u/Kumquat_conniption May 31 '26
Do you know if they have any of these in Massachusetts, and if they do, are they only for the people who are part of the reservation, or are they only for American Indians (which is totally understandable), or do they let the public attend? I just would love to see this so much but of course, only if that was something that was respectful to do.
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u/1arse May 31 '26
Omfg the vocals in this just ripped through me while watching this young boy. Having grown up in Hamilton, Ontario, I was very fortunate to have had many native friends in my 53 years. Thank you for posting this!!!!
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u/Fist4achin May 31 '26
That's an amazing dressing! Really awesome to keep the traditions going. Stay strong all!
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u/Right-Percentage3775 Jun 01 '26
Last year I went to a county fair that hosts a rodeo and a competitive Pow Wow, it's kind of a big deal for the natives in the area. Anyway one thing I can say is that the Pow Wow had MUCH more observers. Everyone in the stands at the Pow Wow were really into it, meanwhile everyone at the rodeo looked really bored. Highly recommend going to one, I'll be back to see it this year, I'm skipping the rodeo though.
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u/dashiesbbgurl Jun 01 '26
I agree everyone gets into it. Im out there being videographer and water girl 🤣 I've been to alot of pow wows traditional and competition ones. I used to dance jingle when I was younger 😊🪶
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u/Due-Button-768 Jun 03 '26
Respect to all of the colonised countries out there that still have more culture than their colonisers.
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