News
»Antelope Wacipi beats the heat
Posted Local at Jul 13, 2011
The succession of children who made up of the majority of dancers for this year’s pow-wow
By Elaine Emery
A Wacipi is a gathering where dance, song and family celebration is the main focus. Antelope Wacipi took place July 8, 9, and 10 at the Antelope Pow-wow grounds just south of highway 18.
The pow-wow was free to the public and everyone was welcome to attend. Most of the dancers were children under the age of 18. A great sight to see this weekend was the high turn out of youth that danced for the crowd.
A pow-wow is a place where the youth are shown the language, values and teachings of the elders and community. This has never been more true than at the Antelope Pow-wow as the youth came out to join and observe the festivities.
The Grand Entry was led by Sunny Iron Cloud carrying the brown staff, followed by the Honor Guard carrying the American flag and two Tribal flags. They were followed by the royalty and the dancers.
In the past, one of many ways a pow-wows was put to good use was for people to find romantic partners because all kinds of natives came to join in the festivities. In order to prevent marrying within the same tribe, band or clan natives would go to pow-wows all over the region to meet and greet with fellow natives. A lot of relatives of local natives come home for pow-wows making them a some type of social event and family gathering.
Despite the high temperatures of the weekend people of all ages came out to support the dancers. The dancers themselves didn’t let the heat stop them from dancing in full regalia.
The Antelope pow-wow had a great feel to it due to the excitement of the activities which included mud volley ball, horse shoe tournament and a run/walk in honor of the Antelope pow-wow. It was a great turn out for the Antelope community.
« back to news