Not One Picture.

I had my camera with me all weekend, and didn't take one picture. At times I even had it stashed in my bag. I suppose it is because we had no new stuff to document, and I didn't see anything flash-bang on anyone else.

I did come home with a rather extensive repair and 'to do' list, so I'm sure to get some pictures next time.

Attendance was down a little. I suppose because of gas prices and the economic impact on everything. there were only about 175 dancers - I've been to Labor Day Pow wows that have had well over 200 each night. There seems to be a big group of new mostly white hobbiest people. That's not always a good thing. This group seems to be of the variety that pins a shawl on lil' sissy and puts some leg bells on Bubba and just cuts them loose. We end up with a lot of trashy outfits and poor dancing in the arena. Particularly annoying to me was a group of girls in vaguely traditional outfits that decided to 'flash up' their dancing and boy, did they look bad. It's pretty easy, really; if a girls wants to fancy dance and doesn't have the whole outfit it is acceptable to put a shawl over modest street clothing (long pants or long skirt, full coverage blouse, substantial shoes that won't fly off.) and have a ball. Women of any age in traditional clothing of any sort should be graceful, regal, and reserved. Those aren't my rules, but the rules of the elders of the culture from long time back.

You interested in seeing what bad dancing by white folks looks like through Indian eyes? YouTube has a set of videos labeled something like " pow wow white people ( guy couple chick) dancing badly" some videos are not very complimentary, especially in the comments

~M.