Odenong Powwow brings focus to Indigenous culturesDate: 5/24/2022 AMHERST – On May 28 and 29, the second annual Odenong Powwow will be conducted in-person at Amherst-Pelham Regional High School to celebrate the dynamism of Indigenous cultures and bring visibility to groups of people whom many have overlooked over the years.
Background
In 2020, longtime powwow emcee and singer Justin Beatty had to receive emergency heart surgery after going into cardiac arrest from a near-fatal car accident.
He stayed in the hospital for three months, two of which he was unconscious for, and had to re-learn basic functionalities again, like sitting up or how to hold a pen.
Despite the situation, Beatty received a lot of love and assistance from his friends and family, particularly those within the New England Native community, of which he was a part.
“The Native community here in New England, which I’m a part of, really took care of my family,” said Beatty, who is of Native American and African American descent. “They sent food, they came by the house and took care of the lawn … they sent money to my family to make sure the bills were paid while I was in the hospital.”
By April 2021, Beatty had finished his cardiac rehabilitation and wanted to find a way to show appreciation for the friends and family who took care of him during that rough time. After thinking and praying on it, Beatty, who has been a powwow singer for 20 years and a powwow dancer for close to 40, decided to create the Odenong Powwow.
“It just seemed to make sense to put together an event where people can celebrate who we are as Indigenous people,” said Beatty, who is also a cultural educator, former powwow dancer, artist and community liaison. “[This] gives people an opportunity to come together in some way, form or fashion, and celebrate each other’s time, and focus specifically here on the northeast and New England in particular because most people, when you learn about Native folks, you don’t really learn much … the visibility of Native people has declined since I first moved to Western Massachusetts.”
Beatty, whose Native American background includes Ojibwe and Saponi, created the first virtual Odenong Powwow in collaboration with the Social Distance Powwow – a nonprofit organization with 300,000 people across 100 countries dedicated to providing a virtual space for Native people to conduct powwows.
Rather than using some bland name for his powwow, Beatty said he wanted to create something with a special meaning, so he chose “Odenong” for the name, which represents many purposes, such as community, and roughly translates to “where hearts gather.”
The virtual powwow in 2021 brought together Native American singers and dancers from across the region, as well as guest speakers who worked with Native folks. Beatty then allowed people to send in videos of themselves dancing to powwow music.
“We got videos from as far away as British Columbia, Canada, Arizona, Hudson Bay, Canada, New York state, Florida … just all over the United States and Canada,” said Beatty. “Over the course of that weekend, we got over 84,000 views of the various livestream videos we posted, people dancing, interviews … and it was really well-met by the community here.”
“Unfortunately, people have in their mind that we have to look a certain way in order for them to recognize us as Indigenous people,” Beatty continued. “So, being able to celebrate Indigenous people here in the Northeast was really something that I felt was really important and valuable to give back to the community.”
Brief history of powwows
Ever since moving to Western Massachusetts, Beatty has noticed a drop in powwows across the area. The University of Massachusetts (UMass) powwow, specifically, discontinued after the coronavirus pandemic. “The UMass powwow was really the only semi-major powwow in the area, and they haven’t had that in a couple years,” said Beatty. “There hasn’t been anything in terms of a cultural powwow event since 2019.”
Beatty, who has been involved with powwow music since he was a child, said the artform initially developed separately from any other type of music across the world. It was only influenced by the culture in the Americas. According to Beatty, the core of powwow music is the drum, and the music itself involves a group of singers using acapella.
In a traditional powwow song, there is a lead, which is when one person starts singing a phrase. Then, there is the second, which involves the other singers coming in to repeat that lead phrase. After that, the singers go into the first portion of the verse, and then the second portion of the verse. Most songs are sung four times through using that structure, according to Beatty.
“The drum itself is considered a living entity,” said Beatty, adding that a lot of people often take care of it as if it were a human being. “We refer to it often as the ‘grandfather.’ It brings healing through the use of that drum.”
Powwow singers are often viewed as public servants, and the drum is seen as a being that should not be used to acquire fame or accolades. Often, powwow groups can sing in over 10 different languages, according to Beatty.
“A lot of people think it’s just an instrument, and they can go on YouTube and figure out how to pick it up,” said Beatty. “But there’s a lot of protocol and cultural education that goes into being a powwow singer. It requires years, years, and years of dedication. Because our cultures are dynamic and not static, the music is always evolving.”
The 2022 event
The 2022 Odenong Powwow is open to the public and will run between 10 a.m. and 7 p.m. on both days.
According to Beatty, people can expect vendors of traditional and contemporary Native American crafts, Native American intertribal and competition dancing, Indigenous food, audience participation dances, flute music performances, a fundraiser and raffle auction, artwork, clothing, jewelry and much more.
There will also be informational booths including an organization called Native American Lifelines, which provides healthcare services, as well as the North American Indian Center of Boston – a non-profit organization that assists Native folks with myriad of issues in the Boston area.
This year’s Odenong Powwow will also feature music by the Iron River Singers, the Walking Bear Singers, traditional flute music by Ron Perry, Native American Eastern Social Songs and more.
“People get to see firsthand Indigenous people celebrating who they are,” said Beatty. “A lot of times people get erroneous beliefs of who we are and what we do from movies and books, which may be well-intentioned, but don’t fully capture things about us, because we’re a super diverse group of people.”
According to Beatty, there are 576 federally recognized tribes in the United States alone, including 60-plus tribes that have government-to-government relationships with their respective states. “Then, even beyond that, you have numerous groups of Native American people that don’t have a formal relationship with local, state, or federal government, but are living in the same places they’ve always lived, and practicing their cultures the way they’ve always done so,” said Beatty. “And that’s just in the United States.”
In a world where many view Native Americans as a monolith, Beatty wants the Odenong celebration to bring forth the multi-faceted nature of Indigenous populations, and how each bring something culturally different to the table.
“The cultures themselves vary by region, by locale, by language, by clothing style,” said Beatty. “So, people will have a chance to see cultural practices represented.”
The powwow is entirely community-funded, said Beatty, and he encourages people to donate if they can at https://www.gofundme.com/f/2nd-annual-odenong-powwow. The event is free to the public, however.
Odenong Powwow LLC is a cultural event and educational company based in Hadley, Massachusetts that is dedicated to increasing visibility of Native American, Indigenous, and First Nations people, primarily focusing on New England and the northeastern US. In addition to creating, promoting and hosting the Odenong Powwow, the company also provides lectures, presentations and performances for educational institutions and other businesses.
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