Pow Wow time in the high desert
We have been vending at Pow Wows for about 8 years now. Our first was the Edmonds Community College when our Alannah was still in Momma's womb. We were called Dream Yourself Awake then, after both Tracy and I had been to some Robert Moss dream workshops. Tracy had been offering intuitive reading at local psychic fairs around the north end of Puget Sound and we were hosting regular dream workshops using Moss's Lightening Dreamwork process. It was during one of the workshops that I was being carried as a salmon by a great Thunderbird back to the tree of our People. Before the journey tho, it had a great amount of darkness to release that I think is the Kushtaka energy of my last two posts.
For us northern, coastal natives the salmon is the nourishment of the People like the Buffalo is for the Plains natives. This vision became the applique for the back of my button blanket as the first piece of regalia that I wanted to make when I started down the road to remember what was never to be forgotten. Of course I didn't know how to sew, and wanting to to it right, I looked for something that I could use that would help me learn to use a sewing machine. I had just bought a hand drum from a local pawnshop near Tulalip so I looked on etsy and pinterest to see what and how others were making bags to carry drums in. After getting some ideas I designed a shoulder bag. Made one for myself and then one for Tracy. New to the craft, I was excited to use a 60% off coupon at JoAnn Fabric and got the most expensive fabric for the outer shell. A faux leather at 35.00 a yard. The strap was built around the pocket so was not adjustable, had a fleece and cotton batting liner with the accessory pocket built into the flap.
Tracy had started making earrings and pendants to add to her table for the psychic fairs and after making a drum bag for a sweat family member, I added my drumbags to our offerings. When we got pregnant with Alannah, Tracy started to focus more on wire-wrapping more jewelry and doing less readings at the fairs. Eventually we started focusing only on our art for vending and Tracy took the readings to online phone and zoom clients.
At the first Pow Wow we did in Edmonds, I took a look around and saw what the other vendors were offering and decided not to make or offer things that they were selling. I had friends that made drums and did leatherwork so I felt like what I was offering was a compliment to them and not competition. As a northern native whose father was white I have always felt a little out of place at these types of gatherings but like to look back and laugh about that first event, when I saw a Lakota friend walking towards us and waved. His wife said to him, 'Hey, that white guy is waving at You'. LOL I learned a lot at those Pow Wows in Edmonds over the years. Became friends with another vendor that made and sold drums and flutes who gave me pointers on stitching for my drum bags and different ways he laced his hand drums. I shared a booth with my friend and Brother who first taught me to make a hand drum the second year. But mostly, what I loved about that venue was how close the vendors were to the dance. I could watch and listen as the MC and director explained the meanings behind the dances and how to honor an Eagle feather that fell from a young dancer's regalia.
I had heard about the Jingle dance being a healing ceremony but when a young lady fell from a seizure and had to be taken from the auditorium by paramedics the event director and elders brought out healing herbs and cleansed the floor where she had fallen and then asked all of the jingle dancers in attendance to circle the floor and focus all of their healing energy towards her as she was taken to the hospital. It was a powerful moment that still brings a tear to my eye as I remember the Love shared that afternoon. Perhaps that is why my favorite sound at a Pow Wow is the sound of a Jingle Dancer walking by my booth. My second favorite sound is, after a three day event, that I can still hear the drums and singing in my ears as I drive home.
My sewing got better over the years with applique designs, stitching, and hardware choices. Bias tape and French seams make them more durable and more professional looking. I did a lot of four directions medicine wheel in the beginning, using the order of colors that I learned from the Red Road to Wellbriety program. This was not a teaching that I remembered from my own Tsimshian or Tlingit heritage and was a little confused about the placement of colors on the wheel. I remember seeing a photo from Standing Rock protests with four young men, each with a red, black, white, and yellow medicine wheel but each one had the colors in a different order. I tend to use the order I first saw on t White Bison's Meditations of Native American Elders book with white in the North, yellow in the East, red in the South, and black in the West. One time, when I was sitting in my booth at the Muckleshoot Veteran's Pow Wow I noticed that I had accidentally turned the wheel a quarter turn to the right on the front of a bag. I had already noticed that the Muckleshoot logo had a medicine wheel with the white and yellow below the black and red so I had made some xmas ornaments and talking circle centerpieces to match to accommodate their choice. Just a few moments after noticing my mistake a young man stopped in front of my booth when he saw it and said that it was actually the first time he saw someone get the colors in the right order.
More recently, at Northern Arizona University's winter Pow Wow, an elder came up to me after seeing my Tsimshian Medicine wheel and said, "You know, You have the colors in the wrong order?" Still in the order that I got from the Red Road book I told him where I got the order and how I had done research behind the symbolism of the colors and the symbolism of the four Tsimshian crests. We talked for a while about how the colors were arranged at Sundance and about drums and their hides. Shortly before he had come by a young man had asked what skin was on one of my drums. When I told him Elk he quickly said he could not have that as it was not his medicine. Back in the Pacific Northwest hunting elk is common as is using its hide for making drums. The elder shared with me that for the local tribes elk is a feminine energy and might be used by a young man to draw the correct mate to him, or by a medicine man who was helping with feminine issues. Not knowing these things, I had bought an elk hide to make into hand drums and now had a handful of drums that I might not be able to sell. I appreciated greatly the knowledge gained from the Elder Sundancer and made a nice enough impact on him that he asked me to reskin his drum that a nephew had left out on the porch.
That is definitely another big difference from the rainforests of the PNW to the dry heat down here in the Arizona desert. When I first learned how to make drums, I was told not to touch the drum for three days as that was how long it would take the skin to dry/tighten around the frame. I was surprised when the first drums I made here were dry the next day even tho I wasn't pulling the lacing as tightly. As the day warms I can hear ticking as the skins tighten around the frames so I lightly mist the backs of them throughout the day.
0ne thing that has been a constant in my booth at Pow Wows and some craft fairs has been a four directions altar cloth, a medicine wheel centerpiece that we use in a talking circle, as well as my Red Road to Wellbriety books. Getting back to our traditional ways, in harmony with Mother Earth and all of her children, working through our traumas so that we can all move forward in a loving communities is so important to me that I have said selling one drum bag to cover the booth fee was worth it as long as I was able to spend the days talking to People about getting well. It is said that You can be clean and sober and yet still not be well. Back in Washington I had the honor of leading a weekly talking circle. Since we have been on the road my medicine pouch, cloth and feather stay in the center console of my truck and come out whenever the opportunity arises.
Studying the Red Road teachings while reconnecting with the teachings of my Tsimshian and Tlingit traditions is what led me to creating the Tsimshian Medicine wheel, the Seven Directions Medicine Wheel, and the Kushtaka Behind Bars Project. These elements tend to dominate my booth and conversation with People at events. Thankfully, after sharing the story of the Kushtaka and deception that is controlling our modern world, no one has said they thought I was crazy or even spreading untruths or disinformation. Some even appreciated the message to want to be a part and help spread the message in their own communities. One time, while sharing how a Kushtaka Behind Bars drum had been bought by a young Lady in Oregon, I was told that when the listener closed his eyes he could see that every time she hit the drum it was sending the message and energy out into the world. The Kushtaka is a deceiver, an energy that causes the People to think and see the world in an untrue way. It is up to us to live by example, in a good way, in our communities.
I tend to price these pieces a little bit higher so that the buyer sees the value and commits to the intention of helping to make it happen. When talking about the copper shield design I let People know that it is said to represent our wealth and prestige. And for our People that is how much we give as opposed to how much we have in our bank accounts and storage cache. But it can also be used to represent a significant event and I use it here in an effort to make the event happen.
At this year's Prescott Pow Wow I shared all of this with a young couple from Massachusetts, Ernesto and Tanya. They had expressed interest in buying a drum but were flying back home that night so bought a few stickers and left saying they would pick out a drum from the website when they got home. Last year's Pow Wow had been my most successful event ever and as we are trying to come up with funds to pay our lease at the end of the month I was sitting there slightly disappointed that I had made less than 100 dollars, not even half of the booth fee.
They came back and said, 'We decided to do it.' I jumped up reaching for one of the drums they had tried and said, 'which one did You want to get?' They both pointed up at the Kushtaka Behind Bars drum that has been hanging in my Booth for two years. They had heard the story, got the message and wanted to be a part of getting that intention out into the Universe. Tanya decided she would take it home as a carry on item so they needed a bag to carry it in. We worked out a package deal and I told them they were going to make me cry as I gave them both big hugs. That drum is now back in Masssachusetts where our friends and family are on Tracy's side and I look forward to it being spotted in the wild by our family out there.
This year's event was a little colder but at least I didn't have to sleep in the back of the truck as Tracy and Alannah got me a tent for my birthday this year. Friday night after I lay down and closed my eyes the darkness turned bright with Lightning and then crack of thunder for awhile before the rains started. My booth tent leaked, but only on the chair and blanket Alannah had been using to keep warm. My button blanket was still dry and kept me warm and comfortable both nights.
We may still be struggling to make ends meet and extend our lease but it warms my heart that the People are awake to seeing the deception and open to doing whatever it takes to get back to living in a good way.
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