{"id":47002,"date":"2025-05-12T08:57:33","date_gmt":"2025-05-12T15:57:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newmexicopbs.org\/productions\/newmexicoinfocus\/?p=47002"},"modified":"2025-05-12T08:57:37","modified_gmt":"2025-05-12T15:57:37","slug":"powwow-class-gives-urban-native-families-space-to-celebrate-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newmexicopbs.org\/productions\/newmexicoinfocus\/powwow-class-gives-urban-native-families-space-to-celebrate-culture\/","title":{"rendered":"Powwow Class Gives Urban Native Families Space to Celebrate Culture"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Niko DeRoin-Silva has been in the powwow arena since she could walk.\u00a0\u00a0 She was too young to remember that time, but relatives of hers speak about it fondly. Growing up in Northern California, away from her tribal community, dancing helped her feel connected.\u00a0\u00a0

“Sometimes we call it a coming out ceremony, where we give someone the right to dance, and the person sponsoring the dancer will show them around the arena, teach them about their regalia,\u201d DeRoin-Silva (Otoe-Missouria\/Choctaw) said. \u201cI know for my own tribe, we dress them in the arena as a witness. Everybody can see that they are loved, they are cared for, they are supported.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, DeRoin-Silva is hosting free, weekly classes in downtown Albuquerque, where families practice dancing and share knowledge with each other, like how to make regalia to wear at powwows \u2014 gatherings hosted by many, but not all, Indigenous communities in the U.S. and Canada that feature dancing, singing and drumming.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re urban, you\u2019re disconnected, and we\u2019re bombarded constantly with our job, school, having to study, of course, technology all the time,\u201d DeRoin-Silva said. \u201cAnd I wanted to provide a safe space where adults and youth could come and explore their culture in a positive way.\u201d\u00a0

At an April class, a couple dozen families, some with teenagers and others with toddlers, arrived at the Resilience Hub, run by local nonprofit New Mexico Community Capital. They grabbed food as they caught up, and later, took part in what\u2019s called grand entry, where all dancers entered the circle to a song from drum group Shield Chief.\u00a0\u00a0

DeRoin-Silva also goes over etiquette during each class.
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\u201cIf you are at a powwow and you get called up to receive a gift, it\u2019s protocol to go around the arena,\u201d she told attendees. \u201cYou\u2019re going to come around the perimeter of the circle up to where you\u2019re being asked to come up. And that might be if you\u2019re head dancer and you\u2019re receiving a gift, if you\u2019re somebody being honored, or if you\u2019re just somebody that wants to go up to the announcer stand to ask a question.\u201d\u00a0

Juanita Growing Thunder (Assiniboine\/Sioux), who was at the class with her daughter Jessa Rae and her granddaughters, said she\u2019s proud of DeRoin-Silva for giving young people a space \u201cwhere they can come and learn these things, and they don\u2019t have to be embarrassed.\u201d
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That\u2019s been a dream of DeRoin-Silva\u2019s for years, said Jessa Rae Growing Thunder (Assiniboine\/Sioux), who hasn\u2019t missed a class since they started earlier this year. She and DeRoin-Silva grew up together.\u00a0

\u201cI was tearing up tonight because I was telling her it\u2019s really cool to see everybody get more and more comfortable being here,\u201d she said, and that includes her two daughters. \u201cThis is a safe place, and not every place is safe for us to come as women and bring our kids and share space and learn from one another. And so Niko has done it.\u201d\u00a0

DeRoin-Silva, who moved to Albuquerque for college, taught her first formal powwow lessons in 2019 at the Native American Community Academy, where one of her daughters was a student.\u00a0

\u201cIt was really cool to see people when they came to pick up their students,\u201d DeRoin-Silva said. \u201cYou know, I had dads that said, \u2018Hey, I have a drum. Do you mind if I bring it?\u2019 And I\u2019m like, \u2018Yes, of course.\u2019 \u2026 And another parent said, \u2018Hey, I have these shawls that are just collecting dust. Maybe I could donate them to your class.\u2019 I had another parent offer to sew parts of regalia. And so community just started to form from that one class, and it just snowballed.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s been her experience with this new class, too.\u00a0

Shield Chief, the drum group, has shared songs at a couple recent classes, and they\u2019ve answered questions from attendees, like at what age boys can start singing. Growing up with his family\u2019s drum group, head singer Wil Gover (Pawnee\/Tohono O\u2019odham\/Cherokee) said he took that kind of knowledge for granted.\u00a0\u00a0

\u201cBut for someone that doesn\u2019t come from maybe that background, or doesn\u2019t know the etiquette and the protocol, could be a little intimidating,\u201d Gover said. \u201cSo definitely glad to come out and answering those questions and helping through the process and just show that it is open and it\u2019s welcoming. You know, it shouldn\u2019t be a scary thing to either try to learn to dance or sing.\u201d\u00a0

DeRoin-Silva sees the class as a form of resistance.\u00a0

The roots of modern powwows can be\u00a0traced<\/a>\u00a0back to the\u00a01800s<\/a>. They continued to grow as the Indian Relocation Act of 1956 brought more Native Americans to cities \u2014 part of a\u00a0larger effort<\/a>\u00a0by the U.S. government to assimilate them and, ultimately, dispossess them of their lands. The Bureau of Indian Affairs touted the relocation program as an opportunity to escape poverty on reservations and find good housing and jobs in cities. In reality, tribal citizens who relocated were\u00a0met with<\/a>\u00a0unemployment, discrimination and a loss of community support and cultural connection.\u00a0

As that was happening, DeRoin-Silva noted, the American Indian Movement started up in 1968 as a response to injustices stemming from colonialism.\u00a0 \u201cYou have this uprise of these repressed Indigenous communities starting to say, \u2018Hey, we\u2019d like to reclaim that. And, yeah, let\u2019s go forward and be community, and we\u2019re in these urban areas, and let\u2019s learn from each other.\u2019 And so powwows sort of became the new community event, where everybody could come together,\u201d DeRoin-Silva said. \u201cAnd, you know, it was resistance. It was definitely resistance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Bella Davis, Indigenous Affairs Reporter New Mexico In Depth\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This story is part of a collaborative series from New Mexico PBS and <\/em>New Mexico In Depth<\/a>\u00a0called\u00a0<\/em>Indigenously Positive. Bella Davis (Yurok) was the host\/producer for this episode; NMPBS\u2019 Joey Dunn (Din\u00e9) was the director\/producer; NMPBS Multimedia Producer Benjamin C. Yazza (Din\u00e9) was a producer.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n