Teacher is a powwow dancer at heart

Guide Page 20

During the Canadian prairie winter season, Pat Deiter is a teacher, a parent, a spouse and an ordinary resident of Regina. But once summer comes and the powwow trail beckons, she becomes an avid dancer and attendee at cultural gatherings around her home province.

Deiter is a professor of a course in Pan-Indianism at the University of Regina.

"I teach what is probably the only class on powwows in Western Canada. I teach supra-tribalism, which means that the different tribes coming together are making us stronger as a people. It's an event in which you can participate in any area of North America." Students are often under the impression that powwows are a fairly recent innovation and it's mainly pretty regalia and competition.

ur culture," she said.

Non-Aboriginal students often attend the class as well. "They are learning about our culture and it's a great exercise in cultural awareness for them."

As part of the course requirements, students must attend a powwow and this is usually an eye-opener for the non-Aboriginal students, as well as some Aboriginal people who have not grown up exposed to their culture.

Deiter believes that dancing in a powwow is a ceremony, a cultural thanksgiving and celebration. "But there is the competition aspect too, which is certainly part of our culture too. After all, we have hand games, horse racing and wrestling, too. The competition and the ceremony of a powwow exist side by side," she added.

Long ago, the Aboriginal people had many ceremonies. "We had the Elk Dance, the Bear Dance, and we had warrior societies. Today these have been translated into powwow dances. Sometimes the people dancing belong to the society from which the dance originated. Their outfits reflect that membership," she said.

The drum and the eagle whistles are also part of the traditional ceremony on which the dance is based.

"It's a show of love of our culture and of our people, especially the ancestors who have gone before," she said.

The ever-popular jingle dance originated with the Ojibway or Anishnaabe people.

"It is a woman's prayer dance and comes from a ceremony where a woman is told that if she dances, and honors the tobacco, that her children would get healing. So she made a dress decorated with tobacco lids, which today makes the outfit of the jingle dancer."

There is a similar tradition behind other dances or regalia as well.

Deiter and her family travel the powwow trail continuously during summer months.

"We're a close community and we meet up with relatives and camp together," she said. "Every weekend we see them, and our children get to know both our relatives and our culture. We can continue in our Indian ways, but we also honor our children with these dances."

The young people are very much a part of the activities and attention and encouragement is showered upon them.

"Even the very small ones are dancing for their families and for their nation. We can recognize where newcomers are from by the design and colours in their outfits, as each nation is unique."

Deiter has two sons-an older son, and a 12-year-old who enjoys fancy dancing. As well, a daughter was a jingle dancer before she reached her teen years.

The southern Saskatchewan area is abundant with powwow celebrations within easy driving distance of Regina during the summer months.

"We don't have to go very far to attend a different one every weekend."

Powwows were outlawed in the early years after contact with Europeans occurred, but the spirit of the powwow lived on and could not be squelched.

"We did lose some of our ceremonies such as the Buffalo Society Dance and others, but they are still represented in the powwow circle."

Deiter wrote a book entitled Dances of the Northern Plains many years ago that was published and rests on the shelves of public libraries today.

"I've loved dancing ever since I was a kid, and I was inspired to write about it even when in my teens."