Big River First Nation Chief and Council hosted a Men’s vs Women’s Fancy Special Showdown at their fifth annual Powwow on Thursday evening, July 23.
The event, titled ‘Empowering Our Youth Through Song and Dance,’ took place on July 21-23.
“We’re really honoured that previous Chief, Jack Rayne, brought the powwow back. During his term, he bought the arbour, which we’re really happy (about) so we continued,” said Councillor Sandra Bear in an interview about the special.
“This is the fifth year we’re trying to keep it going for our younger generation and for generations to come, because we need to instill our language within our youth.”
Big River First Nation is approximately 115 kilometres northwest of Prince Albert, near Debden Saskatchewan.
BRFN hosted their fifth annual competition powwow with dance categories for all ages and a variety of dancing styles, and a singing contest for drum groups, and a women’s back-up singing contest.
The Host Drum for this year’s event was Whitetail Boyz, and Co-Host Northern Cree, both winners from the drum contest the previous year.
The powwow was livestreamed each day on POWWOWTIMES Youtube channel, and contest tabulations were done by C&T Tabulations.
Many specials took place, including the Chief and Council Men’s versus Women’s Fancy Special and the Dreaver Family Old-Style Grass Special.
In a competition powwow, a dancing contest takes place over the course of the powwow, where competitors will dance once per day, not including during Grand Entries. A point system is used to judge performances by each competitor throughout the powwow, where the top dancers will receive a cash prize at the end of the powwow.
A special is hosted by either a family from the community hosting the powwow, powwow committee or by the Chief and Council of the respective community.
A special is a special competition outside of regular contest, and is usually geared towards one particular age group and dance style, and does not typically adhere to the same regulations to regular contest.
“We have people from throughout North America here. It’s a lot of people enjoying themselves, they’re loving our nation,” said Councillor Bear when asked about how the powwow has been going so far.
Bear expressed that Chief and Council, and the community of BRFN are very happy to receive positive messages from visitors enjoying the powwow and rich culture.
“They posted on social media about how rich we are here, and that really lifts us up, just knowing how people view our nation. It’s awesome,” expressed Bear.
Bear explained the special was brought to Big River to honour the memory of the late Irene Bear, who was a big support for Bear and her siblings growing up. Sandra’s father, Paul Bear, Irene’s husband, raised Sandra and her siblings in their culture, who now continue to travel North America with their song and dance.
“My sons travel throughout North America and they (saw) this special, so we honoured our mother last year with this. People wanted it back, so Chief and Council brought it back this year for the people,” said Bear.
“Fancy is like an eagle. The women with the shawls, the way they go, it’s like a bird, they’re flowing. Even the men with their unique style, they connect with Mother Earth, (when) they kneel,” explained Bear when asked what the Fancy Dance style means to her.
The Men’s Fancy Feather Dance is also known as the Men’s Fancy War Bustle, or more simply Men’s Fancy Dance. Women have their own style of the fancy dance, called Women’s Fancy Shawl. There are many different unique interpretations of the dance, which varies from dancer to dancer, with two main styles, contemporary, and old-style. Men’s Fancy Dance, also has their own styles, differing from region, northern and southern styles.
Host Drum, Whitetail Boyz began the special with one straight song for the men, consisting of four verses. Whitetail Boyz are from Macy, Nebraska, from the Omaha Tribe in the United States.
The second song for the men was a four verse shake song, sung by Cozad, from Anadarko, Oklahoma, from the Kiowa Nation. Cozad was a competitor in the powwow’s singing contest, who placed first in this year’s competition.
Chief and Council members were the judges for this special, picking their top five dancers from the men’s contenders, to move on to the next round of the special, after the first two songs.
Whitetail Boyz sung the first song for the women contenders, which was a trick song, with four verses.
Cozad sang the second song for the women, singing a four verse ruffle song. Judges picked their top five dancers from the women’s contenders to move on to the next round.
The top five women’s dancers, and the top five men’s dancers pulled numbers from 1-5 from a hat to decide who their competitor of the opposite style would be.
The first pair was Raina Buffalo-Pechawis from Whitecap Dakota Nation in Saskatchewan, versus Wiingashk Shawana from Wiikwemikoong First Nation Unceded Territory in Ontario.
The pair danced off head to head to a two verse ruffle song from Whitetail Boyz. The judges chose Shawana to move on to the final.
The second dance-off was between Delphine Zorthian from Enoch Cree Nation in Alberta, and Sage Crow from Piapot First Nation in Saskatchewan.
They were given a two verse straight song from Cozad, with Zorthian emerging with the victory.
Pair number three was Sierra Bawkwill from Long Plain First Nation in Manitoba, and Pisimoyapi Mitsuing from Makwa Sahgaiehcan First Nation, also known as Loon Lake, located in Saskatchewan.
They were given two verses of a crow hop song from Whitetail Boyz, however the judges requested for only straight songs in the special going forward. The pair danced another two starts of a straight from Cozad, Mitsuing advancing to the next round.
The second-to-last faceoff was between Netty McDermott from Tule River Indian Tribe in California, and Addison Smallboy from Thunderchild First Nation in Saskatchewan.
Whitetail Boyz gave the pair a bullet-fast, two verse, straight song, with McDermott securing his spot in the final.
The last dance-off was between Dezi Tootoosis from Poundmaker Cree Nation in Saskatchewan, and Dasan Scholfield from the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation, in Mayetta, Kansas.
The judges couldn’t decide which dancer to choose after two starts of a straight song from Cozad, and the audience could be heard asking for “one more” song.
The dancers faced off again to three starts of a lightning fast straight song from Whitetail Boyz, with Tootoosis claiming her victory.
Three Men’s Fancy dancers made it to the final round, WIingashk Shawana, Pisimoyapi Mitsuing, and Netty McDermott. Two Women’s Fancy Shawl Dancers also made into the final top five, Delphine Zorthian and Dezi Tootoosis.
The final five danced a four verse straight song from Cozad, then another five verse song from Whitetail Boyz, with the judges picking their winners in order from fifth to first place, after the second verse.
Judges picked their fifth place winner, Delphine Zorthian, followed by Wiingashk Shawana in fourth place, and Dezi Tootoosis in third place.
Pisimoyapi was picked for second place, leaving Netty McDermott to finish the song as the first place champion of the special.
All five finalists won a cash prize, and McDermott was presented with not only prize money, but a gift of a star quilt from Big River First Nation Chief Jonathan Bear.
“Powwow is important for our youth because we have ceremony,” said Councillor Bear.
Councillor Sandra Bear explained the importance of the powwow with teaching ceremony and protocol to the community’s youth.
“We have our elders, knowledge keepers, praying at certain times. Then the only time, the little kids, like 12 and under, you know how kids run around right? They know when it’s band giveaway, the ceremony that’s involved,”
“You’ll see all of the kids in a big circle right around the arbour, and they’re quiet. They’re respectful, and they know that’s the time, like ‘Hey, we’ve got to be quiet, prayer is happening,’ so we’re teaching them, instilling our cultural protocols to the little ones,” explained Bear.
For photos from the event, please see the next edition of Rural Roots.
