Native American Intertribal Festival and Traditional Powwow opens Saturday
10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, 11 a.m. Grand Entry, Freedom Financial Services Expo Center, 3650 N. Nevada Ave., $2 adults, Native Americans in full regalia and children age 12 and younger free, bring chairs as seating is limited; 329-0251, onenationwt.org
Powwow etiquette: Don’t touch or photograph a Native American performer or instrument without permission; you may photograph, though, during a performance; don’t go into the dance arena; and what performers wear is referred to as regalia, not as a costume.
The conversation begins with a dance.
“I’m going to play you a couples dance,” says Urban Turzi over the phone. The indelible combination of stately drumming and strident Indian voices floats behind Turzi’s words. It sounds like a powwow.
It might be. Turzi is executive director of the nonprofit One Nation Walking Together, which, with the Palmer Lake Historical Society, sponsors the annual Colorado Springs Native American Intertribal Festival and Powwow. It’s Saturday at the Freedom Financial Services Expo Center, which has been its home since it moved from a field in Palmer Lake two years ago. In 2013, more than 2,000 attended.
Maybe you can picture a powwow: a collision of color, song, dance and tradition that to non-natives is often as beautiful as it is strange. For them, a powwow is a chance to see a legacy of hundreds of years played out, eat some Native American food and maybe buy some art. But the powwow is essentially for Native Americans, Turzi says, adding that for many, it’s a reunion of sorts.
Tribes from across the U.S. will be represented Saturday. About 250 men, women and children will perform – some as dancers and singers in full regalia (don’t call them costumes, Turzi says) and others playing specially made drums.
About 50,000 Indians live in the Denver area, Turzi adds, and 4,000-5,000 in Colorado Springs.
Over the years, Turzi has attended about 300 powwows. They’re always a lot of fun, he says, full of spectacle and pomp. But for him, there’s something more profound about the sprawling event. He describes the emblematic Grand Entry, a parade of people and performers, which this year is led by an American eagle. Veterans and performers follow. It still stops him short.
“It’s the way they honor the flag, ’cause this is their country first and foremost. On a per capita basis, more Native Americans serve in our military than any other group. They’re still warriors,” he says solemnly. “They’re patriots and this is their country. . That’s the kind of thing that makes me choke up.”
He pauses. Then he laughs. “It’s time for another dance.”
T.D. Mobley-Martinez, tracy.mobleymartinez@gazettedev.gazette.com
Dancers enter the expo center Saturday, July 20, 2013, during grand entry at the Native American Intertribal Festival and Traditional Powwow at the Freedom Financial Services Expo Center. (The Gazette, Christian Murdock)
D.C. Creapeau of Fort Collins dances Saturday, July 20, 2013, during the Native American Intertribal Festival and Traditional Powwow at the Freedom Financial Services Expo Center. (The Gazette, Christian Murdock)
Dancers enter the expo center Saturday, July 20, 2013, during grand entry at the Native American Intertribal Festival and Traditional Powwow at the Freedom Financial Services Expo Center. (The Gazette, Christian Murdock)