By Scott Hewitt | Photography by James Rexroad | The Columbian | April 21, 2022
Mia Bennett, a 13-year-old Shahala Middle School student, said growing up Yakama in Vancouver sometimes means educating her school friends and teachers about her “other” identity.
“Sometimes I hang out with friends at school who don’t know anything about it,” said Mia, who will be one of three head dancers at a powwow Saturday at Clark College. “When I invite them to the powwow they say, ‘Powwow, what’s that?’ And I have to explain what it is.”
The answer: A powwow is a gathering of tribes for dancing, socializing and honoring traditions. It’s a practice that began on the Great Plains circa 1900, when white America was on the march and Native Americans were seeking solidarity in retreat.
Today’s powwows continue as noisy, friendly community celebrations focused on dancing and drumming, with plenty of room around the edges for mingling, browsing craft booths and sampling fry bread.
Photo: Chinook Indian Nation member and Union High School junior Destany Reeves-Robinson, 17, dances in her handmade butterfly regalia alongside the Washougal waterfront. “I love butterflies and I’ve been told I dance like a butterfly,” she said. She’s been lobbying for Chinook elders to make that her official tribal name
