On the baby front: Mahko is now three months old and suprised us all on his month birthday by rolling over. twice. from his belly to his back. Of course, when I tried to video it (third time's a charm, right?) he refused and instead laid on his belly with his face buried in the bedspread crying and drooling. Performance anxiety at 90 days. poor boy. Of course, this just means we have to start him in junior gymnastics classes a little sooner than we had originally planned, just to give him a boost. I am still intending on winning Mr. Junior Connecticut with him by age three. mark my words.
On the trying to ignore school starting front: On sunday we went to Schmitzun, the giant Pequot powwow at foxwoods casino. I won't link to it, because the website is pretty stupid. Anyway, I have such mixed feelings about powwows. When I was in college I was chair of the powwow committee, and we put on a darn good powwow the two years I was running it. Even so, by the second year the whole event was crumbling due to internal struggles, and my senior year of college was blissfully powwow free. Even so, it was a rough year. Anyway, powwows always bring up interesting issues with me.
For anyone who doesn't know, a powwow is a large event in which people dress in more traditional style clothing and dance traditional dances. I use the word traditional with a certain degree of reservation (hah! pun!) because both the dances and the dress are derived from a more pan-indian plains indian tradition. Of course, flourescent green feathers and bright pink yarn aren't really traditional to any particular place, so the use of the word is very flexible. Often the dancing is judged and prizes are given to the best dancers in a variety of categories.
My biggest problem with powwows is that they have become the mainstream indian gathering event in America. As a result, these pan-indian "traditions" are washing out the real traditions of smaller native groups. With over 500 different native groups in america right now, it seems a real shame that so many natives feel they should put so much energy in dancing for money at powwows instead of devoting time and energy to promoting their own traditions. There are a lot of people who practice both their own dances and traditions and still dance powwow style, but in the urban indian population it seems to me like powwow culture is the overarching indian culture identity.
Just the same, I still attend powwows when I get a chance. In California and in Connecticut, they are about the only place I can go and feel like part of a crowd, not the minority. When I'm home in New Mexico it seems kind of silly to go out of my way to go to a powwow, but while I am away they are actually kind of nice.
As a result, I have secret ambitions to be a jingle dancer. There, I said it.
This is a big confession. My dad would not approve. This is so far from the Apache culture, even though we used jingles too. One of the problems for us is that we have such a small tribe, powwow-friendly tribal members have been trying and succeeding in slipping powwow-style things into our cultural events. Unfortunately, this ends up replacing other, perhaps more important and unique tribal practices.
Anyway, I have a crush on jingle dancers. I love the jingles, I love the regalia, I love the way the dance looks. Sigh. If I had all the time in the world I would make a dress and learn to dance and start attending powwows in the area. that would be cool.
just don't tell my dad.