Haverhill's Plug Pond will host the Massachusetts Center for Native American Awareness's 22nd annual Intertribal Pow-Wow and Native American Crafts Festival on Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 11 and 12, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
The two-day event will feature, after a five-year absence, the return of the Tlacopan Aztec Indian Dancers, a traditional dance group formed 50 years ago that narrates its dances to help the audience interpret the symbolism of the Aztec's regalia.
The group performs in handmade, beaded costumes with colorful headdresses adorned with macaw and pheasant feathers.
The Wolf Cry Singers, an intertribal women's hand drum group, will also perform traditional and modern songs from the Mi'kMaq, Cherokee, Navajo, Abenaki and Delaware tribes.
The goal, according to MCNAA Board Member Anthony Silva, is an accurate portrayal of all Native American culture, but complete accuracy is impossible with the large number of different tribes in various parts of the country.
"Although the basic cultural values and beliefs were shared by most Native Americans, regional differences do exist," Silva said, citing an example of how Eastern Woodland Native Americans relied on hunting deer or elk to survive, while living in domed homes more suited for forest living, whereas the Native Americans living in the plains hunted buffalo and lived in cylindrical and mobile teepees.
The gatherings are not just for Native Americans, however. They can be used to break down stereotypical barriers that have been built up for centuries.
"If you ask a child what a Native American looks like, you will get a visual of a person with feathers holding a weapon," said MCNAA board member Claudia Fox Tree. "That image is so ingrained in the United States psyche that it is difficult to unravel because alongside that image is the teaching that most Native people are dead."
Silva concurs, saying that historically, powwows were gatherings for various tribes to share and trade with one another, but now powwows are shifting toward promoting cultural awareness.
"Contemporary pow-wows (have) evolved to include all people to share in Native culture," Silva said. "Pow-wows are educational as well as entertaining."
These events also showcase true Native Americans who combine traditional rituals with their contemporary lives, Fox Tree said, adding that visitors have the opportunity to experience the original American culture.
"For us, a pow-wow is a social gathering where we can see and interact and dance with other Native Americas in ways that our ancestors have been getting together for generations," she said. "It's like Facebook live."
Having the two-day cultural event in Haverhill will promote Native American awareness across the Merrimack Valley.
"These roads were probably once the trails and paths which Native people walked," Fox Tree said. "The fields were probably clear-cut by indigenous people."
The suggested donation is $5 for adults, $4 for senior and MCNAA members, $3 for children aged 4 to 12 and free for younger children.
For more information, visit mcnaa.org.
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