Powwow Culture

The Plains region extends from south Canada into modern-day Mexico and from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains. The relatively large area hosts many Native American tribes, which includes the Comanche, Kiowa, and Pawnee just to name a few. One of the biggest events and aspects of Plains region culture is what is known as the Powwow. This event is what makes this region unique and will be the main focus of this part of the essay.

The concept of a Powwow has changed over time due to cultural shifts within Native American communities and the introduction of European settlers. In the modern era of the Powwow, the event is used for all Plains tribes to come together and celebrate their pride and culture. The event itself is extremely

interesting, but the music and dancing involved are what help distinguish this region from the rest. The Plains music can be separated into two separate groups, northern and southern. Both groups use a central drum as the centerpiece for music and dance. The drum hold specials a special place in Plains Indian culture due to its ties with the Great Spirit. Both areas make their own style of drum, with the south producing the larger of the two. The drumsticks used for these drums can vary also depending upon what tribe is playing and what region that certain tribe is from. Once again southern Plains tribes have the larger of the two. Another type of instrument with a strong presence in Powwows is the group known as idiophones. The idiophones mainly include bells or rattles and it is usually the dancers who provide these instruments on their regalia. A good example of this is on CD 1 track 6.
Different song structures occur throughout the Powwow, but first we will talk about the sound of the music and vocal accompaniment itself. For a Northern Plains song the drum beat that is performed during a traditional structure can be described as uneven. This unevenness is accompanied by higher and more strained vocals that can either be vocables or text as heard in CD 1 track 5. The Southern Plains musical sound is somewhat the opposite with an even drumbeat and lower vocal as heard in CD 1 track 1. Once again idiophones can be heard in both tracks thanks to the dancers present
The structure of a song varies depending up what dance is being performed and which tribe is performing.

The first one that will be described is the traditional song structure. This includes a lead, second lead, primary verse, secondary verse, and a stop or tail. Within this structure different aspects of the song are introduced and performed. It starts out with one male singer, transitions to all of the men singing, and then finally all of the female singers join in during the primary verse and continue until the song repeats. The repeat occurs after the second verse and is known as a “start” on the Southern Plains and a “push up” on the Northern Plains. Honor beats also play a key role in the song structure. For a Southern Plains song there are usually only three honor beats, which occur between the primary and secondary verses. A Northern plains song can have anywhere from three to twelve honor beats within a song and these are placed three fourths of the way through the secondary verse.

A second type of musical structure is what is known as a ruffle dance. Both Northern and Southern plains tribes perform these songs and the structures are practically the same, minus the vocal range. The song is performed by alternating between a ruffle, which is random loud beats of the drum, and even beats. Transitions between ruffles and even beats can also have a change in tempo as heard in CD 1 track

3.
During the Powwow many other cultural things occur such as the selling of crafts, art, and food. Many different dance forms including the Jingle Dress Dance, Fancy Dance, Men’s Traditional Dance, and Buckskin Dance also accompany the music being played as described above. Each dance form comes from a different region and has different steps and regalia. Overall the Powwow is a cultural melting pot for Native American tribes of the Plains and is again arguably the most unique aspect of the Plains region’s culture.