This year’s Santa Ynez Chumash Intertribal Pow-Wow event is the tradition’s golden anniversary. It began in 1965 as an effort to raise funds to bring running water to the reservation. Now the annual Pow-Wow event invites competitive dance and drum ensembles from across the continent—from the American Southwest, to the Northern states, and up into Canada.
The course of events, which take place on Oct. 3 and 4 at Live Oak Camp near Lake Cachuma, include competitions as well as showcases of many traditional dances, explained the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians’ Cultural Director Nakia Zavalla. The day begins with a Gourd Dance, Zavalla said, which goes on for an hour.
“It comes from the Southern tribes, and a lot of veterans dance Gourd Style,” she said. “And what is going on is they are basically praying for the arena, that’s why it’s the first thing that goes on at a Pow-Wow.”
An array of dancing and drumming ensembles, often families, descend on the Live Oak Camp, ready to don the regalia of their tribes and engage in friendly competition, while sharing their traditional dances for the two-day event.
For many, including Zavalla, it’s a tradition that began early in their lives. Young children are often invited into the arena to dance almost as soon as they are able to walk, Zavalla said.
“When you have a baby, your baby makes her way into the arena and just gets to kind of cruise around so they’re exposed to the arena,” she said. “You’re going anyways, you go as a family to the Pow-Wow, and even though you are too small to go out in a category to dance, you get to go out and dance.”
Zavalla was invited out as a toddler, she said, as her father Peter Zavalla has danced competitively for years. She did the same with her two daughters, Tani Zavalla, 22, and Hannah Lent, 17, who both debuted as youngsters and continue to dance at Pow-Wows beyond Santa Ynez.
There are a variety of different dances that are judged, and Zavalla and her family focus on differing styles when competing, she said. Her father dances Northern Traditional, she said, but Zavalla dances Southern Buckskin Traditional when she competes, ever since she returned to competitive dancing as a young adult.
“When I did that I actually had a mentor, and she brought me back out into the arena, because I had stopped dancing for a long time. But I started up again and I wanted to come out into the arena in a good way, respectfully,” she said. “For me, this was coming out as a woman, and this was the style I chose to do.”
The art is hugely respected among families and tribes that participate in, or host Pow-Wows, Zavalla said, because it is thought of as a continuation of a great tradition. The competition is always friendly, she said, and dancers are scored on their regalia and the technique of a group or solo performer.
The event is also a great chance for friends and families to connect, Zavalla said.
“Sometimes Pow-Wows are reunions, and you see a friend maybe you haven’t seen in a while,” she said. “Everybody meets up at the Pow-Wow and just kind of picks up where they left off.”
It’s not just the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians’ Pow-Wow that gives Zavalla the chance to dance with her family though, she explained. With her daughter going to college up north, other Pow-Wows throughout the year allow the family to come together again on a break from the daily grind of work or school.
It’s the Pow-Wows that get the whole family together—including her father, Peter—that seem to mean a lot though, she said.
“I can tell you, with my Dada, when we’re with him, he is so proud and so happy,” she said. “It’s awesome to see. He’s just laughing and really enjoys himself anyway, but knowing that we’re there with him, it makes him even more proud.”
Arts Editor Joe Payne is always impressed by good rhythm. Contact him at jpayne@santamariasun.com.
VIA CHUMASH LIFE YOUTUBE CHANNEL
This article appears in Oct 1-8, 2015.
