CLIPBOARD : A POWWOW AT ORANGE COAST COLLEGE

With the recent success of the movie “Dances With Wolves,” there is an increased interest in the religions, customs and lifestyles of American Indians.

In an attempt to bridge cultural gaps and pull the curious into the conscious, Jahee--the American Indian club at Orange Coast College--will host a powwow beginning April 12 and continuing through April 14.

The seventh annual Honoring of the Elders, Traditional Peoples Gathering will kick off Friday night with lectures by Paul Apodaca, a curator at the Bowers Museum, and Little Crow, a spiritual leader and instructor in Native American studies at Cal State Long Beach. The program will also feature Apache dancers from Sherman Indian High School in Riverside, who will perform traditional dances in full dress.

Saturday and Sunday will have more of a fair-like atmosphere with arts, crafts, jewelry, rugs, American Indian foods and more dancing. The dancing will run the gamut from traditional dances featuring grass dances and men’s and women’s fancy shawl dances, to wild competitions including team and rabbit dancing.

Powwows from their inception were cultural exchanges among Indian tribes on the plains. As their alloted living spaces became smaller, tribes began running across each other with more frequency while following the migration of the buffalo.

“A powwow is an intertribal gathering,” said Apodaca, whose ancestry is Navajo and Mexican. “As the Indians began to run into each other on the plains they started learning each other’s dances and costumery. They would also exchange views, marriages, jewelry and songs with other tribes at powwows.”

“We’re hosting this powwow to let people know that we are still struggling today,” said Jahee president Wydale Silversmith, a full-blooded Navajo. “You read about the past and read about the Native American history, but you don’t hear about the issues today. We’re still here--we’re not all on the reservations burying our heads in the adobe. We’re trying to better our lives.”

Jahee (pronounced JAW-ee) is a Navajo word meaning “deaf.” Silversmith said his grandmother gave him the nickname when he was a child. She would call him, and when he didn’t respond quickly enough, she would accuse him of being jahee .

Silversmith adapted the name for Orange Coast College’s Native American club “for people who don’t or are not willing to hear or understand. We are trying to eliminate jahee .”

Hours: 6 p.m. to the program’s end on Friday; 6 p.m. to midnight Saturday and noon to 6 p.m. Sunday.

Address: Orange Coast College, 2701 Fairview Road, Costa Mesa. The cultural presentation Friday evening will be held in the Fine Arts Building; The celebrations on Saturday and Sunday will be at LeBard Stadium.

Telephone: For advance ticket sales and information, call (714) 432-5817.

Miscellaneous Information: Tickets for Friday are $3 if purchased in advance; $5 for adults at the door and $4 for students. Children under 12 are admitted free. There is no charge Saturday and Sunday.