Thousands Get Into the Spirit of the Occasion

Before the second day of the annual Southern California Indian Center Pow Wow reached full swing, Navajo elder Allen Neskahai, 68, hushed an audience of thousands who had come to revel in Indian culture and spoke to the Great Spirit.

“We come to you with clean hands and clear hearts,” Neskahai said. “Remind us that the Earth does not belong to us. Everything around us has a spirit, the wind, the trees, the water, everything.”

“Thank you for all the different races and people gathered here,” he continued. “Help us not to be misled by things that are material, and help us to take care of the mother earth, who loves us so much.”

Blessing concluded, the drummers of Southern Medicine began to sound, the singers sang out in call and response and hundreds of dancers filed onto the field for the grand entry of the tribes into the Orange County Fairgrounds.

Elders laden with eagle feathers danced with measured dignity. Girls with fancy dress shawls whirled and spun. Old and young marched around the dancing circle, stamping their heels to jingle the bells wrapped around ankles and calves.

Throughout the day, different tribes competed in dance contests. Crowds watched under shady, striped tents when there was room, or stood in the sun when there was not.

Beyond the dancing area, booths offered traditional and modern Indian crafts including silver and turquoise jewelry, kachina dolls, leather crafts, T-shirts and pottery. Food vendors sold Navajo tacos, tamales and fried bread.

But if the variety of Indian culture was on display in booth after booth, for many, both Indian and non-Indian, the music and dancing best represented the event’s soul.

“These are dances that have been done for thousands of years,” said Thomas Parilla, 43, Northern Plains traditional dancer from Rancho Cucamonga.

“The dances I do were done by the warriors,” he said. “Warriors did more than fight, they protected the families and were the last line of defense in times of trouble.”

The gathering of more then 300 tribes serves a dual purpose, he said. For Indians, it is a social celebration of their culture. For non-Indians, it is a reminder that Indians still exist and are not just characters in cartoons or cowboy movies.

“I’ve had people tell me I’m not a real Indian, because the Indians all got killed dead and they’re only in books now,” Parilla said. “This type of event helps get rid of that perception.”

Gina Anticevich of Fountain Valley said she brought her children, Alexandra, 7, and Jessica, 5 specifically so they would see “real live Indians.”

“I try to teach them to learn there are all different cultures,” Anticevich said. “There’s not just white people; there’s all different kinds of people, and it’s good to love everybody. Everybody has the same heart.”

“I think Indians are nice,” announced Alexandra, and Jessica agreed. Both girls sported a feather stuck in the middle of their red-and-white hair bows.

Their aunt, Stephani Spagnoli, however, had a more concrete agenda for the girls.

“They need to know that Indians are good people and they need to know the negative history about how the Indians were treated badly so that if they can do anything to make up for it, they will,” Spagnoli said.

Several non-Indians said the celebration of Indian customs and values at the Pow Wow tapped into a yearning for the simplicity that eludes them in day-to-day life.

“It’s so pure and so wholesome in the face of modern life,” said Barbara Komandina, 52, of Whittier. “Not that they’re still living the way they once were, but I think their own longing to get back to basics is what appeals to us all.”

Today is the last day of the Pow Wow. Gates open at 9 a.m. A gourd dance begins at 10 a.m. and the grand entry of tribes is at noon. Admission is $5 for adults, $3 for seniors and teens 12 to 17 and $1 for children 6 to 11. Admission is free for children 5 and under.