Staying in Step With Tribal Heritage

Though many traveling on the Ventura Freeway over the weekend were no doubt headed to the California Strawberry Festival in Oxnard, 6,000 went in another direction--to Ojai for the ninth annual Lake Casitas Intertribal Pow Wow. The event brought together people from more than 40 Native American nations around the United States and Canada to dance, drum and celebrate their heritage.

Like many others, the Lake Casitas Pow Wow was an intertribal dance competition. For Sunday’s events, the audience formed a ring around the grass dance floor under the hot sun and watched as men, women and children competed for cash prizes.

“We have come to every single powwow here since they started, to see old friends, buy things and watch the dancers,” said Isabell Ayali-Boldez, a Chumash-Natooka from Port Hueneme.

Participants were judged on the appropriateness of their dress, poise, rhythm and more. If so much as one feather was out of place, or one toe tapped where it shouldn’t have, the judges deducted points.

“How the dancers finish a song is crucial. It has to be instant with the drum beat,” explained emcee Tom Phillips, who called the dancers into action. He has emceed close to 30 powwows a year for the last 25 years, including eight out of the nine held at Lake Casitas. “I am a Kiowa from Oklahoma, so this is part of my culture. It comes naturally.”

But a powwow isn’t only about dancing for cash awards.

“I like to encourage young people to dance because otherwise these traditions will die out,” explained Dean Webster of the Ojibwe Nation from Milwaukee, Wis.

“It’s important to be here to represent my culture,” added Ricardo Ramirez, whose ancestors are from Jalisco, Mexico. Last year, he competed with a traditional Aztec dance group Nahui Ol lin, but at this year’s powwow, Ramirez and his wife sold handmade Mexican crafts from their Los Angeles shop and gallery, Taumuvieri. Other booths had Native American jewelry, gifts and clothing for sale, as well as Navajo tacos, fry bread and mocha-ice drinks. (This is Southern California, after all.)

The Lake Casitas Pow Wow was produced by Richard Wixon of Thousand Oaks. His Visions in Time production company is also responsible for the Ojai Renaissance Festival and the Lake Casitas Civil War Reenactment. “I have always been interested in the history of the Western United States, and Native American history is a big part of that,” he says.

Wixon helped found the Indian Education Center in Ventura, a state-funded educational organization that assists Native American students with tutors, and sponsors cultural programs. The Lake Casitas Pow Wow began as a fund-raiser for the center but is now a for-profit venture, a fact that is not lost on some area Native Americans who choose not to go because it benefits an individual, says Paul Varela, director of the Oakbrook Regional Park Chumash Interpretive Center in Thousand Oaks.

The center will hold its own Gathering of the People Pow Wow on Memorial Day weekend in Ojai. Proceeds will benefit the center and the Ish Pahnesh United Band of Indians.

For information on the Memorial Day event, call (805) 492-8076. For other Native American events in Southern California, log onto https://www.ocbtp.com.

Booth Moore can be reached by e-mail at booth.moore@latimes.com.