In the Spotlight...
Posoh, Aneq Nap!

My name is Darwin Dick and I am a Menominee student here at UW-Green Bay. I am currently a senior and will be graduating in fall of 2004. I will be graduating with a double major in Political Science and Public Administration. After graduating, I plan to obtain a position working in Tribal Government/Legislation for either the Menominee or Oneida tribes. I grew up on the Menominee Reservation (Keshena, WI) and went to school in Gillett, WI. My hobbies include sports, working out, traveling, and hanging out with my family and friends. Most importantly, I am a constant participant (dancer) in pow wows around the United States. I started dancing when I was a youngster and have never stopped. I love the thrill and enjoyment I get from being involved in my culture especially when I compete in dancing competitions. To me pow wows are my source of survival; they are my heritage and my culture in which I pride very much.

Lots of Masa
Diana Borrero Lowe

If you passed by the dining room kitchen and saw a bunch of “masa” covered students on Sunday, March 28, that was OLA. Masa is the Spanish word for dough and the OLA students were busy making 850 tamales that were ordered by students, staff and faculty. I spent the day making tamales, listening to great Latino music and the sweet sounds of the Spanish language as the conversation flowed around us. Students from the OLA organization and some of their family members joined in the effort so we had the “elders” stamp of approval on the tamales. It was an excellent bond creating fundraiser; we were tired but happy at the end of the day. The dining room staff and the chef, Tim Hummel, were so cooperative and helpful, we couldn’t have asked for better partners in our efforts. We hope everyone who purchased tamales enjoyed them. The money raised helped students attend the United States Hispanic Leadership Institute held in Chicago every year.

First Pow Wow
Eutimio Talavera

Chicago, IL, summer, 1990. It all seemed to remain secondary that the Native American youth of Generation X had unfortunately entered adolescence with an inadequate cultural identity in the city. Spending a little time on the Oneida Reservation in my youth allowed me to see the reality that us city-folk Natives had very little cultural identity compared to what a lot of Reservation children take for granted.

It's notable to suggest that as city-raised Native Americans, we thought we were each a part of perhaps the only Native American family in Chicago. Nonetheless, all the dancing, drumming, singing, and beautiful outfits made no sense to me growing up. I had never seen pow wows very much. I was raised as an average American-city-boy. A lot of my friends that I mention shared the same type of experiences as I did. It all changed for us that summer of 1990.

Many of us, about 15 in total, represented many different tribes, and were taught things about our heritage. We learned how to dance and they gave us our own start to a dance outfit--all for the very first time--thanks to a very well-funded summer program on the University of Illinois at Chicago campus. It was a three-week stint.

Our best highlight was that we had dancers at the annual Chicago Pow Wow for each style of dance that year. We overwhelmed our age groups, and ignited a revival. Keep in mind that it has always been a pow wow dominated by dancers from all sorts of reservations that come to compete for money. Of course, I felt it was all based on favoritism and none of us won but it still felt good to be together like that.

The bureaucracy of the pow wow was our swan song, and we disbanded and eliminated ourselves from pow wow competitions. I, on the other hand, after going strong for five years, moved to Green Bay, but my quest to find my identity took me to South Dakota in 1995 to experience what it would feel like to live in a community of traditional Native Americans around my age out in the middle of country fields. I consider that experience to be a type of pow wow with more of a spiritual significance because we all created this enormous energy of young pride like it was meant to be. It was like a non-stop pow wow gathering.

I've yet to top the South Dakota experience, but you cannot forget your first reason for dancing at your first big Pow Wow.

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