Report on Copan Powwow 2012

by Bruce Martin

was asked to write a little about the Copan Pow-wow this year, so from my perspective here goes. Thursday is the day lots of the Delawares show up and set up camp. A big dinner was held at the Bucky Buck, Bonnie Thaxton camp. A lot of good food and a lot of good people gathered around to eat, talk, and tell stories. Thursday evening was a time for the old social dances and stomp dancing, held in the evening. The weather was nice, the songs were nice, and it was a very good evening.

Copan is famous for rain at some point in time during the pow-wow, but not this year. I think it was the dustiest year we have had in a long time, and windy, but actually wasn’t too hot.

Copan used to be known as the start of the Pow-wow season, and it seemed like this year everyone was excited about coming to Copan.

I had the honor to help out as the Arena Director for Friday evening while Dude Blalock went to his daughter’s graduation and I really enjoyed watching the youth dance and contest. It made me feel good to see a lot of good young dancers up and coming, and seeing them continue on this tradition. The singing is always great at Copan and this year was no exception. I enjoy all the chorus girls that come and help out as well, it just makes the drum sound as “they say” that much more better.

Saturday afternoon was the famous Indian Football Game. It looked as if the men were cruising to an easy victory. So I went back to camp and visited with others. I heard that something crazy had happened and the women ended up winning the game. I will have to go back and look over the tapes and see what happened.

Saturday evening is usually a bigger crowd, and was good to see some old friends there, people came from all over the country to attend this event, Bartlesville, Dewey, Pawhuska, and actually I met a lady from Montana that was there dancing in her Crow Dress. Also friends from the Kickapoo Reservation in Kansas were there, and even some of my old Upward Bound Students and staff were there. Good to see everyone again.

Guess I couldn’t talk about Copan without mentioning the Dog Pound. We took up the Old Skool Fancy Dance Contest again. But I have to give tribal member Mike Gabbard credit for us doing this again. He contacted me on Facebook and asked if we were going to have the Old Skool contest, that a lot of people he has talked with really liked it and enjoyed it, so I got with all the guys and we agreed to do it again. We held a camp 50/50, and Rob, Jay, Jimmie, and myself went camp to camp selling 50/50 tickets to raise money for our contest. We also auctioned off a few blankets, and we did pretty good thanks to all of the campers and visitors. There were around 10 dancers entered into this contest, but the one who stood out to us was Vincent Jackson. Well, in my opinion!… He was there Friday night, and danced all night. He did such a good job in the contest and all weekend, that the Committee selected him as the head man dancer for next year.

Sunday was the men’s contest. Its always a lot of good dancers in all categories. I always enjoy watching the contests, but I really like to just watch the Intertribal’s and everyone dancing together. Listening to the songs, and
just relaxing to the sounds of the dancers’ bells, jingles, and laughter while dancing in the arena. I think that is more of what Copan Pow-wow is about, the friendship, and families getting together, all the visiting and joking and teasing each other. That is what I enjoy the most.

This year the Pow-wow committee selected three new members to be on the committee for next year, I was very surprised they asked me to join them. Jimmie Johnson and Turtle KillsCrow were the other two they invited. I am looking forward to seeing what kind of mischief I can get into now. But I know the three of us will do our best in joining with the rest of the committee to make next years pow-wow as much fun and enjoyable of an experience for everyone as this year’s.

Wanishi.

Traditional dancer Eric Hicks (Creek, Crow, Onondaga).	Unidentified Crow woman dancer from Montana
Fancy Dancer Vincent Jackson, Delaware	Jake Lawhead