25th Annual Pow Wow

A Tradition of Time and Place

July 27, 2010

By Lydia Garcia
For days the only visible sign of an upcoming 25th Annual Taos Pueblo Pow Wow were the newly cut dirt road and the poles in a circle in the middle of a pasture on the edge of the Taos Pueblo. Suddenly on the Thursday before there were fresh cut arbors of branches on structures and signs of camps setting up on the northeast edge and food vendor trucks setting up on the western edges.

Like many, this gadfly has waited with the anticipation of brilliantly colored dancers, drums and singing and the smells and tastes of our favorite festival foods that fill grounds. Sitting under the arbor I could hear the nervous jangling noises of dancers waiting to register for the three-day event.

Diane Motley and her husband have been traveling with the Barbeque Pit Express and selling frito pies, philly steak sandwiches and chili cheese fries at the Pow Wow from the beginning of the annual event. Diane and her husband Carl live in Prescott Arizona and have worked the pow wows and and festivals in New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona for 30 years. Diane offered, “We like coming here. We take our time, spend a couple days prior to the event.�

The Motleys arrived here from Pagosa Springs Colorado and leave for Dulce, New Mexico when the Pow Wow wraps up Sunday night.

Brothers and jewelers, Fernando and Mel Benalli, moved to Santa Fe from Gallup, New Mexico. Third generation Navajo jewelers, the brothers have been making jewelry and working the circuits for 18 years. Their beautiful overlay and inlay jewelry looks as though it should be displayed in a top-drawer gallery. Mel offered, “We don’t sell to wholesalers and we don’t market in the retail areas. We prefer to do shows like this and Indian Market because we can bring our beautiful work to the people in a way that honors our traditions.�

At last the Grand Entrance began with a voice growing in the darkening sky, “We honor our veterans— those who came before us, those who did not return and those who have come proudly home. We are in the golden age and we honor our women, especially those who are 55 years and older.�

It is not hard for one to imagine how it must have looked 1,000 years ago when other tribes traveled across the surrounding canyons to trade and celebrate on the same grounds. The first year’s Pow Wow was meager in equipment and more teepees were visible on the campgrounds. The years have added electricity and pole lighting throughout the arena but the excitement of the drums and singers are the audible connection of the people back through the long counting of time.

The entrance ended with a dance of Native and non-Native Veterans and then the parade of dancers filled the arena in spectacular fashion.

This year the Taos Pueblo is also celebrating the 40th anniversary of the return of their sacred Blue Lake and surrounding lands on September 17 & 18, 2010. This remembrance will observe one of the most significant occasions in the history of Taos Pueblo and American Indian people; the pueblo’s 64 year struggle with the U.S. Government to reclaim religious freedom and protection of sacred land.