SEMO POWWOW: SHARING INDIAN CULTURE

More than 90 traditional Native American performers are coming from as far away as Oklahoma, Texas and South Dakota to participate in Saturday's second annual SEMO Powwow.

More than 3,000 people attended last year's event, a celebration of traditional Indian culture that offers music, dancing, food and opportunities to learn more about the region's history.

For a university such as Southeast to co-sponsor a powwow is rare and pleases the Indian community, says Dr. Carol Morrow, who teaches a course at Southeast about North American Indians.

"They are coming because they appreciate the opportunity to pass on the traditional ways," she said. " ... To be invited to a university shows respect.

The SEMO Powwow will be presented from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. in the Student Recreation Center at Southeast Missouri State University. The sponsors are the Northern Cherokee Nation of the Old Louisiana Territory and Southeast Missouri State University.

A concert by two Native American musicians Friday night will kick off the powwow. It will begin with music by river cane flute player Tommy Wildcat and the Cherokee Stomp Dancers.

Bill Miller, a Mohican who grew up on the Stockbridge-Munsee Indian reservation in Wisconsin, will follow with less traditional music he describes as "alter-Native American."

The concert will begin at 7 p.m. at Academic Auditorium.

Previous events held in conjunction with the powwow were a reading by Native American author Joseph Marshall Oct. 28 and a Common Hour program Wednesday by dancer/musician Gary Cady.

The relationship between the university and the Northern Cherokee tribe is a natural one, says Grizzly Seabaugh, events coordinator for the tribe. He points out that the university yearbook, the Sagamore, is named for a band of Cherokees who settled in the area in the late 1700s.

"Many of their descendants are on our rolls today," Seabaugh says.

More than 7,000 people currently are on the Northern Cherokee Nation tribal rolls. The tribe is preparing to petition the Bureau of Indian Affairs for federal recognition.

Morrow agrees that the powwow is a natural event for Southeast to be involved in.

"So many people here are of Cherokee heritage," she said. "... I think the university recognizes that."

Among those participating in the powwow will be four "drums" -- the Thunderheart Singers, the Elk Nation, the Chickasaw Nation Dance Troupe and the White Buffalo Singers of Oklahoma.

Aside from the grand entrances to be made at 11 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, the schedule of dancing and singing is left to the discretion of the arena director and master of ceremonies.

Some powwows are competitions waged for prize money but the SEMO Powwow is more of a traditional-style gathering.

"We are doing it strictly for the love of it, to celebrate," Seabaugh said.