“Rocking the Pit” in honor of Miss Indian World 2004, Delana Smith

By Chris Jourdain

      A group of about 60 people left RL at midnight on Tuesday night for what would turn out to be a 20-hour ride to Oklahoma. I awoke in the early morning as we were then south of Des Moines in a town called Song City, Iowa where we stopped for breakfast. We hit some major construction around Kansas City that slowed us down quite a bit. The driver said it took us 4 hours to go 130 miles.  Lots of cows along the way, it didn’t look much different than back home, although the red earth in Oklahoma was an interesting sight. We checked into the Sleep Inn Wednesday evening in the town of Edmond, OK, just north of OKC, which was a real nice place to stay. Some went swimming with the kids for an hour then dinner before retiring for the evening. It felt so good to take a shower and sleep in a nice soft bed let me tell you.

      Departed the hotel at 7 am after taking advantage of the continental breakfast and headed west, after 2 ˝ hours we finally hit the Texas border, it finally started to look a little different, still no tumbleweeds, to Sandy Browns disappointment, but lots of bizhiki. The closer we got towards Albuquerque, the more the scenery changed. At first there was a few hills that got everyone fired up but ended up to be just teasers compared to what was coming. There were a lot of nice homes up in the hills and there were a lot of regular houses, some with sand yards, imagine that! Lots of junk yards along the way also, seems like these folks like to hang onto things around here, also had a lot of junked cars in some yards, which eased the homesickness some of us may have had. 

      Finally arrived in our destination around 5pm local time. Checked into our rooms and got word we had to board up and head downtown for the Miss Indian World pageant at 6p. Left around 6:10 and attended the pageant V.I.P. style, there was a lot of Natives from all over the continent filling the seats. Delana even introduced our group after introducing the royalty from all around Indian Country, and thanked our Tribal Council, who made it possible for this to happen. Most of the kids attended this event and enjoyed the show, as it was truly quite the performance with musical acts, humorous hosts and the pageant itself was quite inspiring.

      Woke up early and headed down to the pit for day one of the Gathering at 9:30a. We were told we had to get there early to beat the lines, and when we got there I saw what they were talking about. There was a huge line that stretched for blocks throughout the weekend, we were sure glad we had everything in place for us to make things as smooth as possible. The grand entry was one of the best I had ever seen in my pow-wow years. They started with a special jingle-dress healing dance for the Red Lake Nation, after the invocation. Then after the grand entry they had a men’s fancy dance special, which lasted 6 songs, what a way to get things started. There were 1,000 dancers at this grand entry and according to some in our group 2,000 at the evening session.

      Day 2 started with a rehearsal for the kids and the singers, it was cool and gave us an idea of what was about to come. After practice we were excused until grand entry, some of us went shopping on “pow-wow alley”, which is where they had all the food and arts& crafts vendors set-up, along with an outdoor stage that featured musical acts throughout the weekend. Then came another grand entry, which was again quite the site. Later in the afternoon Delana had an honor song, which all of our group were called down to participate in, and after that she had her giveaway. It was quite an honor to dance in the pit and to feel the love the crowd had for Miss Indian World 2004 and for her group she brought with.

      About 8p we all reported to the dressing room to begin preparations for the main event. It was a lot of work and a special thanks goes out to those who got the kids into their beautiful outfits. As anyone knows getting a group of kids in one room to get dressed is no small task. We were then escorted to the tunnel to make our entrance into the pit. After Delana gave an awesome speech and danced one song by herself, she told everyone about the group she had brought and that this was the future of Red Lake. After a few minutes the Young Kingbird singers started singing and the kids made their entrance, bouncing and a spinning, to a thunderous applause from the crowd that gave me chills then, and even as I sit here and write this now I get them. The entire song lasted about 4 minutes and just about every kid danced hard the entire time, and to see the smiles on their faces as they looked into the crowd as they got more cheers. It brought tears of joy to many of the faces in our group. The end of the song brought a standing ovation from the packed house in the Pit, which has a capacity of 18,801, as the kids all waved their tiny Red Lake Nation flags before heading back up the tunnel.

      The ride home began in true Indian time fashion, scheduled for 8:30a but not happening until 11:30a. We were scheduled for a stop in Emporia, Kansas but because of our late start we ended traveling all the way back to the Nation in a 30-hour shot, with stops every 4 hours or so for snacks and smoke breaks. This was truly an awesome experience that I for one as the writer of this article, and a parent of two head start children am truly thankful for. I know I can probably speak for all the parents and kids when I say they feel the same. Those who made this trip possible deserve the utmost credit for doing so as the success of this event will not be truly measured in the days that we were there, but for many years to come as these kids got to experience something truly memorable.

      Special credit goes out to all those involved in making this event a reality, as it was a great experience for the kids and those parents and grandparents who got to experience this. There are some video tapes circulating out there and I am working on getting copies out in the near future.