How Things Used To Be

I sure miss the pow wows that I went to as a boy. We usually went to dances in northeastern Oklahoma, places like Pawnee, Lakeview, Tulsa and Ponca. Occasionally we would venture as far away as Quapaw or go to “Darko”-the Indian Exposition in Anadarko, Oklahoma. I’m not counting all the other little dances there were back then, and all the feasts, peyote meetings, and I can’t forget all the hand games either.

In the late 50’s and early 60’s, the dances were very different than they are now. We went as a family and my grandparents always camped at the dances. I really miss eating Indian food like fry bread, corn soup, pork steam fry, meat pies and fresh yonka pins (water lily roots) when we could get them.

The only categories at the dances were straight dance, fancy dance, buckskin, and cloth. After all, it was Oklahoma! My uncles Harry Red Eagle Jr., Abe Conklin, and Cecil Rouwalk seemed to always be in the winner’s circle. My “Uncle Jr.” started dancing when he was five years old. He’ll be eighty- one this year and he is still dancing.

The prize money for first place was only about $250 or less and all the dances were free to the public. My uncles were the best dancers I have ever seen. Nobody danced as smooth as them and the songs never fooled them. Those guys ALWAYS stopped on time.

The drum was in the center of the arena with older men and women surrounding the drums “Oklahoma” style. They sang those old Kiowa, Ponca, and Pawnee songs, the really pretty ones. I can still hear the drum starting up as the MC would say “Everybody Round Dance!” right after grand entry. My mom and grandma sure like to round dance. The round dances were large, averaging two hundred people minimum.

I even remember the MCs It was always Bat Bahyll at Pawnee, and more often than not, Tonkei at other pow wows.

To be a head singer was an honor and men like Adam Pratt, Jim and Leonard Anquoe, Joe Rush, Lamont Brown, and Harry BuffaloHead were usually the head singers. I looked on these men and women as my aunts and uncles. Aunt Nora Pratt is still alive the last I heard. Aunt Nora had the biggest smile I had ever seen at that time and she sure made good Pawnee frybread. Pawnees make that BIG frybread. They had such good voices and the way they sang those old songs made you want to dance on forever.Uncle Harry BuffaloHead told me that those old Ponca men taught him the songs when he was a little boy. He said they looked so serious he was scared of those old men. Back then people didn’t walk around the drum during inter-tribals either, you danced hard and if you didn’t your grandparents, aunts, uncles, and parents told you about it.

The fancy dance contest was always the highlight of the pow wow. Young men like The Cloud (Johnny White Cloud), Kickapoo Rice, Chebon Dacon, and Larry Daylight were THE dancers. They were all friends with my older brothers and sisters and their grandparents were friends with my grandparents so I looked up to these guys. Back then when my older siblings went to 49s there wasn’t any drinking like there is now. All the older people stayed up late while their grandkids went to the 49. If my brothers and sisters stayed out too late Grandpa would go looking for them with a flash light and bring them back to camp.

Being around those elders always gave me a sense of everything being right in the world. It was good staying up late listening to them talk about the old days. They told funny stories and they liked to laugh. My favorites were the ghost stories. Those were good days when I was a boy. All I can say now is that it sure is good to be Indian.

Ho Way

Wiley S. Thornton

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