The Regalia We Wear

About 2002 while I was still struggling to finish college, I was tasked the usual thing of choosing a topic and writing a paper for a humanities course.

The topic I chose was powwow dancing because I loved to dance. Dance and music have always been larger than life to me. My son’s name is Dances First, actually, because as a baby he danced to “Indian Outlaw” and THEN started to walk.(He was so proud. So were we.)

I didn’t know where this paper would take me. I do know it partially gave me tools to tell re-enactors and wannabes apart from those who are vibrant members of a culture, red card or no red card. I’m going to attach my paper for download, but because I don’t cover that in my paper I’ll tell you. This comes from having actually been around and had my family forever damaged by the pretendian mindset. For the record, I will not normally go into personal and negative situations like this. It’s only appropriate here for the sake of teaching.

There was a tribe in Georgia back when I was lost and had not been reunited with my northern cousins. A redman lost like that can become a desperate and lonely thing. I had heard of a powwow happening close to me, and I went to meet up with this ‘tribe’ that was literally just starting out… by I don’t know how many years. It hadn’t been long. The clan mother and I hit it off at first. I liked her. But we soon started knocking heads when she insisted that I could only wear regalia with certain cloth patterns, of a certain way, with only certain items, and could not make this expression of my life journey truly my own at all. There were other headbutts, but it was this one that spurred the paper.

If someone tells you that you cannot wear regalia made of M&Ms pattern cloth (yes I’ve seen one), or that you can’t have a pink feather in your hair, or can’t wear white… or black with skulls, which is what I wanted to do…. they would be very wrong. Your regalia is you expressing your journey. There are some situations that have turned the regalia into a fashion show (like contest powwow dancing) but your personal regalia is just that. Personal.

Re-enactors wear uniforms. Costumes. It’s essentially a uniform for the purpose of being true to history. They research what someone might have worn a long time ago, keep to certain cloth patterns and even fabric. Re-enactors are not what they pretend to be, because they are touching on the past and pretending. Many of them educate through their activity, but it’s pretend just the same.

You know who else wear uniforms? Cult members. I should have studied cults in college, because it seems like I’ve had the misfortune to run across at least two (and report/shut down one). For some it’s an expression of “I am with this group, and we have solidarity together”. It’s also a control tactic. Get people to conform on the outside, and they eventually will conform on the inside by taking away personal expression. That’s just brainwashing 101.

I’m not really a CNN fan but this article seemed decent: https://www.cnn.com/style/article/seductive-power-of-uniforms-and-cult-dress/index.html  And as an aside, yes this group did have all of the other warning signs to the point of separating family from family (one of their tactics). I have no idea how they fare now. I don’t care to know; too caustic. (Don’t think for a second that just because a cult hasn’t failed to the point of giving everyone poisoned cocktails that it’s not a cult. I’ve met quite a few people in my life who were trying to form a cult using the red path as their “prophetic” way. There’s one cult that uses the Norse path in that fashion, and it’s VERY successful. But a cult is a cult. It is not a tribe, no matter how it dresses itself up. /end rant.)

Your regalia is not a re-enactment costume. It is not a costume.

Your regalia is not for you to conform with a gaggle of powwow geese. It is not a uniform.

Your regalia is you on the outside. It’s your story.

I’m talking about this because of an article my husband came across while researching something completely different. Photographer Captures Modern Potawatomi Regalia

He had said he didn’t like the first regalia pictured. Being a veteran, he might have found it a little insulting. When I clicked the link I was expecting something horrible. But I thank my time in college, and that clan mother for headbutting me into action, because what I saw was amazing… because I understood it.

I saw a man in a shirt made with the American flag pattern. (This might have been the insult. You’re not supposed to wear the flag. There’s a code to the flag.) The man in the photo was wearing the type of hat army soldiers wear when going to the Middle East; going to Desert Storm or another mission. He wore a traditional bone breastplate like a warrior would wear. His mákushunsh even had a seal on them that looks suspiciously like a unit badge.

With just a glance, I knew where he had walked.

Admittedly, being a military wife gave me knowledge to interpret on top of just doing a lot of things growing up. Thus I explained why it was brave and beautiful. I don’t know if I’d changed my husband’s mind on the matter, but he did ask if I was ever going to bead his top hat so there is that.

My first – and only – regalia I’ve ever had was white with pink trim. Mostly white. I had had a vision before beginning it that I had finally made it back to my tribe. I was naked, but it didn’t phase me because I was surrounded by joyous cousins who were so glad that I’d made it home at last. This meant a lot to me, so I chose the color white to represent my nakedness in the world.

This regalia was also made out of a skirt I’d gotten at a dime store. Butterflies are beaded around the eyes at the bottom to represent how to change and flow through our way home. My shawl literally took me two years to make. I had to have help because my first attempt was definitely not square. (And boy did my friend laugh at me!) Looking at those two pieces, an observer would also have known that I had very little money and did not know how to sew. LOL

I’ve gotten a *lot* of flack over my mashed together outfit over the years. Without finding the meaning to the skirt and shirt, I was accused of putting on airs. Of being a wannabe. I’ve had one person rip the porcupine quill from my hair because it poked them during a hug. I watched my father flourish a smudging over the same quill with extra fancy hand movements – showboating over my sullied quill good lords – and I’ve had a girl sneer at me about dancing in the rain. When I wore it to a powwow up north, I did have one respectful person inquire why I wore a southern style skirt with northern shirt and other bits and bobs. They were probably the only respectful person on the whole matter over the years.

The nasty people who accused me of things or sneered at me in the rain wore uniforms. Their regalia all looked alike despite meeting them in different parts of the country.

The person who dishonored my hair had a natural reaction but didn’t understand powwow etiquette.

My father could be an asshole at times, and he loved attention.

And I stuck to my guns. What little bit I have to wear has always been personal. It always will be. If you want to do something right, sometimes you end up doing it alone.

You don’t have to do that with your regalia. I’ve seen a lot of young people that were clearly dressed just for show. But I think thoughtfully adding to your look – choosing truly deep and personal things (not necessarily something that says you’re a nurse or a garbage man, unless that’s a big deal to you) – helps you to connect to yourself. This connection helps you to stay connected with the red path, to give you understanding, and help you to accept when there comes a time you will change your regalia because of some new thing that has happened. Good or bad.

There is one thing I would recommend you do with your regalia, however. Be respectful. An outfit made with cloth showing a person making rude gestures, for example, might be a little over the top. There are other ways you can put that sentiment into your outfit without wearing something small children should not be seeing.

Click the following link to view the paper: the-future-of-powwow-dancing-in-native-america-rspmus

If that doesn’t work you can also try going to https://woksprint.com/shop/literature/fiction/nonfiction-academia-and-such/the-future-of-powwow-dancing-in-native-america/?v=32aec8db952d

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