Hi-Line Living: Rocky Boy Powwow

For one weekend every August, Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation, the smallest of Montana’s seven reservations, jumps up its population while hosting a lively celebration of Native American culture, drawing visitors from across the continent.

It is here, surrounded by rolling prairies, with the Bear Paw Mountains in the distance that the Chippewa Cree Tribe of Rocky Boy holds its annual powwow.

The gathering is a fascinating marriage of the modern and traditional. Campers, minivans and nylon tents join traditional teepees in forming makeshift villages encircling the powwow grounds. Musicians and dancers sporting long braids and neon feathers walk among throngs of powwow attendees wearing baseball caps and designer T-shirts.

Throughout it all the beat of drums and the jingle of bells dangling from performers’ attire are omnipresent and unceasing.

Despite exhibiting the character of a county fair at times, with people milling about and the aroma of fried foods wafting into the air, this celebration carries a lot more meaning for many than just a family outing.

One look at license plates on nearby cars shows the lengths some go to be at this celebration. There are vehicles with plates from Montana, Idaho, Colorado, Arizona, Minnesota and Alberta, Canada just to name a few.

Some of these travelers might be curious tourists, but many are not. For many, events such as these provide Native people a way of honoring and exploring their heritage and can even take on spiritual dimensions, with some going to multiple powwows each year.

To get a sense of what these gatherings mean to those who perform as well as those who fill the bleachers, the Havre Daily News had conversations with three attendees.

Joshua LaMere Sr.

Joshua LaMere Sr., 36, is a Chippewa Cree singer in a drum group.

He was born and raised on Rocky Boy and tries to make it to the powwow every year. LaMere is a student who lives in Missoula with his wife, Philisha Santio, and four children. He studies psychology.

Before this weekend, LaMere attended a slew of other powwows including ones at Fort Belknap, Browning and Elmo, which is near Polson. He says drumming and powwows are more than mere entertainment.

“There’s a lot to it,” he says. “It comes from healing, enjoyment, representing your own style all over the country.”

LaMere says his love of the powwows goes way back, especially the one at Rocky Boy which he has attended since he was a child. He credits his grandfather Charles Gopher, a former cultural tribal consultant and council member at Rocky Boy who passed away in 2010, as influencing him — especially with his love for traditional native songs.

LaMere says that from the earliest stages of life, a child is infused with the knowledge and spirit of the powwows.

“Right from birth they are familiar with it. When they’re in the women’s belly they are already learning — they hear the music and everything.”

Not unlike a conventional band, LaMere plays with a cast of friends, family and others he knows from other reservations. Frequently drum groups like these don’t only play for the dancers, but also for large cash prizes. When this is done, groups compete not just in one act but also over the course of the entire powwow, earning points with each performance. The performers gain points with each act and work to build up their overall totals. When the powwow draws to a close, points are tallied and the more points one has the larger the prize.

At Rocky Boy this year, the top prize is later revealed by the wife of a member of another group to be about $10,000.

LaMere, though, is not competing for money this weekend. Rather, he has choosen to play solely for the dancers and enjoy his visit to the reservation.  

Still, whether competing for money or not, the pressure to do well is there, much like the feeling one gets in the lead up to taking a test.

“You want to make sure you get it right, you know,” LaMere says. “You only get that one time.”  

Traveling from powwow to powwow, though, can be hectic.

“I have to take time off of work and then we travel as soon as I get off work. Then back to work again, as soon as this is over,” said LaMere, who in addition to being a student, is a cook at The Top Hat restaurant in Missoula.

By and large, LaMere embraces the life of the itinerant traveler. Powwows are not unique to the Chippewa Cree and, given the difference in rituals and structure, he is eager to go to those he has never previously attended.

“That’s what makes it more exciting,” he says, “because you don’t know what to expect.”

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Arlene Small

Arlene Small sits in the bleachers watching the performers in traditional regalia as they strut and dance about. Small is part Muskogee and Chippewa Cree and considers Rocky Boy ”her second home.”

  Given that she has blood relatives in both countries, she says that she doesn’t see a border between the two countries. She says powwows have broad appeal to people beyond Natives.

“All over the world, they come,” she said of ppowwows back in the Muskogee Bear Hills. “We’ve had people from Germany, from all over.”

In the past, the ceremonies and practices of the sort natives partake in at powwows led to ridicule, harassment and in some cases government suppression. It was the widespread practice of the Ghost Dance on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in 1890 by the Lakota for example culminating in the massacre at Wounded Knee.

 Now generations later, thanks to laws protecting religious freedom, combined with a more diverse public, natives can express their heritage more openly and powwows have become more of a melting pot.

“If you notice there’s all different races here,” Small said. You don’t see that racism you see out there when there is public functions that take place.”

Raenell Scott

Raenell Scott is a wife and mother from Arizona. She along with her husband who sings at powwows and four children ranging in age from 2 to 20 have been on the road for two months straight traveling to powwows. Throughout their journey they have stayed with friends and relatives, or camped out. she says although they often come to this gathering, that had not been the plan this year.

“We ended up getting stuck here,” she said. The family had stopped in the Hi-Line on their way to another powwow in Usk, Washington.” It’s like an eight hour drive, so basically we got ready, we packed and it was almost noon."  

 Instead, after realizing they would likely be late for the powwows grand entrance they decided to stay and attend the powwow at Rocky Boy where her husband, who is part Arapaho and part Cree, has family. Raenell who is part Navajo and part Apache also has a sister who resides in Havre. Not only Raenell’s husband but also her two older sons and some of her nephews are playing together at this powwow. Her husband is among those competing for the $10,000 prize.

Spending months on the road for two months and cramped into a minivan however, does present some challenges, especially for her two-year-old son Justin who is partially deaf and was born premature.

“We’re so confined here,” she said referring to the minivan with clothes and supplies packed tightly into that van and the back seat folded down. “If one person gets sick he like automatically gets sick because he doesn’t really have a good immune system.”  

So far though, she says everyone is healthy.

Raenell says part of the appeal of powwows for her is seeing the creativity of others.

“Every weekend everybody has new outfits. So you want to check them out, something they created or something. Just wondering if somebody has that new spunk every weekend, rather than the usual.”