Powwow: the next generation

Seven-year-old Royce Jarvey, right, with Mason and Mia Lamebull show and explain their powwow dancing regalia July 24 to out-of-state visitors at Our Savior's Lutheran Church.

The Rocky Boy Pow-wow kicks off Thursday night, bringing to the Hi-Line again the festive sharing of culture, including what is probably the most important: cultural exchange from one generation to the next.

Royce Lasseter Raining Bird Jarvey is a 7-year-old Rocky Boy native, though he splits his time between his mother's house in North Dakota and his father's and grandmother's houses on Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation.

Aside from a naive mistake about a year ago, his hair has never been cut and is usually braided.

His 17-year-old uncle Mark explained that Royce doesn't like to answer questions because he was raised with traditional values, including knowing to be quiet and respectful around his elders. But Mark and his mother, Royce's grandmother Rose Saddler, are happy to speak for him.

According to Rose, Royce practices some traditional dancing and might do some grass dancing one day, but he was born to be a fancy dancer.

"Somebody gave him a set of fancy dance feathers when he was a baby, " Rose said. "They knew he was going to be a fancy dancer. "

The feathers are just one part of his traditional regalia. A taxidermist made him a headdress out of a coyote hide, Royce's choice. He made his own bone chest plate, with horizontal bone, as males wear, rather than the vertical female pattern.

While one hand holds the fancy feathers, the other holds a hatchet he was given by an admiring chief in Canada.

Rose said the dances and traditions of the powwow are handed down by family members, so the children are steeped in the tradition from birth.

"It's not something that's just done once a year, but daily and talked about daily, " Saddler said. "From the day they're born it's their way of life. "

Royce was one of three young dancers showing off their regalia to Lutherans from Pennsylvania visiting the Rocky Boy Lutheran Mission last week.

Mike Lamebull was there with his grandson, 10-year-old grass dancer Mason, and his daughter, 19-year-old traditional dancer Mia, showing off their bright red clothing.

They all told their visitors that they are all raised in the powwow circuit, being dressed up before they can walk and immersing themselves in the dances and culture.

The dances, they explained, are always evolving. An innovative move done by a single dancer one year might get picked up by dozens the next year.

It grows and evolves. It needs new generations to carry it on.

And the latest generation — including Royce, Mason and Mia — will be showing what they've learned so far on the Rocky Boy powwow grounds this week.