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Powwow is a social gathering centered around traditional big drum songs and their dances as well as food, friendship and often traditional games and modern sports.  We hold powwows to recognize achievements, promote sobriety and healthy living, honor our elders and veterans, encourage the children and sometimes just because.  While most powwow dance and song style come from the Great Plains and nearby Great Lakes regions of the United States and Canada, no single Native American tribe or First Nation has exclusive claim to the origin of all of the powwow traditions, but this celebration evolved through contributions of dances, songs and traditions from several places around Turtle Island or the continent of North America. This intertribal, amalgumated tradition is quite different from the ancient ways of many individual tribes, including some tribes who also vigorously carry on the tradition of the powwow circle for us today. Powwows are informal and visitor-friendly, though there are traditional rules or protocols governing how one is expected to behave in and around the dance arena or near a drum. They are not our sacred ceremonies as those are generally not advertised to the public, although there may be ceremonial procedings such as the opening prayers or honor songs and memorials during a powwow. "It's Powwow Time!" inspiring the name of our public information website, is an expression of celebration referring to the time we finally get to take a break from the outside world and just be ourselves again.
Contest Powwows
Contest powwows feature organized, judged competitions between dancers, usually according to dance style and age category, as well as judged performances of the singing drummers. In early times, the prizes were blankets, dance outfit items, hunting equipment or small amounts of cash and many of today's smaller, local contest powwows continue the same format. Our old world custom of flaunting generousity has combined with the successes of modern gaming enterprizes to produce contest powwow championships with big trophies, custom jackets, generous cash prizes and the bragging rights of besting the best.
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Traditional Powwows
Traditional powwows by most common terms are purely social powwows without contests, but not to imply that contest powwows are devoid of tradition; competition itself is one of Native America's oldest and proudest traditions. Traditional powwows tend to focus more on the occasion and often set more time aside for special presentations and activities in addition to just powwow dancing, as the total sum of dance styles and age categories of a contest powwow leave little time for anything else. Some people prefer the less hurried atmosphere of a traditional gathering while others prefer the challenge and fast pace of the contest scene; many of us prefer a good mixture of both.
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