Some readers may remember Fire Woman. She and her husband were proprietors of a small shop on Bearskin Neck, in Rockport, which sold Native American goods and supplies. She was also a fixture on the local powwow circuit.
At powwows, she could sometimes be overheard telling someone who was new to their native heritage to be proud and to go ahead and take part in the powwow activities. She did not discourage those with even distant Indian ancestry to do this. To the contrary, she would often quip that non-native people who attend powwows should never assume that they have no connection to native culture, since they could easily have had an ancestor who "tripped over a tent pole."
Her attempt at humor may have been a tad bawdy for some tastes, but quite true. Many people in this part of the country do have an ancestor with Penobscot, Mi'kmaq, Wampanoag, Nipmuc, or Abenaki blood, as these nations of the East were the first people to encounter Europeans when they arrived on this continent. In some cases, as happened early on with the Mi'kmaq and French, indigenous people helped, and even married newcomers, at least until the religious leaders of the time decreed that it was inadvisable to do so.
Indigenous women were skilled in crafts that the Europeans needed, and there were not enough marriageable European women on the continent until around the mid 1600s. Many people with light complexions, and even blue eyes, are of native descent as the result of such unions, both long ago and more recently, which is why it is considered highly disrespectful to approach anyone at a powwow with the comment, "You don't look like an Indian," or "How much Indian are you?" (The issue of "how much blood" you have to have to be Indian is a sensitive one, and one which even native people strongly disagree upon to this day.)
Those with such roots, newly discovered, should not be in a hurry to be accepted into native culture. It's important that they get to know people, learn how to respectfully ask elders for guidance, and not appropriate for themselves, or participate in, ceremonies that they have insufficient knowledge of, and have had only partial or no instruction in. Nor should they pay for ceremony to be performed for them by others — natives do not charge for their ceremonies!
Undoubtedly, many elders, who know the dangers of misusing ceremony, were shaking their heads knowingly when several deaths at an Arizona sweat lodge were announced on the news lately. For a native perspective on this event, and the misappropriation of ceremony in general, see Chief Arvol Looking Horse's comments here: http://www.blackhillsportal.com/npps/story.cfm?ID=3492.
The Wandering Bull (www.wanderingbull.com) lists New England Powwows each year. At which people of all ethnicities can meet native dancers and vendors, many of whom will be able to make suggestions on how to participate in the intertribal portions of the events. Intertribal dancing is open to the general public, but non-natives are still expected to display respect, and a quick search will reveal many web sites that list the general rules of "powwow etiquette."
If you have no computer access, you can get a copy of powwow etiquette from Owl Beaver Traders, 50 Elm St., in Salisbury (978-465-5562) where the recently formed New England Native American Cultural Council holds its monthly meetings. All are welcome.
While this year's powwow schedule is nearly over, the Massachusetts Center for Native American Awareness will sponsor the National Native American Heritage Day Powwow at Bridgewater State College, Rondileau Campus Center Ballroom, 19 Park Ave., Bridgewater, on Saturday, Nov. 14. For information, call 617-642-1683.
Those who would like to hear the Thanksgiving story from a native perspective may wish to attend an ecumenical event at First Church in Ipswich on Nov. 24 at 7 p.m. Annawon Weeden, who played Metacom (King Philip) in the PBS series, "We Shall Remain," will be the featured speaker. Annawon is a member of the Mashpee Wampanoag nation.
National Native American Heritage Month is a wonderful time to reflect upon the accuracies and inaccuracies of history, and learn more about the native people who lived, and still live, in Massachusetts and on Cape Ann.
Anne Springer is the public relations director of SeniorCare Inc., your local Area Agency on Aging. To reach SeniorCare, call 978-281-1750.
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