战俘美洲原住民庆祝活动

Powwow，美洲印第安人文化的一种庆祝活动，来自各个土著民族的人们聚集在一起，以跳舞，唱歌和尊重祖先的传统为目的。 powwow一词起源于一种治疗仪式，起源于东北印第安人的一个阿尔冈奎民族。在1800年代初期，旅行药显示所有治愈的补品都使用“ powwow”来描述其产品。这些供应商经常雇用当地的印第安人来跳舞，以娱乐潜在的顾客，他们很快将这个术语用于展览会的舞蹈以及专利药品。这个名字得到了认可，印第安人自己也为其命名加上了在展览中为观众描述舞蹈的名称。

今天，战俘的发生时间为一到四天，通常吸引着数百英里之外的舞者，歌手，艺术家和商人。欢迎观众（包括非印第安人）参加，因为参与者希望与外界分享他们文化的积极方面。现代战俘可分为两大类：“比赛”（或“比赛”）事件和被称为“传统”的事件。比赛项目提供各种标准化舞蹈和音乐类别的大量奖金。相比之下，传统的战俘向所有或部分参与者（例如注册的前10名，20名或30名舞者）提供少量的“日常费用”，并且没有竞争性的跳舞或唱歌。两个部门共享相同的事件顺序和歌舞风格。

在欧洲殖民地出现之前很久，大多数土著社区都存在与战俘类似的聚会。舞蹈通常与以下四种场合之一相关：宗教仪式，庆祝成功的战争聚会的归乡庆典，庆祝新的或重申的同盟的庆典以及由各个战士社团或大家庭团体赞助的活动。旧时事件与现代战俘之间的主要区别是后者是部族间和包容性的，这意味着它们对所有希望参加​​的人开放，而接触前的活动只允许部族成员和来自附近友善部落的人跳舞。理由。

The songs and dances performed at 21st-century powwows derive primarily from those practiced by the warrior societies of the Plains Indians, with the greatest influences coming from the Heluska Warrior Society styles common to the Omaha and Ponca peoples. After the reservation period began (c. 1880), Indian dancers and singers started traveling with Wild West shows such as the one directed by William F. (“Buffalo Bill”) Cody. They soon added an element of crowd-pleasing showmanship, known as “fancying it up.” They also developed an opening parade into the arena, made in precise order. This practice is the direct ancestor of the contemporary powwow’s Grand Entry, during which groups of dancers follow a colour guard into the arena in a predetermined sequence. The Grand Entry not only marks the beginning of the event but also motivates dancers to arrive in a timely manner, because competition points are deducted from those who miss it.

Between the beginning of the reservation era and the end of World War I, the warrior society dances that formed the core of later powwow styles nearly disappeared owing to U.S. and Canadian governmental suppression of traditional Native cultural practices (see Native American: Native American history). After armistice, however, celebrations honouring the return of native veterans fostered the revival of homecoming dances. A new sense of friendship with other American Indian peoples also emerged as the war ended: tribal identity melded to a certain extent with a pan-Indian sense of kinship, and interaction between different tribes increased. In Oklahoma, for instance, where numerous but disparate tribes had been crowded closely together as a result of 19th-century federal removal policies, communities began to invite members of neighbouring tribes to their dances—often called picnics or fairs—as a matter of course. This practice spread to the reservations on the northern Plains as automobiles became common.

Following World War II, the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs initiated a program that relocated thousands of Plains Indians into large urban areas, most notably Denver; Minneapolis, Minn.; the San Francisco Bay area; and southern California. This migration sparked a second wave of cultural diffusion and intertribal collaboration, as Indians whose tribal heritage was not from the Plains peoples began to adopt the music and dance styles of that region as their own. The ensuing urbanization of powwow culture encouraged sponsors to hold the largest events in metropolitan (and, later, casino) settings. It also resulted in an intensification of competition and in the formation of a “powwow circuit” with dancers and musicians traveling to competitive events that are scheduled a year or more in advance.

Some aspects of the powwow circuit differ on the basis of location. The “northern style,” originating from the northern Great Plains and the Great Lakes regions, now takes place throughout the northern tier of U.S. states and in Canada. Styles of music and dance that are considered northern include those from the Lakota, Dakota, and other bands of the Sioux nation and from other northern Plains peoples such as the Blackfoot and Ojibwa. “Southern style” powwows have their genesis in the central and western areas of Oklahoma and in the cultures of the southern Plains tribes, including the Kiowa, Comanche, Pawnee, and Ponca peoples. Northern and southern powwow formats are similar in many ways, differing mostly in the presence or absence of specific forms of dance. For instance, the southern forms include men’s southern straight and women’s southern cloth dances, while the northern styles include men’s and women’s traditional dances. Other categories, such as women’s jingle dress and men’s grass dances, began in specific tribal communities but have spread throughout the powwow circuit and are no longer associated with a particular geographic area. Men’s and women’s fancy dances, with origins in the Wild West shows, are also widely popular.

As with powwow dancing, powwow singing is categorized by its practitioners as being either northern or southern in style. The northern style area includes singers from the central and northern Plains, Canada, and the Great Lakes regions, while southern singing is synonymous with that done by the Oklahoma nations. In both traditions, singing is performed by a group of individuals who are arrayed in a circle around a large drum. Musically, all powwow songs share the same basic formal structure, including a steady drumbeat, but southern songs have a lower vocal range and three accented drumbeats between repetitions of each verse. Northern singing is pitched higher, and songs are characterized by drum accent patterns known as “Honour Beats” that occur in the interior of each song rather than between verses. In the southern tradition, drumming is an exclusively male activity: men play the drum while singing, and women sing while standing in a circle around the men. In the northern tradition, however, women may also “sit at the drum” occasionally, depending on the traditional practices of their community. See also Native American dance; Native American music.