Some words from our Chief:

After a year of preparation, we presented our eleventh Annual Native American Craft Show, hosted a week of spiritual teachings, and then wound it all up with one of the best Pow Wows in New England. We had a full nine days of Native music, stories, dancing and lessons! Not to mention nine days of meeting old friends and making many new ones.

Well, the Clan of the Hawk must have “finally arrived” as they say. We had visitors from around the world and one of the most diverse groups of Native Americans that I’ve ever seen in one place. I'd guess nearly 50 per cent of our visitors this year were Native. Many approached me to say that this was the best Pow Wow to go to in all of New England. I now receive new emails or notes from folks who came several times a week. This makes all of us who worked so hard for this event feel very honored. 

A special guest was Julia Marden, from the Aquinnah Wampanoag Nation, a group that originated on the Island of Martha's Vineyard. She is an internationally known artist who specializes in the Eastern Woodland Basketry Art that is known as twining.

Her twined baskets are in museums throughout New England.  We were honored to have her here with us; she further honored us with the amazing gift of a twined basket for our museum. You can see pictures of her beautiful baskets on her website called Wild Wind Creations.

George "Three Bears" came from Greenville, Maine. Greenville is on Moosehead Lake. He is an Abenaki Elder and came here to keep the Sacred Fire burning during our Pow Wow. He brought along his 21 foot tall tepee, set it up on the clan grounds, and stayed in it while he was here. That was great!

We have tried to keep our Pow Wow as traditional as possible. You know, the Pow Wow, or pau wau, started from Natives who were nomadic – moving from place to place for food and better weather. Groups of them would meet at pre-arranged times and places to trade goods with each other,  share the stories of the past year, and visit with friends and relatives that they had not seen for a while.

Later, there were ‘Grass Dancers’ who gathered to hold special dances for re-enacting their hunts and bravery. Often Pow Wow would last for up to two weeks of dancing, singing and just having a good time before they started out on another year's travels.

When white traders got involved with the Natives, they thought that the Pow Wow was mostly for dancing, but they would come to the celebration to trade tools and white man goods for the furs, baskets, crafts and other goods that the Natives made

Nowadays, Pow Wows are a big business in the U.S. They occur most of the year throughout the States and Canada. The College Circuit is a big one.

They are very commercial, with a huge amount of prize money given out to dancers and drummers. Vendors at many of these affairs sell replicas of Native goods made in Japan and Hong Kong.  Very unlike our Pow Wow, where we have a hard time just breaking even on the expenses, but the mood of our celebration is more like the olden times.

The big Pow Wows out West are very colorful and are great fun to attend, but they are more like fancy spectacles or carnivals, and just as expensive. Here, in the Eastern United States, it is a different story. We try to keep the Pow Wow as a family event and preserve the spiritual aspect as much as possible.

We added the new "Spiritual Teachings" week this year with the help of another clan in the hope of sharing our traditions and culture in a more meaningful way. There were classes on dancing, dream catcher making, ribbon meanings and uses, regalia propriety, respecting elders and much more.

Next year we will be combining our Craft Show and Pow Wow into one big three day weekend, so folks can enjoy more without spending more on gas! Camping is by donation only on our grounds and there is never an admission price to our events. Come on the 30th of July and stay the weekend through the 2nd of August. If you come by the day, parking is free too.

Despite the occasional rain, we hope that all who came to our 17th annual Pow Wow had a great time. We at the Clan certainly enjoyed being your hosts and look forward to next year when we meet all of our new/old friends and share another year of memories.

Thank you­

Ralph Swett