Saturday, 08 June 2002 | Pow-wow

It's Saturday afternoon and the sun's still shining, but the shadows are getting longer. There are lots of things for me to do between the outdoors hours and the going out hours, personal projects mainly, but it's difficult to narrow it down to one or two; usually I end up starting on one but getting side-tracked, and ultimately I work on parts of ten different offspring. I really like this time of day because it fully belongs to me, and I don't feel guilty about not enjoying the weather or reclusive because I'm alone in my room.

It's somewhat cooler today, which is appreciated, since I've spent most of the afternoon outside, photographing a Native American pow-wow. I suppose it was about like I expected, except for maybe the fair aspect of it—funnel cakes, collapsible stands filled with merchandise, and a loud man with a microphone.

Most of the merchandise stands were lined with a curtain of feathered dream catchers, and from behind the stands came puffs of the sweet-smelling smoke of burning sage. There were baskets of rabbit skins and cases of handmade jewelry, dark-haired plastic dolls wearing fringed outfits, life-size canvas tee-pees, and live music produced by drummers and wailers.

The costumes were elaborate: war paint, feathers, animal skins, bells, dresses, chaps, braids. A few people draped animal skins over their heads and necks, with little fox faces sitting just above their own faces; those who had "earned" lots of feathers had bulls eye-like tails made from them. Somehow, even though many of the costumes were composed of similar parts, each outfit was distinct, and I could tell there was more than one tribe being represented.

I circulated and shot pictures, unsure whether I should request permission (risking getting a posed shot) or simply take pictures without asking (risking being impolite). At some point today: one of my lenses broke, my camera stopped working for a couple minutes, and I accidentally took two shots of my own shoulder while changing lenses (which made me the maddest of the three). You can find a few of the non-shoulder shots here.