Monthly Archives: January 2017

2016 Eastern Shoshone Arapaho Portraits

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The Eastern Shoshone and Arapaho powwow that was held in June of 2016 was a wonderful event full of dancing, singing and ceremony that showed just how proud the participants are of their culture and history. They were more than willing to answer questions about their tribal history and other activities that were being presented. This was a spectacular event and I am more than grateful for their kindness and friendship and I thank them for it. Below is a series of portraits of various participants who attended the event and I will let the images speak for themselves with the minimum amount of comment, other than to say what an honor it is to be able to join and observe this important part of their lives.

Readying himself to lead the honor guard into the Grand Entry

Dancing in all of her finery

A proud warrior ready to enter the circle

Experience shows

A proud young warrior

Observing the activity

The dance is all important as he puts his heart and soul into it

Calm and serene she makes the circle

Watching and listening

Modern and traditional, the two meld perfectly

A young face and a great smile

Women, the heart of a nation, dancing

The dancing goes on late into the night

These eyes have seen many dances

Beads, feathers, pride in culture all represented here in its finest

Seeing into the past, looking forward to the future

Confidence shows why elders are respected

Beautiful bead-work on a proud woman

A strong portrait of a man secure in his culture

It is always a time for reflection when you are in the circle

These portraits barely scratch the surface of the many participants of this powwow. In the future we will be posting more images of these wonderful people. Check back often for updates.

2016 Eastern Shoshone Arapaho Powwow

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click on the images to see larger view

Back in June of last year (2016) I had the great pleasure to attend the Eastern Shoshone /Arapaho powwow on the Wind River reservation. This was a great event with wonderful people in a marvelous setting. It is held outdoors which always makes it better and the weather was cooperating with blue skies and no wind. Above is the Grand Entry with the color guard.

Everyone in their finest followed.

Dancers enthralled the spectators.

Their was color and action every where you looked.

Individual dancers took part.

Incredible detail and workmanship went into gorgeous displays of accessories and regalia.

As the sun was setting the participants gathered around the center pole in celebration

Elders sat reflecting in the late afternoon sun.

Later dancing took place as the participants made their way around the circle

It was a special time for everyone involved.

The dancers traveled sunwise around the circle.

Women in extraordinary dress made the circle several times.

Performing the steps as they’re meant to be done.

Fancy dancers giving it their all in front of one of the judges.

Color and form as well as commitment are most important during the fancy dance competition.

As always the best drummers and singers were performing for the dancers.

A beautiful example of form and skill.

Women in their finest competing in one of the categories. Each one a winner.

Men had their competitions and everyone put everything they had into them.

Incredible regalia was always on display.

Dancing went on far into the night.

Until finally the evening’s events came to a close.

This is a powwow you do not want to miss. There will be more to come from this powwow in the near future, so stop back and check it out.

What’s Going On

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Our friend in the image up above is looking for the same thing you folks have been looking  for. Where have the posts been here at OpenChutes? Where are all the pictures from the powwows? Why haven’t you been posting?

I don’t know if you folks have ever touched a computer. I’m sure you have but my guess is that every single time you’ve touched one everything has worked perfectly. There has never been a problem and there is no reason anyone else should have a problem either. If my machine can work perfectly why can’t yours? The answer to that is I don’t know. All I know is that when ours goes on the fritz it’s like the end of the world.

We have had a computer bug similar to Ebola or that respiratory thing that’s going around right now where you can’t stop coughing for months and it feels like you’re passing a lung when you do, except this bug has been somewhere in the coding up on my server. Incredibly talented technical people just like the ones that put a man on the moon, could not get it resolved. Days went by then weeks. They huffed and they puffed, they gathered around Humpty and went at him with glue guns, they called Bill Gates, but nothing worked. We finally had to scrap most of the site and start over again. We still don’t know what it was.

Today however it looks like the gods have smiled upon us and lifted the sanctions they had in place and things seem to be working again. We won’t delve too deeply into cause and effect. Or the why’s and the wherefore’s. It’s working for now so we’re going to go ahead like we had good sense and start posting once more.

Hopefully the images from all the powwows taken this summer will magically begin to appear and we can all live happily ever after. Cross whatever you got to cross and we’ll hope for the best. Thanks to all of you who have patiently been waiting. Wish us luck.