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Most attendees were on their feet as dancers from 37 different tribes paraded into the center of the Snow King Event Center in traditional regalia.
Keegan Her Many Horses, 28, was among those dancing to the traditional song of a drum circle. The Oglala Lakota tribal member grew up in Ethete, Wyoming on the Wind River reservation, but now lives on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota where he works as an athletic trainer and physical education teacher.
“We meet long-lost friends, family friends, extended family. It’s a good reason to come together, catch up, make new friends and then dance for our family,” Her Many Horses said, “represent our family and our tribes through our dance and songs.”
Dave Deschenes works with Native American Jump Start, which has helped host the Teton Powwow since 2019. Its founding was, in part, a reaction to a culturally offensive 2018 parade where non-Native Americans portrayed American Indians with red face paint and black wigs.
In 1895, white people stopped Shoshone-Bannock elk hunts in Jackson in a deadly encounter. What ensued was a fight over land rights that went all the way to the Supreme Court.
“From that time on, the greater Jackson area was known as an unfriendly area for the Shoshone people to come back to,” Deschenes said.
Recent U.S. Census data show Jackson as predominantly white with 1.5 percent of the population identifying as American Indian or Alaska Native.
But Deschenes said the Teton Powwow is offering some Wyoming Native American residents an opportunity to reconsider visiting Jackson. He attributes the year-after-year growth of the five-year-old event to word of mouth in the Native American community. This year saw over 100 more participants than last, he said.
“The event is getting a great reputation,” Deschenes said.
From March to September, Her Many Horses travels to about 10 to 15 powwows and knows others who travel to upwards of 30. He has been attending powwows his whole life. The eight-hour drive to Teton County isn’t the farthest he’s ever traveled. He remembers an 11 hour drive to Minnesota in the backseat of his mother’s car as a kid.
“I’m at the age now where I can’t stay with mom and dad anymore,” he said, “so me and my wife try to hit up as many as we can.”
Her Many Horses’ red beaded regalia was a high school graduation gift. Each tribe has their own distinct design from feathered headdress to ribboned shawl to beaded moccasins that can weigh around 50 pounds.
Designs are passed down through families for generations, Her Many Horses said. “Or they’ll have new spinoffs based off of their parents’ or grandfathers’ designs.”
The annual, all-day celebration is the culmination of the five-day Native Voices celebration, sponsored by Central Wyoming College, Wyoming Humanities and Native American Jump Start. It includes multiple traditional dance competition categories in several age groups and organizers expect it to continue next year.
For Her Many Horses, it’s more of a community gathering than a competition.
“If you’re going to a powwow for the first time, go there, have a good time, and try to make friends,” he said, “we come to dance and have fun and catch up and make friends.”
