Sokaogon Chippewa Community News
TRAILS Powwow
Posted on: March 7, 2019
The 32nd annual TRAILS Powwow was held this past weekend at Crandon High School. Drummers, dancers and spectators traveled from across Wisconsin to attend.
“There are a lot of people who put a lot of hard work and efforts into making this annual event such a success,” Rachel Vodar, SCC Home School Coordinator, said. “In mid-January, a powwow committee was formed to make all of the decisions for the powwow to run successfully. The committee was to decide on who the Head Female and Head Male Dancers, the Emcee, the Arena Director, the Head Veteran and who the Drums would be.”
The Host Drum, Tomahawk Circle, is a mixture of youth and adults from the Lac du Flambeau community. Our Co-Host Drum, Fire Nation, is a mixture of youth and adults from the Potawatomi Community. There were four invited drums that also attended the powwow: Noisy Boyz from Lac Courte Oreilles, Swamp Creek Bros from Sokaogon Chippewa, 2nd Island from Menominee and Wind Eagle. All of the drums were a mixture of youth and adult singers.
Congratulations to the newly crowned TRAILS Royalty: Senior Princess Jayden Quade, Junior Princess Nevaeh Kaquatosh, Tiny Tot Brave Wren Gotts and TRAILS Brave Alexander VanZile, Jr.
“On Sunday morning, we had a ‘Roll Call Special’ for all of the drums to compete for a Winner Take All prize,” Rachel said. “Each drum had a member of their group go on stage to sing something that isn’t a powwow song for the crowd. The crowd were the judges, and, by applause, would select the winner of who sang the best.”
The winner of the contest was AJ Waupoose of 2nd Island Drum.
The Head Dancers were Corral and Thomas Pecore, which is a special treat because Corral is a Sokaogon Chippewa Tribal Member. Corral and her husband, Thomas, are a couple who always attend several powwows annually all over Wisconsin and Michigan.
“The powwow committee selected these two because of their love and passion of the powwow trail,” Rachel said. “Corral dances in the category of Women’s Traditional, and Thomas dances both Men’s Traditional and Men’s Woodland style. This weekend Thomas danced only Men’s Traditional style.”
Corral and Thomas had a two-step special for the dancers at the powwow. It was nice to see so many smiling faces on both the dancers and the spectators while this special was going on. The winner of the dance special was a father and daughter team.
Our Master of Ceremonies, Ronnie Preston, traveled all the way from Milwaukee to lead the powwow in a good way with his leadership skills and voice. Ronnie is a Tribal Member of the San Carlos Apache Tribal Nation. Ronnie is well known for his Men’s Grass Dance style and for performing in the Native American Arts group, Woodland Sky. It is always a great honor to have Ronnie as our Emcee.
The Arena Director, Pwagen Frank, is a Tribal Member of the Forest County Potawatomi. Pwagen is very familiar with the powwow trail, as he sings on drums and attends and competes at powwows all over the country. Pwagen is often selected to assist with the powwows ran by the Forest County Potawatomi Community.
Our Head Veteran was the one and only Dean VanZile. Dean is a Tribal Member of the Sokaogon Chippewa Community, and is the SCC Director of Veterans.
“Dean coordinated several vets to come and participate in the powwow this past weekend,” Rachel said. “It is always an honor to work with Dean and his knowledge of the roles of the Veterans in the Grand Entry of the powwows.”
Kimberlee Soldier also helped to plan the event with the assistance of the TRAILS Powwow Committee.
“I think that the TRAILS Powwow is an important event for all of our surrounding communities because it highlights and showcases the fun traditional and cultural things that we can do with our children and our youth,” Kimberlee said.
“I’m excited to see all of the faces that are changing throughout the years from the folks that are my age to their kids, and how they change as they get older, and it’s just one big family event. It takes a lot of time and dedication to host an event like this but it’s totally worth seeing the excitement on all of the faces!”
View more photos of the TRAILS Powwow on the Tribe’s Facebook page.
The powwow committee would like to thank all of the hard workers who helped coordinate this powwow. There were many employees and community members that worked very hard to make this powwow a success. Also a big thank you to the youth of the Sokaogon Chippewa Community.
Thank you to Family Services, Sokaogon Finance, Sokaogon Chippewa Community, Sokaogon Chippewa Cenex and the Mole Lake Casino Lodge and Conference Center.