Performers welcome back AIC powwow

During the week of March 22, the MSU American Indian Council held its 45th annual powwow. Due to COVID-19 guidelines, performers from Canada to Arizona submitted videos of their hand drum and dance performances with the hashtag #2021MSUAICPOWWOW on Facebook on specific days. The submissions were categorized by the type of performance, which included youth, teen and adult male and female Hand Drumming, as well as Fancy, Jingle, Grass, Chicken and traditional dances.

“We’ve missed powwows so much because of COVID[-19], and it is a really important part of our culture, and it's been something missing from my heart,” Cheyenne Whiteman explained. Whiteman, a freshman from Hardin, Montana, is a nursing major at MSU with a passion (and talent) for Jingle dress dancing. She started “As soon as [she] could walk, [when her] mom started making [her] dresses.”

Whiteman identifies herself as half Crow and half Northern Cheyenne and participated for the first time in an MSU-hosted powwow. Although new to the MSU powwow, Whiteman grew up attending and competing at various powwows across the state, which frequently included the annual powwow at the University of Montana. Nonetheless, Whiteman decided to attend MSU because of “the really good nursing program,” and the fact that the “Native American Center was really attractive to [her].” She was drawn to MSU by the academic and personal support she found in the American Indian Center and accessible Honors College tutors. Whiteman was also drawn to the Caring For Our Own Program (CO-OP), which is an institution within the MSU Nursing department that provides academic and career support and resources to American Indian nursing students. Whiteman herself plans to tutor fellow other American Indian students in the future in anatomy, writing and sociology. As a nursing major, Whiteman is looking forward to becoming a family nurse practitioner. “I really want to work in my own town or another tribe’s town, just because I think it is nice to go into a hospital and see someone who looks like you,” Whiteman said. Her simple remark references a larger issue of a lack of BIPOC representation in the medical field, including hospitals and clinics across Montana.

Whiteman hopes to continue attending powwows during her nursing career, as well as bring her future children to the annual MSU powwow.

This year, Whiteman performed and recorded her Jingle dance alongside her close friend and fellow Jingle dress dancer, Maleeya Knows His Gun, in front of Montana Hall. Dancing to Young Grey Horse, Whiteman was dressed in a silver and black dress created by her mother, along with a new belt of her own that she was especially excited to wear. Whiteman made a nonchalant remark about the complicated process of creating her own outfit. “It is kind of like coming up with an outfit every morning. I have to look nice and organized, I’ve got to have a good outfit,” she said.

In the future, Whiteman plans to attend and compete in subsequent powwows at MSU, including competing in the annual Miss Indian MSU pageant that takes place every March. Whiteman is also continuing her journey toward a summer that will include a powwow each weekend, and improving upon her already talented Jingle dress dance.