Letters To The Editor . . .
Editor,
Hey there. I read your webpage every week, and I agree 99.98763% of the time with everything you post. With this last one, you have totally won me over. I too am sick of seeing things done the wrong way. It's as offensive to me as watching Elvis, N'sync, and the Backstreet Boys copy what African-American musicians have been doing for decades, and they get credit as if they originated it!
True, many if not most or ALL southeastern tribes have lost their traditional cultural roots. But being one myself, I cannot totally blame them for trying to grasp at something. However, when you do BORROW something, and totally rearrange it and call it your own, then it's just plain wrong. It makes them as bad as Puff Daddy copping 80's hits.
But the downside to it all, for me is North Carolina is all I've got right now. Time and money to travel west to dance is a luxury I don't have, so I'm stuck here, and also, these are my people.
A Tuscarora
Editor’s Note: This writer signed their full name to the above letter, but requested that a pseudonym be used. We are honoring that request.
Another Letter . . .
Hello, I have attended each of these powwows where a eagle whistle/eagle feather has been used. I feel that it is now just being used to see who can "out-do" the other by blowing their whistle more than another dancer.
I understand that the "spirit" gets to us all, but that doesn't mean that you have to blow your whistle and stop the powwow over and over and over again, every weekend! Like you said, it started in Frisco, continued in New Bern, (you left out Chesapeake, VA) and then finally in Hillsborough. That makes me wonder, will it happen this weekend in Town Creek, or in Hoke County?
NdNdude
And Another . . .
Dear Editor,
My compliments on your website. It has the potential for being a venue for discussing several issues relating to Native American culture. However, after reading the lengthy, tedious 'Guest Editorial,' I am disturbed that some self-proclaimed "skins" stoop to name calling and blatant distortion of facts in an effort to gain attention. Between your website and several postings on other discussion boards, the Union Grove Pow-Wow has been maligned ad nauseum. It is clear that the great majority of those in attendance had a wonderful time at the dance. It is also clear that nothing about the dance was pleasing to him, except the food. It is time to move on; he would be wise to further his cause by a more honorable, true method than what was written.
M. Harnett
Editor’s Note: The writer was Arena Director at the AICA powwow in Union Grove, NC.
Editor,
I really enjoy your website. It is always saying things in a straight forward way and not trying to sugar-coat it. I agree with R. Roach on what he was saying about the hobbyist in the southeast. I am a southeast Indian, and I have attended powwows where these hobbyist and wannabes dance and sing. It is really an insult to all Native Americans the way they try to be a part of the culture.
I must point out that all southeast powwows are not like this at all. There are some really good powwows in the southeast. It is just the ones where hobbyist/wannabes dance or where some new group is coming together to form a new tribe.
The whole brushing and blowing the eagle whistle on the drum has really gotten out of hand at some powwows this year. I have attended some of these powwows where this has happened, and I must say that it is not just NC powwows. All I'm going to say is that it tends to happen when a certain group of dancers happen to be at the same powwow. The brushing and blowing the drum is being done by the same group of dancers at each of these powwows. So it is not a NC thing. It is whenever these certain dancers come together.
Coharie_Native