Native Americans and the Lima community united as one for the annual Pow Wow at the Allen County Fairgrounds.
“Spirit has no color. We’re all welcomed as the human race, as Americans first of all. We are Together,” says Mark Banks.
That’s the message that his father has passed down onto him. Banks is a part of the Family Drum that his father started. They’re called the Southern Singers and they travel around and perform at different Pow Wows and events. He says that he’s been coming to the Pow Wow in Allen county since the late ’80s, and is happy to be able to educate and show the community an important part of Native American tradition.
Banks says, “It is an honor to bring this drum, the heartbeat of all things, to come and to honor the people with the diversity of our culture, Native American people, to show our songs and to explain our songs.”
You could still hear the beat of the drum as you ventured into the other building where the vendors were.
One vendor says she has been attending pow wows since she was 17 years old, and made her first dream catcher when she was only in elementary school. Now, she has her own booth at the Pow Wow and sells her handmade dream catchers, something that is a part of Native American history and culture.
Cheyenne Clawson says, “The general idea is that they catch your bad dreams in the webbing. The good dreams come through the center, they trickle down the feathers to the sleeper. You hang it on a wall where the sunlight filters through in the morning and burns up the bad dreams.”
Between the performances and the vendors, the pow wow was a small taste of a culture filled with history and beautiful traditions.
