The Great Mohican Pow-Wow (2022).
When Native Americans gather in Central Ohio this weekend for dancing, drumming and more as part of the Great Mohican Pow-Wow, nearly 50 Kenyon students will be among them.
The three-day event that begins Friday near Loudonville, Ohio — about 30 minutes northeast of campus — will feature storytellers, musicians, and an array of artisans, craftsmen and traders selling their goods. For many students, it will be a chance to learn firsthand about a storied heritage that remains vibrantly alive.
“This is a really great opportunity,” said Associate Professor of History Patrick Bottiger, a historian of Native America who has been attending the Powwow with members of the Kenyon community since 2013. “Yes, Indigenous peoples were removed from Ohio, but it’s never stopped being an Indigenous place. The people who are dancing, they’re Apache, they’re Cherokee, they’re Ojibwe. They’re from tribes whose homelands are located far afield, but they’re here because they live in Ohio.”
The annual Great Mohican Pow-Wow dates back to 1985 and will be held this year from Sept. 13-15 at Mohican Reservation campground. Transportation as well as the cost of admission and food for students who are attending — some on Saturday and others on Sunday — will be covered by the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (ODEI) and the Office for Community Partnerships.
“ODEI has supported the Great Mohican Pow-Wow in various capacities over the years,” said Chris Kennerly, dean for diversity, equity and inclusion. “This year, we are excited to collaborate with Professors Bottiger and [Orchid] Tierney to offer a co-curricular experience for our students. I’m particularly looking forward to the Grand Entry and the dance and drum competition on Sunday.”
Bottiger said that just by attending the event, students will be combating the pervasive stereotype that Native Americans don’t exist anymore.
“Part of getting students to the Powwow is just for them to be present in a place that Indigenous peoples have created for themselves so that they can see that Indigenous peoples aren’t just in the past.”
Some students will be coming as part of community engaged learning courses that they are taking this semester, including RLST 130 (Religion and Society in America) with Assistant Professor of Religious Studies Alex Rocklin and DRAM 291 (Theater for Social Change) with Visiting Assistant Professor of Drama Laley Lippard.
The cross-departmental event, Laley said, offers an important opportunity to deepen respect for Indigenous culture and “begin to build relationships between communities, and find opportunities to learn directly about Native traditions.”
Later in the semester, her class will study “The Thanksgiving Play” by Larissa FastHorse (Sicangu Lakota Nation), the first known female Native American playwright produced on Broadway. The satire highlights the misrepresentation of Native peoples in the U.S. and the harmful characterization of Indigenous peoples in popular storytelling.
For Rocklin, the timing of the Powwow couldn’t be better.
“It happens to be going on at the exact week that we’re talking about Indigenous religions and settler colonialism,” he said.
As part of the conversation, he’ll be talking with students about the resiliency of Indigenous peoples.
“One of the things I’ll be helping them to think about is that although Indigenous people get erased, they’re continuing to struggle against colonialism and to assert their identities and to say that they’re still here.”