During the powwow, this dance group showed off their wardrobe and style of dance as a tribute to their Native American heritage. Photo by Nick Nelson/The Dakota Student. 

I had the chance to visit and experience Native American culture and language up front and personal this weekend.

Never before have I seen and learned about a culture that seems to be missing from our textbooks. Listening to the performers’ personal stories and how their culture was expressed through dance and song really touched me.

They shared their research, their hearts and their culture. I have been lucky in my education to learn more about different Native peoples but never to this extent.

There are two styles of powwow celebrations, the traditional and contest powwow. The contest powwow is a recent phenomenon that incorporates tradition into the competition of dancing and singing. Champion dancers and singers from the U.S. and Canada travel to various powwows throughout the nation to compete for top prizes.

This weekend was a time to listen, embrace and learn. One of the biggest things I’ve learned while attending the wacipi powwow is that is it worth it.

It is more than just an event featuring people and food. While people would like to assume that UND is diverse, this is only half true in Grand Forks. The powwow serves as a reminder that for people who really have hearts and traditions, they can no longer separate this community from our own.

Wacipi stands as a reminder of how much more we have to learn to learn. It is a time when people of all ages can gather together to sing, dance, renew old friendships, make new friends and share the beauty of life.

UND is going through budget cuts, and there seems to be a lot of negative energy on campus, but that should not separate us from the positivity of community engagement that the powwow brought.

I have never before seen people embrace diversity they way they did last weekend. The connection for all of this is to embrace Indian Studies’ and the University of North Dakota Indian Association while learning more about the culture we might know very little about.

It is awesome to see the UNDIA ally with UND and the community to share and foster this kind of hope and insight. It helps forge stronger bonds between Native people and non-native people while serving as a celebration of life, culture and history.

Amina Chinnell-Mateen is a columnist for The Dakota Student. She can be reached at [email protected]