Pitt University-COTRAIC Mini Pow Wow 2022

[Miguel Sague Jr]

Today Wednesday, September 21, 2022, I attended a mini pow wow celebrated at Schenley Plaza in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, PA. The event was sponsored by the University of Pittsburgh in collaboration with our own COUNCIL OF THREE RIVERS AMERICAN INDIAN CENTER.

Our Indian center maintained an information booth at the event

It was a pleasure to share this moment of culture and tradition with Pitt University's Assistant Vice Chancellor of Diversity, Randi Congleton, with whom I have been planning for this and other projects for over three years now.

I also was honored to participate in all this fun with Tessa Provins of the Choctaw Nation, who is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Pitt University and another wonderful collaborator with whom I, in behalf of the Indian Center, have been working with on several projects.

The event was also attended by Amy Covell-Murthy, the Collection Manager of Archaeology and Head of the Section of Anthropology at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh. I have been negotiating future sustained collaboration between the Indian Center and the Museum with Amy and several of her associates at the Carnegie for over a year.

As we sat together enjoying the mini-pow wow Amy informed me that the museum had arranged for a partial financial sponsorship of our regular full pow wow this coming Saturday and Sunday. So This year our center is participating in two separate pow wows at two different sites through the generous collaboration of both Pitt University and also Carnegie Museum. It is such an honor for me to be working with these two great Pittsburgh institutions and their representatives.

During the mini-pow wow's intermission Amy generously led a group of the Native performers and dancers from the event on a brief tour of the Carnegie Museum's famous Alcoa Hall Of American Indians across the street from the plaza.

Upon reaching the back entrance of the museum the dancers were inspired to dance briefly to the rhythm of the drum and singing of our own Indian Center pow wow organizer, Michael Simms, the son of COTRAIC's executive director Russell Simms. 

 

I spent most of the afternoon at the event enjoying all the great music and dance.

It was also wonderful to spend time with long-time friends from the Indian Center membership.

I ran into Pam Simms.

 I spent some time with Lisa Mitten and Ann Follette.

During a lull in the regular pow wow dancing the stage was taken by representatives of the Iroquoian Tuscarora Nation who put on an awesome performance of traditional Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) music and dance.

I am so very grateful to Amy for getting me together with the venerable archaeologist icon, Jim Richardson, of the Carnegie Museum who, among other accomplishments, spent some time researching pre-Taino Saladoid sites on the Caribbean island of Montserrat in collaboration with Dr David Watters, a now retired researcher of the Carnegie Museum who did extensive archaeological work in the Caribbean. I interacted with Dr Watters in the early 2000's at which tlme he provided access for me to see the Saladoid artifacts in his possession and use them in sacred ceremony at our Caney Circle Verona, PA site. Today Dr Richardson promised that he would try to get me back in touch with Dr Watters whom I have not seen in over a decade. 

I offer mad respect to our pow wow organizer, Michael Simms for the wonderful job he accomplished today in putting together this great pow wow. I look forward to his expert handling of the bigger pow wow at the Indian Center's Singing Winds site in the northern Pittsburgh suburb of  Dorseyville this coming weekend.

He had a lot of fun leading this snake dance with the participants of the event this afternoon.