All the Beautiful people

Saturday fun with The Evil Family

Saturday we took the entire family out to a fundraiser.
Sounds terribly boring right? Well this fundraiser was for an up coming PowWow that we've been invited to.
This was put on by several local tribes, mostly Cherokee.
You all know by now that I am Blackfoot, but since I live too far from the Blackfoot reservation to participate in my tribal celebrations I was thrilled to be invited to join some locals in theirs.
Traditional food. Similar to the Blackfoot diet of wild fruits, vegetables, roots, berries and such.

A Cherokee day camp used during migrations.

Elise and her daughter in Cherokee reservation trade cloth dresses.

A very nice Pawnee man that shared a bit about his tribe with me.

Emerson a very sweet Apache whom gave me a beautiful gift. (I'll show you later)

Mowhawk target practice.
He also showed their blow guns.

The food. Indian tacos. A yummy meal that became traditional to most tribes once living on reservations.
Flour was new to Indians and so it was put to use, mixed with water and salt and fried to golden. Fry bread is then cover with beans, meat and veggies and it is the yum!

Dancing! There is always lots of dancing when you get a bunch of Natives of any tribe together.

Sorry I didn't get many pictures of the dancing. I was busy dancing myself.
I just can't stand still once the drum starts beating and the singer lets out his first call.

My little Blonde, blue eyed Indians

Look at my little pale face girls in their ceremonial paint!

Well after hours of dancing, food and many new friends I am still worn out but very happy!

This is my gift from Emerson and his wife Kae.
It is traditional to give a gift to a new adopted family member. I am honored to be a member of the Yellow feather clan. The drawing is of a fire hawk, a symbol of wisdom and spirit and of a turtle, a symbol of strength. On the turtles back is a medicine wheel which represents our spiritual beliefs of unity. Each color represents a direction, element, season, stage of life and a race of people. All in fours and always conected.
It is a beautiful gift and a good offering!

44 comments:

  1. painted Lady fingersMarch 22, 2010 at 12:44 AM

    Thank you so much for sharing. The story of the gift and it's meaning made me tear up. Your little Indians are so beautiful and dear. :*

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wow, this must be the most interesting and enchanting post I've ever read.. I'm so glad you shared these photos and the stories with us, thank you!

    ReplyDelete
  3. An absolutely wonderful post - it could be a fantastic feeling to be united again with all Your relatives, distant and close alike, and to be connected to Your roots. I loved this post and the pictures so much.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Claudia (aka cmp381)March 22, 2010 at 4:10 AM

    Andrea... do you think you can share the recipe for the fry bread?
    It seems like something which is very familiar which we have in Panama.
    It looks delicious!

    Thanks for all the pictures, and for giving us a little window into your world.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thank you for sharing this, it looks really fun. I love the drawing, how special. :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Great post :) And your girls are adorable.

    ReplyDelete
  7. WOW! Love the painting...

    ReplyDelete
  8. He is a very talented artist and doesn't he just look like a big ol' teddy bear! :)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Thank You! Funny how my 3 youngest look nothing like me at all, the girls look like my Great GrandMother who was a beautiful Norwegian/Swedish lady.

    ReplyDelete
  10. We had a great time!

    ReplyDelete
  11. I will post the reciepe and directions later today. I would not be surprised if you had a similar dish, it's yummy!

    ReplyDelete
  12. It's been a long time since I've been surrounded by other Native Americans. It was almost like going home.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I'm glad you enjoyed it, it was a great day!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Diane I think you would enjoy being amoung tribal people, the stories alone would set your imagination a fire!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Alright! This is the post I've really been waiting for. :) I have wanted to tell you you should write some more about your heritage- I am deadly curious! In Sweden we, for several reasons, don't get to learn very much about Native Americans in school, or elsewhere. So to me it's super exotic (in lack of better words to describe my curiousity), and I'd love to know more!

    We actually do have some "native Swedes" too- the Sapmi/Sami/Lapps. For reasons similar to the Native Americans', they have not been very much in the limelight, so to speak, but it's getting better here and there is continous work done to acknowledge their heritage and spreading the word to the "white people". :)

    Oh, and by the way, are there any famous Blackfoots? My only Native American reference people are Chuck Billy and Mike Patton. LOL

    ReplyDelete
  16. Got way too curious and looked it up on wikipedia. Congrats to sharing origins w Blackie Lawless! \m/ xD

    ReplyDelete
  17. That looks like such an amazing cultural experience, and your kidlings are so cute! XD

    That food looks DELICIOUS.

    ReplyDelete
  18. It's all so absolutely beautiful!

    I would SOOOOO love to witness this is first hand!

    ReplyDelete
  19. oh, I forgot...your kids are SSOOOOO ADORABLE! Gracious, you are a lucky lady!

    ReplyDelete
  20. Wow it looks like such a beautiful area and lots to do!
    The taco looks and sounds yummy, your kids look like they're really enjoying themselves, bless! I want to go haha :)

    ReplyDelete
  21. I would have loved this! Your pictures are beautiful, especially your babies. How fun that you got to do this. Hope the kiddos had a great time too!

    ReplyDelete
  22. Mom you are a jerk, I never get to do anything fun, all I get to do is go bowling....I seem to work whenever there is something fun coming in to town and I don't find out about it until its too late for me to request off.... >:o

    ReplyDelete
  23. Listen here miss pouty pants, Mom rarely get's to have fun so zipit!
    You got to go to Metelocolypse and other concerts. I haven't been to a concert in forever.
    Now go get your degree so you can work set days and hours with paid vacations and all that! :-P

    ReplyDelete
  24. The kids loved it and Chris even had fun.

    ReplyDelete
  25. It is a fun time!

    ReplyDelete
  26. You should go to a PowWow, seriously it is so much fun!

    ReplyDelete
  27. Thank You! The food was fab!

    ReplyDelete
  28. There aren't many "Famous" Blackfeet, we tend to be of too few words.
    Blackie Lawless is from the Blood clan so we are probably cousins somewhere along the line. lol

    ReplyDelete
  29. How nice!, your babies look so happy.
    It feels good to dance , I love to dance!
    It's a joy to admire Indian traditions.
    Cool post Evil Angel ;)

    ReplyDelete
  30. Thanks for sharing with us! It looks like you had a great time, your gift is gorgeous. The fry bread looks amazing, I'm glad I can finally see what it is that you're always telling me about! The girls look adorable as always!

    ReplyDelete
  31. wow, this is very cool - thank you for sharing!!

    ReplyDelete
  32. This looks so wonderful! Thank you so much for sharing this with us. Looks like you had an awesome time. We have nothing like this in the UK. I've been reading about the reservations in my Jamie Oliver cookery book and it's so interesting and inspiring, the recipes look amazing too!

    ReplyDelete
  33. Thank you for sharing this with us. Very,very cool!!!

    ReplyDelete
  34. cool!!!!!!! very cool!!!! i

    ReplyDelete
  35. haha, it's me, Diane! forgot to put in my name!!!! i'm havin one of those days!!! lol

    ReplyDelete
  36. Blood clan... That sounds... Evil. \m/ :D

    ReplyDelete
  37. oh that looks like such an amazing day!

    ReplyDelete
  38. Wow! I loved this post :) Your babies are beautiful,and it looks like you all had a wonderful time. I wish I knew more about my Cherokee ancestors.Without their stories a huge section of my family tree is still missing :'(

    ReplyDelete
  39. Aww it looks, like so much fun! Your girls look so cute. Very interesting to learn about your culture :)

    ReplyDelete
  40. wow, this is very cool - thank you for sharing!!

    ReplyDelete
  41. oh that looks like such an amazing day!

    ReplyDelete
  42. There aren't many "Famous" Blackfeet, we tend to be of too few words.
    Blackie Lawless is from the Blood clan so we are probably cousins somewhere along the line. lol

    ReplyDelete
  43. Alright! This is the post I've really been waiting for. :) I have wanted to tell you you should write some more about your heritage- I am deadly curious! In Sweden we, for several reasons, don't get to learn very much about Native Americans in school, or elsewhere. So to me it's super exotic (in lack of better words to describe my curiousity), and I'd love to know more!

    We actually do have some "native Swedes" too- the Sapmi/Sami/Lapps. For reasons similar to the Native Americans', they have not been very much in the limelight, so to speak, but it's getting better here and there is continous work done to acknowledge their heritage and spreading the word to the "white people". :)

    Oh, and by the way, are there any famous Blackfoots? My only Native American reference people are Chuck Billy and Mike Patton. LOL

    ReplyDelete

Please comment, I love hearing from you all! XOXO