People come together to celebrate their heritage and to project their culture into the future. Seniors and children, fathers and sons, all of them participating in the great web of life and its celebration, handing down the integral parts of their unique culture to the up-and-coming generation. Cultural events are one of my favorite photographic subjects.
In the South Dakota Pine Ridge Reservation one can find traditional powwows such as this one of the Oglala Sioux in Potatoe Creek. Here Native Americans dance before a crowd of peers to the beating drums of native families who perform music and verse from the ages. Due to the suppression of the Native American culture, gatherings like this are imperative to keep the traditions and ethos alive as they are passed along to the children of the next generation.
It is perhaps quite appropriate therefore that the term "powwow" derives from the Algonquian word meaning "to dream".