Gathering of Nations brings dancers and drummers from across the globe

Teen girls wrapped their braids and finished their makeup in small mirrors in rows of chairs at Tingley Coliseum on Friday, preparing to dance at the Gathering of Nations. Grandparents helped their young grandchildren dress in jingle dresses and beaded regalia.

Near the entrance, David Gonzales, 57, assembled his headdress, screwing together pieces, then carefully unwrapped a beaded head roach. Gonzales is Comanche and grew up in Taos. He’s been dancing since he was 3 but recently started on the powwow circuit. Friday began his fourth powwow.

“I’m just grateful and honored to be here in the presence of a lot of family and friends,” Gonzales said. “I just want to dance and honor my relations and people that can’t dance. I’m grateful that I’m able to do this.”

One level up, 80-year-old Liza Bird was already dressed in her regalia and waiting for the dancing to begin. Bird traveled to Gathering of Nations from Saskatchewan, Canada, with her two daughters, her grandson and great-granddaughter. Bird is Cree, and she came to compete. She dances Northern Traditional in the 70-older age group.

“The best part of being here is when we’re done,” Bird said with a laugh. “When we dance, that’s also ... very exciting.”

Bird didn’t begin dancing until she was 60, but in 2016 she placed fourth in her category at Gathering of Nations.

Bird’s daughter Sharon Severight competed in Golden Age Northern Traditional. Severight lives five hours away from her mom in one direction and five hours away from her sister in the other direction.

“So, when it’s powwow season, we’re just really happy to get together,” she said.

Severight started dancing 10 years ago, after her son, Jared Severight, died.

“My sister used to dance when she was a little girl, and I always had it in my heart to dance, and so it took a while,” Severight said. “I didn’t get to dance until an older age. I had lost my son. He was 19. So, my mom started beading the regalia that I’m wearing. I’ve just been adding pieces to it, and now it’s all complete.”

Severight and her sister compete in the same category.

“I feel complete, because my mom, my sister — we’re dancing. It’s really a good life. As a family, we’re a lot stronger when we’re together.”

A drum group debut

Gathering of Nations is one of Jermaine Bell’s favorite powwows. He gets to meet up with old friends and listen to top-notch drum groups. Bell is Oglala Lakota and Northern Arapahoe, and he used to sing with world champion drum group The Boyz.

“We went all over the country, including Canada, and we went over to Nova Scotia,” Bell said. But Bell decided it was time to start his own drum collective: Ozuye.

“It means ‘war party’ in Oglala Lakota,” Bell said. “My Indian name is Scout’s Enemy, and a lot of my family wanted me to use my Indian name. And I didn’t want to use it because it was kind of personal. Ozuye can mean several different things in our language. It can mean war party or you’re scouting, you’re going on a mission to search for something. ... Ozuye is basically that — we’re on a mission to scout, we’re on a mission to sing.”

Ozuye had its debut performance Friday during the grand entry of dancers at the Gathering of Nations. The contemporary drum group sings high and aggressively.

“It’s a collective of brothers that are in different tribes,” Bell said.

The collective will spend the summer traveling on the powwow circuit.

The 41st annual Gathering of Nations

Blue corn frybread

At Zina’s Blue Corn Cafe, the name came before the blue corn frybread recipe.

“Our name was ‘Blue Corn,’ and so people always asked us, ‘Do you have anything blue corn?’” said business owner Zina Crum.

After hearing the request enough times, Crum developed a blue corn frybread recipe with 70% blue cornmeal and 30% flour. Now, the blue corn Navajo taco is the most popular menu item.

“I like it more so than the regular frybread because it makes it savory. It’s almost like the blue corn makes your tastebuds awakened, so you almost taste every ingredient in the taco,” Crum said.

The menu also features a Rez dog, which is a pair of hot dogs folded into frybread that can be dressed up with greens or down with ketchup and mustard; and a frybread pizza with marinara, pepperoni and mozzarella.

Crum was inspired to develop the pizza recipe by a cook in North Dakota featured in Indian Country Magazine. She experimented to make her own.

“Native vendors were saying that when they do powwows, Native Americans sometimes they don’t want to eat the same because they can make that at home themselves,” Crum said.

Crum has been selling Navajo tacos at the fairgrounds in Albuquerque for 21 years, usually during the state fair. But Crum hadn’t been to a Gathering of Nations for over a decade before she started selling food at the event three years ago.

“I didn’t know that all these Natives come here to this event. There were Natives from all over the world. ... It was amazing, and then you meet people like that all day long. The only thing is they don’t like red or green chile because they’re not used to it,” Crum said.