Long before 1492 when good ol’ Chris Columbus set sail on Wednesday, August 3, 1492, with the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria, groups of people, collectively called in my-speak, injuns. I prefer the term injuns as opposed to terms in [1] Newspeak, PC or [2] politically [3] correct terms such as “Native Americans” or whatever.

Anyone born in the U.S. could claim to be “native American,” but then comes that issue of capitalization of the “N” in native. Since many folks don’t even speak properly, let alone know how to write a complete sentence, much less worry about punctuation, capitalization, and other petty issues, I prefer to stick with a word everyone can understand. Since I am an injun, I will use it. If you take offence, great. Offend yourself all you want.

Now, getting back to life and the celebrations surrounding it.

Pow wows that people are familiar with today are basically a specific type of event sponsored and hosted held by various tribes. At most pow wows today, when looking about the people attending, you will find injuns, non-injuns, and wannabe-injuns.

It seems that at almost every pow wow I’ve attended in the past 25-plus years, there’s at least one person who tells of a Cherokee princess among their ancestors. As most injuns, especially Cherokees, will tell you (once they stop laughing in your face), there’s no such thing as a “Cherokee princess,” but these folks wouldn’t let truth stand in the way of their noble lineage. [4] Wikipedia’s page has a short comment on this. Here’s that section:

… The American Indian princess is a false concept, derived from the application of European concepts to Native Americans, as also seen in the naming of war chiefs as “kings”.^{[5] [23]} Descent from “Indian braves” is rarely claimed.

In the 20th century, among white ethnic groups, it was popular to claim descent from an “American Indian princess”, often a Cherokee. The prototypical “American Indian princess” was [6] Pocahontas.

This “safe” descent from Native Americans was seen as fashionable not only among whites claiming prestigious colonial descent but also among whites seeking to claim connection to groups with distinct folkways that would differentiate them from the mass culture. Large influxes of recent immigrants with unique social customs may have been partially an object of envy. Among Latinos of partial African descent and African-Americans, the desire to be un-black was sometimes expressed in claims of Native American descent.^{[7] [24]} Those [8] passing as white might use the slightly more acceptable Native American ancestry to explain inconvenient details. In the PBS program “African American Lives,” [9] Oprah Winfrey described childhood taunting where being Native American was preferable to being all black. Genetic tests done for the program showed that she and [10] Chris Tucker both probably had Native American ancestors.

[11] Pow wows today are basically like a meeting where people come together to dance, sing, socialize, and generally, hopefully, have a good time. Some pow wows are held as a one-day only event, lasting several others, but many pow wows actually last over the course of a two or three days, lasting several hours each day. Some pow wows, generally called for special occasions, last for a week or so.

No matter the length of the pow wow, as I said, there’s singing, dancing, and socializing. The singing and dancing are important. They are a celebration of life, if you will.

[12] As folks in the U.S. get ready for Columbus Day, which is the second Monday in October, I think back to pow wows I’ve attended over the years. I think back to [13] small pox and [14] other diseases. I think back to corn, maize, soy, and other things.

Pow wows are a celebration. They celebrate life. They celebrate history. Everything about the dance styles, the “chanting” and singing, the music is all about history, or, should I say, our heritage.

During the time around Columbus Day, I urge you to spend time learning about the other side of the coin: the injuns in America. Forget about the guy who “discovered” America. He didn’t discover it because it was never lost.