University student newspaper ridicules powwow, participants

Friday, March 18, 2011  

The Union Weekly, a student newspaper at California State University, Long Beach, published an article in its latest issue that ridicules a powwow and its participants.

The American Indian Studies Program and the American Indian Student Council organized the powwow. Union Weekly editor Noah Kelly described the event as an "underwhelming affair" that resembled a "flea market" and said its participants acted worse than homeless people.

"The gathering of tent-vendors and fry-bread ironically circled their wagons around the Native American performers, dressed in traditional garb and dancing around a large tree on the Upper Campus lawn," Kelly wrote.

Kelly was particularly disturbed by a dance in which donations were taken for the powwow. "The entire scene felt disingenuous and cheap," he wrote.

"Donations are great, and necessary; tossing them unceremoniously on the ground is crass and borderline obscene," Kelly said. "Even the homeless have hats and cups."

Get the Story:
PDF: Pow Wow Wow Yippee Yo Yippy Yay (Union Weekly March 14, 2011)