"It's been 11 years since Margarita Hawley has been to the annual powwow on Montana's Rocky Boy's Reservation.
She left Wednesday after reacquainting with friends and relatives during the annual event near the Bear Paw Mountains. The celebration attracted some 400 dancers from across the U.S. who competed for $180,000 in prizes.
Hawley has long been part of a powwow community, with an appreciation of dancing instilled by her father, the late Pete Hawley. Her dad always encouraged the whole family to participate. And he routinely took his grandchildren to powwows across the West.
“My dad said, ‘Never take them out of the powwow circuit,' ” she said. “When he got sick and died, we started doing it all ourselves.”
The powwow season is in full swing across Indian Country, giving family separated by distance a chance to reconnect. Margarita and her husband arrived in Rocky Boy with their children, Ramona 17, Mario, 15, and Manny, 7."
Get the Story:Jodi Rave: Powwows power up families (The Missoulian 8/12) Relevant Links:
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