Eastern Shoshone Indian Days: 2015 Pow-Wow and Events.

54th Annual Event Held at Ft. Washakie in NW Wyoming.

The sounds of the drums, singers, bells, and jingles, combined with the movement of the dancers and their regalia will likely leave a lasting impression on any viewer. During a Grand Entrance, hundreds of colorfully clad dancers of all ages spiral their way into the large pavilion. Words, and even photos simply can’t do justice to the actual experience. Gatherings like the 56th Annual Eastern Shoshone Indian Days celebrate Native American’s heritage and culture.

The Powwow, & Indian Rodeo & Relay Races were held at Ft. Washakie, WY over the three days and nights of June 26-28, 2015. Click Here for a Google Map of the area.

The Pow-Wow at Ft. Washakie is roughly 140 miles from downtown Jackson. A similar Pow-Wow is held each year at Ft. Hall in eastern Idaho—also roughly 140 miles from Jackson. That event will be held August 6-9 in 2015. It is even larger than the Ft. Washakie event. Crow Fair 2015 – will be held August 12-17 at Crow Agency, MT.

Hand Drums and Singers: Shooting Data: NIKON D4, 150.0-600.0 mm f/5.0-6.3 at 150 mm, 1/160 at f/7.1, Aperture priority Mode, -1 2/3 EV, ISO 900, SB 910 Strobe, ©2015 Mike R. Jackson, All Rights Reserved

Besides the Grand Entrances and dance competitions, the Ft. Washakie event included an Indian Rodeo and Relay Races. I didn’t make it to those events, however the announcer at the pavilion made it sound like the events were action packed and memorable. Saturday morning was filled with foot races for all ages, stick ball games, arrow toss, and a tug of war in numerous age groups. While some participants were from the Fort Washakie area, others traveled from long distances to be part of the event. The “hand drum” competition, shown in the photo above, was spread out over several days.

This shot should give a reasonable idea of the size and scale of pavilion or arbor. I asked how many dancers there were and about the only response I could get was “over 200″. I’d guess considerably more than that. It took roughly 30 minutes to stream everyone into the grassy pavilion. I was standing in the shade of the pavilion, with an occasional light breeze to keep me somewhat cool. The participants in the afternoon Grand Entrance were actively dancing in the 93°F baking sun with their full regalia. (Click this image to see it larger).

“Indian Time”: That’s a term I heard the announcer use. He was referring to the fact the Saturday afternoon Grand Entrance was scheduled to begin at 1:00 PM, but it didn’t actually begin until 1:35 PM. The 7:00 PM evening Grand Entrance began at roughly 7:30 PM, too.

This a great, great grandson of Chief Washakie. The original Chief Washakie was famous on many levels. Here’s a quote from Wikipedia:

“Nearby Crowheart Butte was the site of a battle between the Crow and Shoshone American Indian tribes in 1866. According to legend, following a five-day battle for rights to the hunting grounds in the Wind River Range, Chief Washakie of the Shoshone and Chief Big Robber of the Crow agreed to a duel, with the winner gaining the rights to the Wind River hunting grounds. Chief Washakie eventually prevailed, but he was so impressed with the courage of his opponent, that rather than scalp him, he instead cut out his heart and placed it on the end of his lance.”

Two Dancers:

Comments about the Fancy Dancers: There aren’t many square inches left on these dancer’s regalia not covered with some sort of motion generating element. The biggest challenge is to get even a small portion of their face in the shot. Their actions are fast and unpredictable, so I shot a lot on each subject. I also slowed the shutter down to 1/30th or 1/40th second. 1/10th was way too slow! I chose to include a few with a hint of a face, but I also came home with hundreds of very interesting abstract motion shots with just swirls of colors, ribbons and feathers. There were lots of possibilities.

All Ages: I couldn’t help notice the age groups—from barely walking to the elderly—and a good showing of every age in between.

Traditional Women’s Competition: Shooting Data: NIKON D800, 150.0-600.0 mm f/5.0-6.3 at 450 mm, 1/125 at f/6, Aperture priority Mode, -2/3 EV, ISO 1600, ©2015 Mike R. Jackson, All Rights Reserved

Detail Shot of Back of a Traditional Women’s Dress: Shooting Data: NIKON D800, 150.0-600.0 mm f/5.0-6.3 at 350 mm, 1/320 at f/6, Manual Mode, -2/3 EV, ISO 3200, ©2015 Mike R. Jackson, All Rights Reserved

Photography Notes: This Pow-Wow seemed more “forgiving” to photographers than the Fort Hall Pow-Wow I’ve attended a few times in prior years. As long as cameras are pointed to the inside of the pavilion or arbor, no one seemed to be concerned. A couple of photographers were actually allowed to be inside the dance area. I don’t believe that would be allowed at Fort Hall. Images on this page were picked from roughly 2100 I took that day. I ran them through a few quick adjustment steps in Lightroom before posting them here. Light was harsh and constrasty during the afternoon Grand Entrance. The evening Grand Entrance was held at about the exact time the sun was trying to set behind a dark storm cloud. The pavilion lights came on at some point, so getting consistent, accurate color was a challenge left to Lightroom. I could probably tweak some of these a little more. I used an on camera Nikon SB 910 strobe for most of the late evening shots. For all shots, I used a heavy duty tripod. I chose to use the Tamron 150-600mm lens to get the extra reach for the close-ups. I shot almost all of the images “wide open” to attempt to blur out as much of the clutter as possible.

I didn’t get model releases on any of the images, so they are essentially suited only for images for this blog. Beware: besides my copyrights, if you were to use (steal) any of these images for a painting or any other purpose, you might also get a letter from a tribal lawyer. They are rumored to aggressively police images like this.

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