Saddle Up for the National Folk Festival
Butte Montana

Photo by Michael G. Stewart, Courtesy of the National Council for the Traditional Arts

Saddle up the ponies and head to Big Sky Country for the National Folk Festival, being held July 10–12 in Butte, Montana. Launched in 1934 and hosted by the National Council for Traditional Arts, the festival is said to be the oldest event of its kind in the nation. It moves to a new location every three years. In 2008, in its first year in Montana, the event was attended by some 75,000 people—a number expected to nearly double in 2009.

The festival will include a number of Indian components, befitting Montana’s rich Native history and contemporary culture. In fact, it kicks off at 6 p.m. on July 10 with an all-Indian horse parade, which will feature a dozen or more riders of Crow, Blackfeet, Salish and other heritages. The riders and their mounts, including a handful of rare “Buffalo Runner” horses (descendants of pure-breed Spanish mustangs), will be dressed in their finest regalia.

The First Peoples’ Marketplace will offer the work of 20 or so of Montana’s finest Native American artists and craftspeople, such as drummaker Al Chandler Goodstrike (see this issue, p. 39); beader, quillworker and dollmaker Joyce Growing Thunder (see Nov./Dec. 2008 issue); beader and drummaker Merle Big Bow (see this issue, p. 39); glass mosaic artist Angela Babby (see Sept./Oct. 2006 issue); weapon maker and quillworker Antone LeBeau (see May/June 2003 issue), quillworker Leonda Fast Buffalo Horse (see Summer 1997 issue), and painters and ledger artists Monte Yellow Bird and Terrance Guardipee.

This year, the festival will explore the theme “Culture of the Horse in the American West” through demonstrations, displays, exhibits, and song and dance. Look for demonstrators of horsehair hitching, rawhide braiding, hat making, saddle making, boot making, blacksmithing, trick roping, pack demonstrations and more, including horse bead regalia by Jackie Bread and a painted horse tipi erected by Elsie Ground. One of the finest poets of the West, Henry Real Bird (Crow), will recite his work, “which sometimes makes you cry and sometimes make you laugh,” notes theme curator Elizabeth Dear.

Performing multiple times on July 11 and 12 will be the drum group North Bear Singers, a Northern Cheyenne group from Lame Deer, Montana. Accompanying the group will be grass dancer Robert Simpson, and at one point the group will be joined by a hip-hop band for something entirely new and different.

A wide range of foods, exciting children’s activities, concerts and many other activities will round out the festival. For additional details, call 406/497-6464 or visit www.nationalfolkfestival.com/2009/index.php.


Elsewhere
Peruse the Red Cloud Art Show, ongoing through Aug. 9, Heritage Center, Red Cloud Indian School, Pine Ridge, SD, which will exhibit and sell works by 60 or so emerging and established artists from Canada and the U.S., with a focus on Lakota and Northern Plains artists. Admission is free (donation suggested). 605/867-8257 or www.redcloudschool.org

Paddle to the third annual Woodland Indian Art Show & Market, July 2–4, Radisson Hotel, Green Bay, WI, which will include some 30 artists (mostly regional) displaying quillwork, beadwork, baskets, pottery, paintings, sculpture, wampum and other arts. It begins Friday evening with an artist reception and awards presentation. www.woodlandindianart.com

Hop over to the 76th annual Hopi Festival of Arts & Culture, July 4–5, Museum of Northern Arizona, Flagstaff. Award-winning Hopi artists, carvers, painters, jewelers, potters, quilters, and basket and textile weavers bring the Hopi mesas to Flagstaff. Watch Hopi pottery being shaped and painted. Walk the Museum’s Rio de Flag Nature Trail with a Hopi medicine woman. This is followed by the 60th annual Navajo Festival of Arts and Culture, Aug. 1–2, which includes more than 65 of the best Navajo artists, as well as music, dancing, storytelling and art demonstrations, plus ethnobotanical walks. 928/774-5213 or www.musnaz.org

Catch the 14th annual Contemporary Indian Art Show, July 10–12, Cahokia Mounds State Historic Park, Collinsville, IL (15 miles east of St. Louis). Mingle with the artists, purchase art before the show opens to the public, watch an awards presentation, and enjoy hors d’oeuvres, a dessert buffet and cash bar at a preview event on the evening of July 10. Cost: $15 per person. RSVP: 618/344-7316. The next two days, view and buy diverse fine arts from some 30 artists from across the nation. Free admission (donation requested) also grants access to the museum and the grounds—including North America’s largest earthen mound structure. 618/346-5160 or www.cahokiamounds.org

Head to the hills for the 22nd annual Native American Festival, July 10–12, Hon-Dah Resort-Casino, Pinetop, AZ, which features 40 to 60 mostly regional artists—including this year’s featured artist, Lorenzo Cassa (San Carlos Apache)—as well as live music and dance. A pre-show on the evening of July 10 (tickets are $20 at the door, $15 in advance) will feature a handful of selected artists, fine appetizers, prize raffles and an awards presentation. 800/573-4031 or www.pinetoplakesidechamber.com

Motor north (for a few weeks!) to the 21st annual Great Northern Arts Festival, July 10–19, Inuvik, Northwest Territories, Canada—the largest art gathering inside the Arctic Circle, featuring Inuit, Inuvialuit, Dene, Métis, Gwich’in and a few non-Native artists. It includes up to 80 visual artists (carvers, painters, printmakers, sculptors, jewelers, photographers, etc.) and 40 performing artists. Enjoy public jig dancing, a fashion show, contemporary and traditional music, a gallery exhibition, art demonstrations, storytelling, readings, and 60 or so workshops ranging from two hours to daylong sessions on everything from throat singing and sewing to filmmaking. www.gnaf.org or 867/777-8638

Park yourself at the Prescott Indian Art Market, July 11–12, Sharlot Hall Museum, Prescott, AZ, where 100 leading Native artists, selected by an Indian jury, will display and sell their work on the tree-shaded grounds alongside demonstration artists David Morris (rock art with stone tools), Jerry Honawa (katsina carving), Leora Kayquoptewa and Jessica Lomatewama (Hopi basket weaving), Ernie Lister (Navajo silversmithing), Nanaba Aragon (Navajo rug weaving) and Ramson Lomatewama (glass blowing). Alex Maldonado (Yaqui) will play his flute, sing and dance; and Adrian Wall (Jemez Pueblo) will also entertain. Artists Ryan Huna Smith (Colorado River Indian Tribes) and Jesse T. Hummingbird (Cherokee) will lead two popular children’s art workshops each day. Admission: $5 for adults; children free. 928/445-3122 or www.sharlot.org

Spend a day at the 24th annual Seafair Indian Days Pow Wow, July 17-19, Discovery Park, Seattle, hosted by the Daybreak Star Indian Cultural Center. The event includes salmon bakes, a princess pageant, some 60 arts and crafts booths, and a powwow with 400 to 600 dancers and 25 drum groups. Grand entries will be held at 7 p.m. on July 17, at 1 and 7 p.m. on July 18, and at 1 p.m. on July 19. 206/285-4425 or www.unitedindians.org

Join the annual Native American Celebration in the Park, July 24, Liberty Park, Salt Lake City, UT, with a powwow, some 100 artists, a wide variety of food booths and a major fireworks show. 801/533-9503 or www.nacip.com

Jingle into the Julyamsh Coeur d’Alene Tribe Encampment & Pow Wow, July 24–26, Greyhound Park, Post Falls, ID (near Spokane), billed as “the largest outdoor powwow in the Northwest.” The tribe also hosts its annual stickball tournament the same days. 800/523-2464, ext. 7222 or www.cdacasino.com

Circle round to the Mihsihkinaahkwa Pow Wow, Aug. 7–9, Morsches Park, State Road 205 near Columbia City, IN. The traditional powwow, named after the great Miami Indian chief Little Turtle, this year will feature the Manido Nodin Singers and Blue Heron Singers, as well as a performance by the terrific fiddler Arvel Bird (Paiute) at 7 p.m. on Aug. 7. Admission: $4 adults, free to kids 12 and under. 260/609-7844 or www.miamipowwow.org

Fly by the 91st annual Crow Fair, Aug. 13–17, Crow Agency, MT. This event includes the largest encampment of Indian tipis found anywhere on earth, as well as a horse-powered parade, horse racing, a rodeo and powwow. The latter will feature grand entries at 6 p.m. on Aug. 13, 7 p.m. on Aug. 14, 6 p.m. on Aug. 15, 6 p.m. on Aug. 16 and 2 p.m. on Aug. 17. 406/638-3793 or www.crow-fair.com

Don’t miss the fifth annual Planet IndigenUS, Aug. 14–23, Harbourfront Centre, Toronto, Canada, a huge, free happening with live music, dance, fine arts, theater, literary arts, performance art, film and workshops, master classes, receptions, panel discussions and debates. 416/973-4518 or www.harbourfrontcentre.com