First Day

We arrived safe and sound last night just in time to make it to the last part of a pow wow being held at a local elementary school that we were invited to. The occasion was marked by two newborns (4 days and 13 days old) and their extended families. The community has recently restarted a tradition of initiating newborns with the babies' first drum ceremony. Two issues that stuck out from the visit were the lack of hierarchy in the ceremonies and the importance of women in the community. No single person or group held too much power. All positions were equally important with everyone bearing a reasonable amount of vital responsibility instead of one person being in charge. Also a topic of discussion was the food that was served after the ceremony. Nobody went home hungry, but it was mostly food available at the local gas station. We talked about our expectations and we anticipate this to be a continued topic of conversation because the Land Recovery Project strives towards proving accessible, local food to the entire community.