48th Annual KBIC Maawanji’iding powwow this weekend
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BARAGA -- The 48th Annual Maawanji'iding is scheduled for July 24-26, with the grand entries set for Friday at 7 p.m., 12 and 7 p.m., and Sunday at 12 p.m.
Held at the Ojibwa Campgrounds in Baraga, this cultural celebration is one of the largest powwows in the Midwest. The three-day event features drummers and dancers from Keweenaw Bay Indian Community and other tribes showcasing traditional song sand dance performances, amid a wide variety of vendors who will set up shop at the Ojibwa Campground and Recreation.
While the annual powwow is a cultural celebration, it has several purposes significant to the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community.
Christine Awonohopay, Maawanji'iding committee member and event coordinator, said the word Maawanji'iding means "gathering."
"It showcases our community and our culture," she said. "The way I look at it, when we put on powwows, our community is here to provide space for visitors to come and enjoy the beauty powwow grounds, and the gifts that we have in our community."
At the same time, said Awonohopay, it is also a homecoming for KBIC members who live off the reservation.
"A lot of them come into town this time of year for the powwow," she said.
Another goal of the annual event is to introduce the KBIC, its culture and its heritage to the surrounding communities. Awonohopay has discovered that many people in the surrounding area are not aware of the KBIC's presence.
"Do you know what's wild? I've had experiences while doing different programs up in Calumet and in the Copper Country before," Awonohopay said. "And people act like there's no natives down here, like they don't know that there's a reservation here, and there's a culture down here. They literally don't know. And I'm like 'We're only a half-hour away. How can you not know this?'"
Awonohopay said from the perspective of the KBIC, the powwow focuses on its woodland heritage.
"What we focus on is we're Ojibwa," she said. "We're considered the Lake Superior Band of Ojibwa. We're woodland people, so during the powwow, we showcase our area: Our Woodland Men dancers, our Jingle Dress dancers. We like to showcase those so people can see those things that specifically come from our area."
Awonohopay said, on average, the annual event features 600 dancers from a number of tribes from as far away as Canada, all over the United States.
"We have vendors coming from Arizona, California, Florida - all over," she said.
Awonohopay said the Maawanji'iding is the largest traditional powwow in Michigan, and the largest in the U.P. There are powwows every weekend across the country, she said. In addition to the Maawanji'iding traditional powwow this weekend, there is a competition powwow happening downstate, at Mount Pleasant. There is also one in Minnesota, another one in North Dakota, as well as several in Canada.
"I mean, they're going on all over the place, so it's just people get to choose which one they want to go to," Awonohopay said. "Some people prefer traditional powwows to competition powwows."
There are a number of reasons the Maawanji'iding is among the largest in the Midwest, including its age and location.
"The one thing we have going on for our powwow is we are going on our 48th annual, we have a lot of people who have been coming for those 48 years," Awonohopay said. "We have a lot of very dedicated, loyal people, too. Some people might only go to this powwow for the year."
It also the environment and the location that draws people.
"There are people who just like to come and camp and be a part of the atmosphere, just to be here," Awonohopay said.