Kainai powwow celebration returns

By Lethbridge Herald on July 18, 2022.

Herald photo by Justin Seward Darrell Goodwill, from Arizona, performs in the Golden Age senior men’s dance during the Kainai Powwoww and Celebration on Sunday in Standoff.

Justin Seward – LETHBRIDGE HERALD

Red Crow Park in Standoff was the site for the Kainai Powwow and Celebration all weekend long.

The event returned for the first time since 2019 and the committee welcomed back friends, relatives and neighbours to partake in the community’s biggest celebration that included rodeo, stick games, Indian relay races, a parade, slo-pitch and a golf tournament on top of the major event of the powwow dancers from near and afar.

“There was a lot of opportunities for people to kind of come back together, see family and friends that they haven’t seen in a while and really kind of enjoy a happy event,” said Pam Blood, Blood Tribe communications director.

“So celebrate a reunion so to speak just because of some of the things that our community had to face. We’ve had a few losses in our community and I think of the things that impacted people coping with some of the losses with not being together due to the pandemic for safety reasons.”

“The Powwow committee did awesome in preparing for this event just with the uncertainty in the air,” she added. 

“But overall it was a success,” said Blood.

“We had some awesome drum groups that travelled to the Blood Reserve, a lot of dancers that travelled here. I think what gaged the success of the event was more of how we are to each other and you saw a lot of joy, a lot of happiness of the people that were there.”