Tucson - Tohono O'odham Pow wow

Just so you don’t think all I’m doing is hanging out in the RV park, we did go to the Tohono O’odham Rodeo and Pow-wow in January.  Why wait until now to blog about it? I’ll get there, but first the basic stuff.

When Tom and I started to blog about our sailing adventures in the Big Left Turn at Sailblogs, we made an agreement with each other that we weren’t going to ‘rant’ or complain unless it was educational, well-founded or represented our story. 

This blog post is long, both with great photos and a story of how I got the photos.  Because it’s longer than normal, I’m dropping images of the day within the story, without much order.

The Tohono O’odam Indian Rodeo and Pow wow takes place in Sells, Arizona, about a 40-minute drive west of us. I was unable to get much detail about the events and times.  There was some info, very basic on the web, but not the details that I like to find.  So, we headed out early on the Saturday before the Super Bowl.

Arriving at the fairgrounds well before the ticket takers were even out of bed, we headed to the rodeo stadiums to watch the early events.  I was most interested in the Pow wow portion of the day.


  I did get a few rodeo event shots, but I got so many great shots of the pow wow participants, that I’m not including the cowboys and girls who participated.

As in other countries and with new, to me, cultures, I’m very careful about being respectful of customs and beliefs regarding taking photographs at events and of people. This was no different, and in fact, I was probably more conscious of my actions and just where and how I brought my lens up to my face.

I arrived at the pow wow grounds at the time listed in the very brief, very vague program.  I was definitely the first ‘white man’ and beat out many of the Indian participants.  That was ok, I watched the building of the event, and spent some time within myself.  At one time, I used to listen to drumming music.  As the event began to take shape, I closed my eyes and enjoyed the drumming, quietly meditating, centering myself and reconnecting with the universe.  I know, I know, this may sound quite ‘woo-woo’, but a pow wow is a religious ceremony after all.

The spectators and participants slowly began to arrive.  A group of men, the honor guard made up of mostly elders and veterans,   arrived ahead of most people.  Taking time to put on and gather up their ceremonial items, they began to shake rattles and ‘dance’ (lightly tapping and marching) in time to a drum circle.  They blessed the four corners of the arena, and then blessed and honored all the participants and any spectators that were there.  Special honorariums (money blankets) were placed in the circle, the honoree – the organizer, a lead drummer, and the chief each took a turn and stood behind this blanket while the other participants and some spectators walked down a line, shaking hands, and depositing an offering – it looked like money or cigarettes in the blanket.

At this point, I was still being very cautious of my photo taking.  There was a master of ceremony, and he was giving quite a bit of info about what was happening in the circle, but no information about protocol for spectators. Since this was an advertised, public event, I wasn’t too concerned, but I still wanted to do the right thing.  I was also shooting with my 400mm lens, which is not very discreet when I put it up to my eye.

It looked like the event was close to getting started when I noticed several dancers entering the area with ceremonial outfits on.  A few of our photography friends from the RV park had arrived and we were standing, chatting and keeping an eye out for a ‘shot’.  The ‘official’ pow wow hadn’t started and, in my mind, outside the dancing circle was more of an allowed space in which to take photos of the dancing participants, rather than once they were inside.

One participant, an older man, in a spectacular white, beaded and mirrored outfit entered inside the gated arena area.

I put my lens up to take a photo, he quickly did a 180 away from me, then another quick 180 back towards me but with his hands in front of his face and yelled at me, “THIS ISN’T A ZOO!”

Wow!  I was a bit taken aback by his attitude. Especially since three other members of the little gathering had captured his image just before.  I was the one he shouted and directed his words to.

Just what does the US button mean tucked within this costume?

Perhaps the words I’ve used in this blog regarding photos says a lot about the Indian’s beliefs: ‘captured his image’ and ‘taken a photo’. I don’t know their beliefs of having their image or likeness recorded on film. Feeling chastised and a bit embarrassed, I wandered around and really didn’t feel like documenting the event anymore.

Not too long after the shouting occurred, the drumming began and all participants were invited to warm up the dance floor.  Tom, having witnessed the incident, was really upset and went to seek an answer.  He returned with the correct protocol: one must ask permission of a participant/dancer that is OUTSIDE the pow wow circle to take a photo of them.

Once the dancers are inside the dance circle, they are ‘fair game’ for any photos.  Huh, I would have thought it just the opposite, and that had been my protocol for the day.   Since I now had the correct rules, I found a good spot, the sun came out and spent the next couple of hours I photographing and ‘capturing the images of the dancers. 

Almost a month has passed since we attended this rodeo.  My goal in attending this public event was getting ‘detail’ images of the costumes and colors.  I feel that I was successful in that.  

When we return from an event, we both usually label, edit and post process our images.  Still feeling a bit ‘stung’ from the event, I labeled and filed the images in my hard drive, until now.

There is another tribe that is right here in our neighborhood.  Their pow wow is coming up in a couple of weeks.  It’s advertised to the public, and is being touted as one of the biggest gatherings of the Indian people. I haven’t decided if I will go or not, but if I do, I’ll be asking photo protocol as soon as I get there!