June 07, 2012 –
MAYETTA: Last-minute preparations are being made for the 2012 Prairie Band Pow-wow scheduled for this weekend at Prairie Peoples Park and it looks like it’s going to be bigger and better than ever.
Things get underway tomorrow evening with a grand entry scheduled for 7 p.m. and a registration period for dancers and drummers between 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. On Saturday two grand entries are scheduled at noon and 7 p.m. with dancer/drum registration available from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. On Sunday the grand entry is at noon with the pow-wow continuing until contest winners are announced.
Invited drums listed on the pow-wow flier include Young Spirit, Cree Confederation, Smokeytown, and Omaha Whitetail and many more are expected to compete for prize payouts of $10,000, $7,000, $5,000, $3,000, $2,000, split. At last year’s pow-wow there were fourteen drum groups that performed.
Dancers also come from all over the country and at this year’s pow-wow there are new special dance contests including a Men & Women’s Fancy Team Battle and Women’s Old Style Scrub Special, to name a few. At last year’s pow-wow over 300 dancers were registered to compete for prize money.
MCs will be Manny King and Howie Thomson and Arena Director is Michael Roberts. The Head Drum Judge will be Randall Paskemin, Head Man Judge is Douglas Schofield and Head Woman Judge will be Josette Wahwassuck.
General admission is $10 for the weekend or $5 per day at the gate and those getting in free include children 6 years or under or senior citizens 50 years and up. Parking is $10 inside the gate per weekend, $5/entry and free parking is available outside of the park.
For details call 1.888.727.4946, ext 7701 or to download a flier go towww.pbpindiantribe.com.