Editor’s Note: This story is part of the ICT’s powwow guide set to release April 2024. Include your powwow or a powwow near you by filling out this form.
Kalle Benallie
ICT
James Jones, Cree from Tall Creek First Nation, said he’s been powwow dancing for 20 years and hoop dancing for 10. But he didn’t grow up powwow dancing, rather, he did a lot of breakdancing.
It wasn’t until he moved to the city as teenager where he met powwow dancers who took him to his first powwow.
“I didn’t really grow up around ceremony or that much culture when I was a little kid. So I’d say from when I started powwow dancing, for me, was a good way to just reconnect with my culture, learn about the drums, the dances and just being in community,” he said. “Those were the things that I was really missing.”
He said now powwow dancing almost feels like ceremony.
“I know it’s not, but to me it feels like the same feeling where you feel safe, you feel like you’re in community, like you’re always learning something,” Jones said.
His dancing styles include fancy, chicken and hoop.
Every year Jones prepares the same way for powwow season. He puts on 10 powwow songs in the gym and dances to those every day for a month straight. He said break dancing did help to provide skills such as rhythm, timing and the ability to read music but powwow dancing is still a challenge.
“To me, it’s a way of life. It’s a really, really legitimate dance. It’s really hard to learn. It was very overwhelming learning it. Especially coming from a break dancing background, I just thought that I would pick it up like that but it took me a long time to get comfortable with powwow dancing,” he said.
Jones said that the frequent powwows creates a family-like bond with the other dancers on the “powwow trail.” He said it’s the best part of powwow.
“You just get to know people. You recognize people. It does become like a family. It does become like a community where you’re excited to see people, to hang, laugh, and tease each other and just have fun,” he said.
Jones also has a large social media presence. He has 1.2 million followers on Instagram and his TikTok @notoriouscree has over 4 million followers with about 110 million Likes. He started to make videos in 2020 because of the COVID-19 shutdown. He said his viral success was not deliberate.
“I was bored. I wanted to put my regalia on and spread some good medicine in a time where people weren’t feeling so good,” he said. “Now, I kind of use my platform to educate, bring a bit of awareness and have some fun as well.”
Jones says to anybody who wants to be a dancer, singer or be involved at powwows is to start off by going to some pow wows or watch online streams of them if you can’t travel.
“Do some research, do some planning, stand at the drums, ask questions. That’s the best way to do it. Start listening to music, find that community if you want to get into it. It’s a really good community. It’s a really good way of life.” he said.
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