Category: Human Interest

Mendota Dakota Pow Wow–Good for the Soul

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Photos and Story by Susu Jeffrey

Mendota Dakota Pow Wow

Traditional dancer with fan and shawl

The Mendota Dakota Community celebrated their 11th Annual Welcome Home Traditional Pow Wow over the September 10th weekend in the field of St. Peter’s Church on the Mississippi bluff. The sound was the throbbing heartbeat drum with generators in the background, the ambiance—regalia and fry bread (1st batch ran out before 3:30 Saturday). The weather was perfect. These are 21st century Indian people; they know how to read treaties.

Pow Wows are joyous extended-family, cultural
gatherings with a lot of work and a lot of sitting

Mendota Dakota Pow Wow Eagle

To dance is to pray, to pray is to heal, to heal is to give, to give is to live, to live is to dance. "Why We Dance" by MariJo Moore

around visiting. Once a year-after-year you get to see the kids grow up, see the new babies and absorb hours outdoors with hundreds of dancing spirits.

Mendota Dakota Pow Wow

Fancy shawl, traditional dancers and a little girl in her jingle dress

(Please note: the photographs were taken with respectful permission only during the Saturday 1 PM, Grand Entry.)

Sacred Fire Circle – Icing on your Spiritual Cake

I attended the Sacred Fire Circle [SFC] this past Labor day weekend sponsored by Circle Sanctuary. This event takes place near Mount Horeb, just outside of Madison, Wi.  Sacred Fire Circles have developed as individual events, each with it’s own character over the past fifteen years. Mainly building on the creative impulse and vision of Jeff Magnus McBride and Abigail Spinner McBride, these events are emerging all over the country and world. While total participation is relatively small [this event had nearly 60 attend], the impact on those involved is large. Many of your favorite songs and chants likely come from Abby Spinner and were written for use in Sacred Fire Circles. Below are interviews from eight participants.

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Celtic Temple Opens in Northeast Minneapolis

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September 18 heralds a new piece of Minnesota Pagan history: a Celtic Pagan temple,  in Northeast Minneapolis, opens to the public. Andrew Jacob, priest of the Temple of the River,  (TOR) will lead a purification ceremony in the Mississippi River. After the ritual, participants can dry off in the new temple, also called the Irish Cottage Building.

The temple is the first official structure of the Old Belief Society, a community intended to train Celtic priests by combining academic and spiritual teachings. Temple of the River, a smaller subset of that society led by Jacob, formerly occupied a space in Dinkytown before moving their meeting space to his home in Northeast. He conceived of building a physical temple after helping construct a Native American style pavilion in 2006. “We made it a priority to have a physical temple in a permanent space – because a welcoming meeting space is one of the first things you need for community.” Continue reading →

SHF Series – Came a Lutheran, Left a Pagan

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Eric Newes works on his project in a workshop led by Judy Olson (right)

Not all interviews go as you expect them to go. This interview, with Eric Newes, was supposed to be about the perspective of the Sacred Harvest Festival from someone who was attending their very first Pagan festival. Yet, by the time I had asked a few opening questions, I realized this interview was about something far different – it was about the powerful, transformative nature of festivals when a person is ready and open to the experience.  It’s about how Eric came to the Sacred Harvest Festival as a  (nominal) Lutheran, but left as a Pagan.

Below is a partial transcript of the ten minute interview I conducted with Eric at the Sacred Harvest Festival. At the end is the actual audio interview and I urge you to listen to it. It is fascinating to hear about his conversion from Lutheran to Pagan during the course of the festival, especially when he talks about the life changing ritual in the sweat lodge.

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Community Gamelan – Gift from White Deer and Violette Rose

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At this years Sacred Harvest Festival, guests White Deer and Violette offered much. Following each day from a series of six workshops for drummers by White Deer, Violette offered workshops in Improvisational Belly dance for bonfires. Members from the drumming class stayed on to provide live drumming for the dance classes.

Violet Dance Workshop

Both men and women participated in Violet's improvisational dance workshps, often 10-15 people

Drawing from their backgrounds in formal music and years of performing at national Pagan Festivals and reinvigorated from a recent trip to Bangalore, India, they masterfully offered this exceedingly ambitious series for drummers and dancers….. but that’s just the start of it. Continue reading →