![\"Dancers](\"http:\/\/www.wrec.coop\/wp-content\/uploads\/dance01.jpg\")
Stepping into her mother\u2019s childhood moccasins at age 4, Adriana Aguilar began to carry on her family\u2019s tribal tradition of dancing at powwows.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy grandmother made the moccasins and gave me a shawl to wear when I started dancing,\u201d says her mother, Alicia, a member of the Wells Band of the Te-Moak Tribe of Western Shoshone. \u201cI\u2019m grateful to still have them and that they fit Adriana.\u201d<\/p>\n
Five years ago, Adriana began dancing in the tiny tot division at powwows\u2014 gatherings tribes host throughout the West to celebrate their heritage through playing drums, singing, dancing and socializing.<\/p>\n
At powwows, members of drum groups sing and play drums for dancers, who are judged in several divisions and earn prize money. Besides dancing, participants compete in Native American hand games, rodeos and sports contests.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019ve never been to a powwow, you should go,\u201d says Alicia. \u201cIt puts a smile on your face, whether you watch or dance. At the grand entry, you see all ages from the elders at the beginning to the tiny tots. The regalia each dancer wears is so different and individualized.\u201d<\/p>\n
The regalia is made with feathers, beads, porcupine guard hair, elk teeth and other items. To make a jingle dress, metal tobacco lids are twisted into cone shapes and attached to the dress to make a soft tinkling sound as dancers move.<\/p>\n \u201cMy kids dance to keep our tribal traditions alive,\u201d Alicia says of her children, Adriana, 9; Enrique, 15; and Leslie, 18. \u201cThey say it\u2019s an important part of their heritage and a way to express their traditions and say, \u2018I am Native.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n During summer, the Aguilar family travels a circuit to their favorite powwows: the Duckwater Festival, the Elko Band Powwow and the Shoshone- Bannock Festival.<\/p>\n To share her culture during Wells Heritage Days last summer, Alicia described dances, their origins, and dancers\u2019 colorful regalia while tribal members twirled and swayed to the drumbeats.<\/p>\n In addition to Heritage Days, the Wells Band showcases its culture during the town\u2019s annual Fourth of July parade.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have a float and during the parade will do an intertribal dance,\u201d says Alicia, who learned the fancy shawl dance and does intertribal and round dances at powwows. \u201cWhen I was young, I rode the float. An elder, Nevada Penoli, organized it. I\u2019d like to eventually start doing women\u2019s traditional dancing.\u201d<\/p>\n For now, after working fulltime as the band\u2019s finance director, Alicia\u2019s spare time is consumed with helping her children prepare for powwows. She sews, maintains and refines their regalia.<\/p>\n Depending on the details, Alicia says it takes several months to make the regalia during weekends and evenings. \u201cYou never really complete the regalia,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re constantly working on it, making little changes or replacing fringe that has fallen off. Before a powwow, we see what needs to be done.\u201d<\/p>\n Adriana has outgrown much of her regalia since she started doing the fancy shawl dance.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve made three regalia for her so far because she grows so fast,\u201d says Alicia. \u201cThe one she wears now is baby pink, purple and turquoise. She loves the fancy dances because she says it makes her feel like a butterfly.\u201d<\/p>\n Her brother, Enrique, started out as a fancy dancer, wearing two feather bustles, one at his shoulders and the other at his waist.<\/p>\n \u201cThe bustles are heavier than they look, and you can\u2019t sit down because of how they\u2019re attached,\u201d Alicia says. \u201cIn crowds, it was sometimes awkward to move around because you can\u2019t help but bump into people with the feathers.\u201d<\/p>\n For those reasons, last summer Enrique decided to be a grass dancer\u2014a style of dance named for sweet grass that traditionally hung from dancers\u2019 belts and swayed as they moved to the music.<\/p>\n His regalia is made from countless yards of yarn, cut to various lengths.<\/p>\n \u201cWe made fringe with colors of baby blue, white and blue, and hot pink around the edges and sides to make it stand out,\u201d Alicia says. \u201cWith the grass dance, you\u2019re swaying and bending down instead of twirling and moving fast like a fancy dancer.\u201d<\/p>\n Competing in fancy shawl division, Leslie prefers bright neon colors of pink, green and blue. Her shawl\u2019s background is a shiny, silver-colored material with fringes of pink and orange to catch a judge\u2019s eye.<\/p>\n To practice dancing and prepare for powwow competition, the siblings find YouTube performances so they can observe and practice the moves.<\/p>\n The Aguilars have impressed judges.<\/p>\n \u201cTwo years ago, Leslie was second at Duckwater,\u201d Alicia says. \u201cThe first year Enrique did fancy dance, he was first at Duckwater and second at Elko. All the tiny tots are winners to encourage them until they\u2019re old enough to start as a junior dancer.\u201d<\/p>\n Alicia says her kids have told her they will keep dancing.<\/p>\n \u201cThey say they feel a need to carry on our traditions,\u201d she says. \u201cPeople have told me they like the regalia and music and are glad to see children dancing.\u201d<\/p>\n Photos courtesy of Alicia Aguilar and Shoshone-Bannock Tribes Office of Public Affairs<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Aguilar siblings and others keep their vibrant and colorful Te-Moak traditions alive By Dianna Troyer Stepping into her mother\u2019s childhood moccasins at age 4, Adriana Aguilar began to carry on her family\u2019s tribal tradition of dancing at powwows. \u201cMy grandmother made the moccasins and gave me a shawl to wear when I started dancing,\u201d says […]\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32503,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[218,220],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrec.coop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32502"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrec.coop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrec.coop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrec.coop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrec.coop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32502"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrec.coop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32502\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrec.coop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrec.coop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrec.coop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrec.coop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Leslie,](\"http:\/\/www.wrec.coop\/wp-content\/uploads\/dance02.jpg\")
![\"Adriana,](\"http:\/\/www.wrec.coop\/wp-content\/uploads\/dance03.jpg\")
![\"Enrique,](\"http:\/\/www.wrec.coop\/wp-content\/uploads\/dance04.jpg\")
![\"Fancy](\"http:\/\/www.wrec.coop\/wp-content\/uploads\/dance05-800x335.jpg\")