The 2nd annual Chasing the Sun Powwow in Phoenix wrapped up last night, Feb. 20. I was just reading the Chasing the Sun contest results this morning. The powwow had a $114,000 in prize money.
Midnite Expressof Minnesota won the drum contest with lead singer Opie Day Bedeaux singing loud and clear. As for the women dancers, Jennifer Youngbear, Mandan-Hidatsa and Arikara, won first place in women’s jingle, one of my favorite categories. And Jennifer, a homegirl from Fort Berthold in North Dakota, is one of my all-time favorite dancers. Have you ever seen her? She’s blessed with grace, poise, beauty and a great sense of humor. Some other well known winners of the powwow trail also took home prize money, including Donita Goodwill, Amber Buffalo, Summer Baldwin, Kelli Lebeau and Linda Standing.
Finally, there was a 10K run during the Chasing the Sun Powwow, too. Robles Norberto, 23, won first place with a time of 32:49. The great thing about the entire results for the powwow is everything is posted, all categories, including the points and every dancer. The 10K results are pretty impressive, too. A note to everyone running a powwow: It would be nice if you could get your contest results online as soon as possible, not a week from Sunday. A lot of folks would like to know the winners around Indian Country. If you have powwow results available in a timely manner, send them my way. Thanks.
Jodi Rave
