Springfield holds its annual powwow on Saturday, March 15, 2025, at the Dream Center, in Springfield. The chairman of the Board Kay Gibson said, “What is the importance to bring awareness to the community that the Native American community is still here. We're still here. We're still alive. We're still going. We want to um teach our culture. We want to show people that our traditions are still still here and still alive today. We still practice them.“
Traditional jewelry is displayed on a table on Saturday, March 15, 2025, at the Dream Center, in Springfield. Native American human remains, funerary objects, and sacred objects, are all important parts of cultural Indigenous repatriation.
A feather bustle is displayed on Saturday, March 15, 2025, at the Dream Center, in Springfield. Powwow is a special time for Mathias to meet other Indigenous people. “I don't want to say it's hard being Indian in Missouri, but it's hard being Indian in Missouri uh just because this is like the only times I get to see people are during powwow,”Smith said.
Mathias Smith, a Mizzou Indigenous student majoring in Constitution Democracy, dances Southern Straight Style at the powwow on Saturday, March, 15, 2025, at the Dream
Center, in Springfield. For him, dancing at powwow is a good way to connect with other Indigenous people, and share the sentiments that are still around.
Center, in Springfield. For him, dancing at powwow is a good way to connect with other Indigenous people, and share the sentiments that are still around.
Smith sits on a chair on Saturday, March, 15, 2025, at the Dream Center, in Springfield. "These bells are from a store that specializes in dance stuff in Ponca City. I think someone who knows how to work German silver made my armbands. My drops here were made by a man named Larry Pointer... It's all tightly wound threads and of course part of the style is integrating beads into it, ”Smith said.
Mathias has been to powwows since he could remember. "I don't ever recall not going to Powwows. I don't ever remember not dancing," Mathais said.
Dancers prepare for intertribal dance on Saturday, March, 15, 2025, at the Dream Center, in Springfield.
Smith's grandmother helps him with his regalia on Saturday, March 15, 2025, at the Dream Center, in Springfield. Dancing at powwows has been a family tradition for him, just like what he said, "A lot of people have danced them before, and a lot of people have danced them after."
