The Native American Diaspora and OA Powwows

WHAT IS A POWWOW?

The modern Native American powwow has its roots in the nomadic plains tribes. Villages were small. Each moved multiple times each year. Early powwows brought together people from normally separate groups for cross-village marriage, meeting relatives, and trade. Some current powwow dances have their roots in this period. The Woman’s Traditional Dance enabled young women to portray their beauty. Hunting dances enabled young men to portray their skills. From the beginning, powwows were designed to bring together Natives from separate groups in an event of great cultural significance.

Those dances are still seen, in their original form, in today’s powwow scene. The Shawl Dance and Fancy Dance are popular modern updates.

On the early reservations — many in what is now Oklahoma — multiple tribes were gathered closely together. The powwow concept spread beyond the plains tribes. Powwows became cross-tribal.

In later years, many Natives moved off-reservation, mixing into the broader American culture. Powwows became an important way for those who wished to do so to retain attachment to their culture. Since a Native might be living far from his tribe’s reservation, the cross-tribal character of powwows became even more essential.

Starting in the 1970s, most powwows were opened to the general public. Most powwows today are multi-tribal, both in terms of the dances and the dancers, who typically participate in dances that originated in other tribes. Even non-Natives who take the time to learn the practices and taboos and create regalia are welcome to dance. Often, there will be simple dances where anyone — Native or not, in regalia or not — is explicitly encouraged to enter the ring and dance. See PowWows.com to find the dozens of powwows open to all.

The powwow is, by design and by centuries of evolution, the gathering place for scattered people. Cross-tribal gathering is not a deviation from powwow culture. It is the point.

— Chief GreyEagle (Wolf Clan of the Overhill Cherokee)

THE NATIVE AMERICAN DIASPORA

We are all familiar with the Jewish diaspora: a people scattered from their homeland, maintaining identity across centuries and continents. And the African diaspora, where millions were displaced by the slave trade, whose descendants carry their heritage in new lands.

There is also a Native American diaspora. Millions of Americans with genuine Native heritage whose ancestors were displaced by government policy. Some walked the Trail of Tears. Some survived by blending in, hiding their identity, pretending not to have Native blood. Some were educated in reservation schools that encouraged them to leave and assimilate. Now they or their descendants, far from their tribe’s land, want to reconnect.

Most exist outside the federal recognition system. The same government system that divided them in the first place.

This scattering is not a completed historical event. It is a living reality. Its consequences shape who is and isn’t considered “authentically” Native today.

WHAT BSA POLICY REQUIRES

National OA now insists that authorization to practice any Native lore must come from a formal, written agreement between a specific federally recognized tribe and a local lodge.

Because of this insistence, national has forbidden all powwows above the lodge level. Sectional, regional, and national gatherings are blocked. The policy treats a living, breathing diaspora as if it can be frozen in time and locked inside arbitrary geographic boundaries.

WHY THIS POLICY FAILS

The policy fails on its own terms. It claims to respect Native culture while contradicting the fundamental nature of the culture it claims to respect.

Powwows are inherently cross-tribal. They have been since their origins. Restricting them to single-lodge, single-tribe arrangements is like requiring a church to worship only with members of its own denomination. It misunderstands the purpose of the gathering.

Federal recognition is a status conferred by the displacing power. Requiring it as the sole gateway to cultural legitimacy means requiring the displaced to seek validation from the displacer. Many traditional Native people who are actively keeping the culture alive on the powwow circuit do not hold formal enrollment in any federally recognized tribe. Under BSA policy, their generational knowledge and their respect within the Native community mean nothing.

The US government decides which groups of Natives are official tribes. It insists on centralized tribal governments modeled on European structures, even for peoples who traditionally governed themselves through clans or villages. The BIA Card officially declares tribal membership, yet many tribes have traditionally adopted people into their communities since antiquity. Blood ties as the ultimate determinant of belonging is a Eurocentric concept contrary to Native understandings of identity. And it is, arguably. racist.

Lodges are caught in a destructive paradox. National commands them to obtain tribal approval, thereby disqualifying the local traditional practitioners who are actually available to guide them. The design is unworkable. The practical outcome for most lodges is the elimination of Indian Lore, achieved not by honest policy decision but by impossible procedural requirements that ignore the reality of the Native Diaspora.

Cultural erasure disguised as protection.

WHO DECIDES WHO IS NATIVE?

Under BSA policy, non-Native administrators determine which Native communities are legitimate, which voices are authentic, and who is competent to speak about Native culture. This centers non-Native authority over Native self-determination. It is systemic gatekeeping of Native identity by those outside the culture.

A culture belongs to those who practice it. Not to bureaucrats who define it. Not to administrators who regulate it. Not to those whose ancestors practiced it but who themselves do not. A culture belongs to those who know it, live it, teach it, and pass it on.

For powwow culture, authority rests with those who dance, drum, create regalia, teach traditions, and welcome others into the circle. The Native elder teaching protocols has cultural authority. The dancer explaining movements has cultural authority. The drum group inviting participation has cultural authority. A government declaration does not.

We learn Native lore from those who know it and practice it. That is how culture works.

THE SCOUT LAW

“A Scout is Reverent. A Scout is reverent toward God. He is faithful in his religious duties. He respects the beliefs of others.”

A policy that restricts who can practice Native customs based on government racial categories violates the requirement to respect the beliefs of others. “Others” includes the entire diaspora who are not affiliated with a tribe yet identify themselves as Native American.

AND THEY SAY THERE IS NO INTEREST

When Florida held its final Festival of Feathers in November 2025 — the last section-level powwow before national’s ban took effect — attendance doubled. At the closing, the Native leading the powwow announced that the final drumbeat would be heard for Florida OA. Breaking tradition, everyone was invited to join the drum. We crowded in together, almost intimately. Link to Details.

It is absurd for lodges to need permission from a federally recognized tribe to hold a powwow — Lodge, section or national level. The powwow tradition is cross-tribal, defined in detail, and belongs to all who practice it. And welcomes those who wish to practice it.