Message in the Smoke: Spirit Acts of Transfer, Liminality, and Embodied Relationships in Contemporary Powwow

My Anishinaabe inquiry explores the place of Spirit in powwow and provides a way to access, think, and reflect on Spirit in powwow. Through a beading methodology and a conceptual framework that centers Anishinaabe world view through the sound-based meaning of words in Anishinaabemowin, my dissertation examines the spiritual and philosophical connection in the language between smoke, dreams, prayer, dance, and the liminality of the powwow Arena.

I situate the history and transformation of the contemporary powwow in relation to the Anishinaabe Jiinktamok ceremony and demonstrate how certain powwow dances like the Jingle Dress Dance originated through acts of transfer from a Spirit entity. Exploring the sound breakdown of the Anishinaabe word for Jingle, zhiibashka'igan, reveals the overlooked and often forgotten cultural philosophy that connects the Jingle Dress Dance to the Thunder Beings, explains the significance of the spiral of the Jingle cones, and specifically instructs how the sound and original dance combine to bring healing.

Through story-gathering sessions recorded throughout the Dish With One Spoon Wampum Belt Territory, powwow participants exemplified cultural embodiment and shared their personal, first-hand encounters with Spirits and Ancestors that directly guided or influenced their powwow Regalia and dance styles. By triangulating lived experience, Anishinaabe world view through the language, and the incomplete hints and fragments in existing literature, my inquiry shows that powwow is a gateway and liminal place where we meet Spirit, experience acts of transfer, and send messages and prayers through dance smoke.

This dissertation uncovered a gap in contemporary cultural narratives as a result of language loss and gradual assimilation. This erosion of culture reveals the need for a call to action for the Anishinaabe community to embrace the responsibility of the Seventh Fire prophecy by reclaiming our world view through learning our language to restore the richness of our culture, philosophy, and original instructions from Creator. Moreover, the Anishinaabe community must continue to evaluate what we know and experience as contemporary powwow against the original Spirit and purpose for why we gather.