Sunday, September 28, 1997
Tigers and Sahawe Dancers attract Pow Wow crowds
By Ken Ellsworth / Abilene Reporter-News
COMANCHE -- The banging of the drum and the jangling of the
bells of the Sahawe Indian Dancers on made more than just the
people stop and take notice Saturday.
For five big tigers stood on their hind legs and leaned their
front legs high on the wire of their cages and looked hungrily,
or maybe just curiously, toward the source of the driving rhythms
of Native American Indian dancing.
It was all a part of the 16th Annual Comanche County Pow Wow,
a two-day event, which continues today and yearly attracts some
7,000-8,000 visitors to Comanche, population 4,343.
This is the first year that the tigers have come to Comanche.
They are a part of the Bridgeport Nature Center's Great Cats of
the World Exhibit. For $10 you could hold a cuddly, squirming
tiger kitten and have your picture taken. It looked like fun.
It looked like the playful cubs were having fun, too.
But the big cats really did pay attention to the sounds and
sights of the Sahawe Indian Dancers, who were making their seventh
straight Comanche Pow Wow appearance and who danced right next
door to the the tiger exhibit.
Hundreds of people paid attention, too, and whipped out cameras.
I thought that the dancers were Native American Indians, but
they were not. Instead they were just regular, but talented, elementary
and high school boys from Uvalde who like to perform traditional
dances.
"Some of them might have just a little (Native American
Indian) in them, but not enough to be registered as Native Americans,"
said Senior Chief Bill Dillahunty, 60, who is not Native American
either.
In 1950, when the dancing group was founded by the Uvalde Boy
Scout Troop and Explorer Post 181, Dillahunty was one of the original
dancers. The dancers are still Boy Scouts, too.
Since 1950, the group, with constantly changing members, has
kept right on dancing, traveling, and dancing some more. They've
attended pow wow's all over the southwest and have traveled north,
too. For recreation, the boys get to travel to placed like Disney
World, Yellowstone National Park, and the Epcot Center.
"Yes, sir, it's a lot better than staying around the house
watching television," said Enrique Roman, 16, a high school
sophomore, and one of the 17 dancers who made the trip to Comanche.
Boys can join the group in the fifth grade. The oldest dancers
are seniors.
Dillahunty pounds the drum and sings while the boys spin, jump,
and pound the earth with their moccasins, feathers flying and
bells ringing. His songs, he said, are traditional, and though
very few except Native Americans understand the language, he takes
care, he said, to sing the traditional songs in their native languages.
That means he memorizes songs in several different Native American
languages since the boys perform dances traditional to different
tribes.
Sahawe is a word that means long feather in the Iroquois language.
Dillahunty said that it takes a boy about seven months of intensive
training to reach a level of proficiency sufficient enough to
be able to join the other boys and perform on the road. He said
a boy has to learn a lot and really be dedicated and disciplined
to make it into the group. On top of that, the young men make
their own outfits using materials like feathers, beads, buckskin,
cowhide, and horse hair. The boys also learn a lot about Native
American history and culture, Dillahunty said.
But Enrique Roman said it was just a lot of fun. Even when
he grows up, he said, he hopes to keep right on dancing. If he
has children someday, he would like them to be dancers, too.
The Comanche Pow Wow continues today, with most attractions,
including booths and entertainment, being held in the City Park.
The Sahawe Indian Dancers perform at 12:45 p.m.
"Then we've got to get on the road and get home so these
guys can get home and get their homework done," Dillahunty
said.
This column covers the cities and communities of this part
of West Texas. To contact Ken Ellsworth, call (800) 588-6397 or
(915) 676-6777, or write to P.O. Box 30, Abilene, TX 79604.
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Abilene Reporter-News / Texnews / E.W. Scripps Publications
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