Pow Wow Brings Native American Culture Back to Woburn [VIDEO]

Drums sounded Saturday and Sunday on a field in North Woburn. Not the drums of a marching band or rock band or orchestra. The drums of a celebration of life.

Richard ThunderCloud and Gary LoneWolf were among the drummers.  Members of the Sacred Spirits from Maine, they were one of the five drumming groups at this year’s 9th annual “Gathering at Berry Meadow”—a native American pow wow—here in Woburn.

“A pow wow is a celebration of life, a gathering of peoples together,” said Grandmother Guiding Hawk, aka Barbara Casey of Woburn, who said she grew up here and is Mohawk on her mother’s side of her family. Guiding Hawk organizes the event sponsored by WREN, the Woburn Residents Environmental Network.  WREN is a “grassroots organization of volunteers dedicated to reserving Woburn’s natural environment.”

Guiding Hawk had gone to pow wows “for years,” she said, and, simultaneously belonged to the city’s Historical Commission when the commission decided to hold a pow wow.  The local gathering gives her the weekend with friends, she said.

The local event has grown, according to Guiding Hawk and ThunderCloud, from one drumming group—Sacred Spirits—to five this year, from as far as Canada, along with native dancers, including Don Barnaby form Listuguj, Quebec. A First Nation Migmaq, he wore traditional northern dress, he explained, including a bustle of eagle feathers.

“You get something spiritual out of this,” the drumming and performances, said Jim Webber, who lives in Wilmington, just over the line from the pow wow on the field in front of the . Webber said this pow wow is one of his favorites, not only because it’s close by but also because “a kind of local group meets here.” This part of history is left out of school lessons, he said. Webber's granddaughter, Hayley Mills, of Saugus, had fun, he said, meeting native children at the gathering.

Too many people are “disconnected” from the spirit, LoneWolf said. A pow wow, he said, is about bringing people of all nations and colors together.

The Newton family of Woburn—Jonathan, Caitlin and 16-month-old Benjamin—also stopped by the pow wow Saturday afternoon. They had never gone to one, according to Caitlin. She had the chance to learn about Native American culture firsthand when she lived for a while in Barrow, Alaska, with the Inupiaq tribe.  The languages of the five tribes in that area are almost extinct, the former Salem elementary school  teacher said. She made the trip, she said, through the Peabody Essex Museum.

Sarah Trow of Wakefield also stopped at the pow wow Saturday afternoon. She loves pow wows, she said, the drums, dancing and vendors. “It’s fun,” she said.

Guiding Hawk is adamant that the roughly 20 vendors at the pow wow not sell foreign-made items.  They sold items ranging from dream catchers to jewelry to instruments.

When you can get into the dance circle and focus on the drum, let your body move to the drum, “it’s awesome, “ Trow said, “very powerful.”

There’s something, Webber said, “I feel at home with here.“

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