Some of you may have heard of, or participated in workshops related to the “Toward Right Relationship with Native Peoples” project. Paula Palmer is the director of this, a project of the Indigenous Peoples Concerns committee of the Boulder Friends Meeting.

Paula will be presenting some of these workshops after Friends General Conference, while she is still in Iowa. The details are still being worked out, but I wanted to let you know when these workshops will be held, so you can keep those dates open. Workshops will be held at Scattergood Friends School and Farm, near West Branch, Iowa, the evening of July 6th and the morning of the 7th. The workshops in Des Moines will be held on July 8 and 9.

You can find a great deal of information on the Boulder Friends Meeting website:
https://www.boulderfriendsmeeting.org/ipc-right-relationship-2/

The theme of the annual sessions of Iowa Yearly Meeting (Conservative) of Quakers in 2017, was Building Bridges.  The first evening was a panel talking about Building Bridges with Native Americans, including Donnielle Wanatee, from the Meskwaki settlement near Tama, Iowa, Christine Nobiss, the founder of Indigenous Iowa, and
Peter Clay, who had been to Standing Rock.

During that panel discussion Donnielle invited us to attend the Meskwaki pow wow that fall.  Seeing this as an opportunity to build bridges, my father and I did attend the pow wow and really enjoyed it. Being aware of cultural appropriation, I contacted the pow wow ahead of time about taking photographs there, and was told it was alright to take photos of the ceremonies, and I was asked to share them with the pow wow, which I did. They are on the pow wow’s Facebook page.

I felt I should check again with David Wanatee, Donnielle’s brother, who had given me permission to take the photos at the 2017 Powwow, to see if it would be permissible to use those photos now, when we will be telling people about the “Toward Right Relationship with Native Peoples” project. He responded:

Sure, I am all for education. Creating a dialogue between cultures is a necessary step for understanding on both sides.

David Wanatee, Meskwaki Powwow

This year the Meskwaki Powwow will be held August 8 – 11.

The “Toward Right Relationship with Native Peoples” workshops should be very valuable in helping us continue to build bridges with Native Americans.

Meskwaki Powwow, 2017. Photos used with permission.