An Interview with Mike
Conversation recorded in Fall, 1991

Mike, an Objiwe from Walpole Island, Ontario, and Bad River, Wisconsin, is a traditional style dancer. He has been closely involved with the Ann Arbor powwow in Michigan for many years.

"Actually, how I got started as a powwow dancer probably goes back to the Walpole Island powwow. When I was a kid growing up there, they used to have a powwow once a year,l just like they're doing now. And, I was always kind of fascinated by the dancers - it was a big thing.

There was a guy on the Island, Nelson Sugarbear junior. He started a dancing club; they were trying to revive the powwow culture. I always thought it was kind of neat, but I never had any money to put together an outfit or anything to dance. Things like that started my interest

I think a lot of interest in dancing has to do with the admiration from people in the audience who hold the dancers and singers in esteem. My dad used to dance, he and his brothers; they had a dance troupe in Wisconsin. Their uncle from out west got all of them interested in dancing when they were younger. Around the time I got interested in dancing, just out of coincidence, my dad decided to get involved in powwow dancing too. For whatever reason, he jumped in his pickup truck one weekend and decided he was going to come down this way, and he showed up at the State Fair powwow. Around then, I was putting together a dance outfit, and I was so excited about seeing him again, I gave everything I had to him! So we went around to a couple of powwows together, and I thought that was pretty neat.

When I came to the University of Michigan, I was invited to sit at a drum, and before too long I started learning the songs. I realized early on that it was a lot of effort to get people to travel together as a drum group, especially in urban areas. Most of the guys on the drum were bachelors; they were free to travel to the powwow, but as soon as they settled down, they'd drop out of the group! It was kind of a joke - there were always a lot of puns going back and forth. In fact, one of the names we had was the 'Homely and Lonely' drum group, because nobody was attached! But I also realized that I didn't really have a great voice, especially compared to some of the other guys; I started dancing more.

People in northern Michigan, a lot of their dance style is closer to the style of the Sioux nation rather than the traditional Ojibwe dance style. What happened was, in the 1920s and 30s people travelled out west and picked up those western dance styles. So that influence started early around here. But every once in a while, you'll get a good Ojbiwe drum group, and they'll start to sing a traditional Ojibwe song at a powwow out here, and not that many can dance to it!

I first got involved with the Ann Arbor powwow in 1975 as a student; later, I got hired on as a Native American rep at the University, and that kind of solidified my involvement. Travelling to other powwows was a really good experience for me, but I got a good sense of powwow organization.

I also do a lot of research on outfits. But one of the things you have to be careful with in your research - when you get some old photographs, especially if they're published ina book, you have to realize that a lot of times the (nonNative) people describing these outfits didn't really know what they were seeing.

The medicine wheel represents the message that I try to get across when I do educational outreach programs. There are four sacred colors of mankind on the planet. And one of the stories that I heard which I've really taken to heart is that the medicine wheel is now out of balance...Native people are just now starting to get their message out, about the environment, about a humane kind of life - those are the types of messages I like to get across in the schools. When I'm standing there in full dance regalia, I have all these young minds just locked into everything I say, so I feel a real responsibility, you have to take care in the message you express.

(More from this interview included in SOUND OF THE DRUM, Sam Cronk, ed; Brantford, Ontario: Woodland Cultural Center,1990)

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