he foremost storybeing told at a powwow is that of the drum. Without the drum there can be no powwow. It is the spiritual core of the gathering. The story of the drum tells of the heartbeat of the Indian Mother Earth and how that beat draws everyone at the powwow into contact with the Great Spirit -- a very old and very vital part of the Native American way. Not coincidentally, there is always a Center Drum present in the middle of the dance circle, a distinction considered to be very honorable and one that is given out to drummers who have shown their talent and commitment in many previous contests. Usually, there will be a half dozen or so drummers around one drum, each with a single drumstick, following the lead of the Head Singer. Their beats are synchronized and the result is a powerful, low and persistent rhythm overlaid with the chants and cries of the singers.

The songs are also part of the intricate web of stories emanating from the heartbeat of the Great Spirit. N. Scott Momaday, Pulitzer prize-winning novelist and Kiowa native, writes, "the singers chant in the spirits' strange and urgent language." This is perhaps why the words sung at powwows are unintelligible -- even to the tribes present -- and consist of a series of cries and chants that work more to heighten the rhythm of the drum than to convey a literal message. At the same time, the singers' chants establish a human presence in the world as if to tell Mother Nature that we are invested here and we belong here. Even so, it is widely believed that the songs sung at today's powwows were, at one point, sung with words. What they spoke of, however, is up to our imaginations, although we can be sure they were religious songs celebrating a special moment, or mourning a poignant loss.

"In the Native American oral tradition," writes Momaday, "expression, rather than communication, is often first in importance." In this respect, the dress and the dancing that take place at a powwow are stories at their expressive best. In Texas, with numerous styles descending from different tribes, dancers show up for ceremonial and contest powwows dressed in full regalia relating to the type of dance they're performing. Everything about the dancer, from the distinctive step to the clothes they wear to the rattles and staffs they carry, tells either a personal or tribal history. So much so that powwow regulars can recognize a dancer's tribe based on what they wear. At powwows and in native culture, dancers communicate stories without speaking a word.

he first dance you'll see at a powwowis usually the Gourd Dance, a sort of welcome dance and warm-up in which dancers carry a rattle and wear a simple sash around their waists. Then there is a Traditional Dance that is a basic one-two touch-step number with one foot going in front of the other to the beatof the drum; these were traditionally performed after a successful battle. The costumes for this dance include bone breast plates and one or two eagle feathers, called "scalp feathers," hanging from the side of the head; the dancers usually carry an eagle feather fan and a beaded dance staff to ward off enemies. Another is the Grass Dance, an expression of the gentle, swaying movement of the grass on the midwestern plains. The Grass Dance costumes traditionally have leather or yarn tassels covering the entire outfit. Then there's the Fancy Dance which requires much more head movement and elaborate turning by the performers. These dancers' brightly colored dress and full feather bustles were introduced into powwow lore by Buffalo Bill and other Wild West shows in the nineteenth century and were subsequently adopted by Native Americans around the country. It is the only major non-Indian theme in present-day powwows, but still a distinct part of their oral history.

The women dress and dance differently from the men, participating in ceremonies such as the traditional Buckskin Dance, the Northern Fancy Shawl, and the Jingle Dress Dance. The Jingle Dress Dance features a dress with tin cones sewn in rows that make a jingle sound as the dancers bounce up and down to the drum. These days, the tin cones are made with rolled-up Copenhagen cans, but in the past, before the era of canned snuff, jingles were made with deer hooves and other animal bones. Legend has it that each jingle -- there are supposedly 365 jingles on each dress -- tells a story for every day of the year. Each jingle is significant to the individual and relates such significant events as the day a child was born or the day a woman was married.

These are only a few of the numerous dances taking place across North America. Many aspects of the powwow dances, including the drumbeat, can be divided into northern and southern styles. The southern style of dancing is traditionally slower, whereas the northern style has a faster, more staccato beat. Additionally, different tribes have different customs and some powwows are intertribal and some are not. These fine shades and differences are more important to the competitors than they are to the first-time powwower, who, for the most part, shows up to get an idea of what is happening in contemporary Native America and to glean some sense of the first-hand knowledge the powwow stories tell. After all, Native American history is indispensably linked to Texas history and if we can understand that past we might better understand our present.