he word powwow comes from a Narragansett Algonquin term pauau which was originally named for a medicine man-healing ceremony, andeventually used to describe celebratory gatherings for visiting tribes, or special events. Today, the powwow, or wacipi, retains much of the same meaning as it did hundreds of years ago, although the get-togethers have changed slightly, just as economics has changed much of Native American culture in the United States -- namely through the gambling craze sweeping the reservations. These days many powwows are on a traveling circuit where dancers and singers compete for money; some individuals actually make a viable yearly income as powwow dancers. Even so, there is much more to these gatherings than the "competition dancing." Powwows are events where Native Americans or anyone interested in native culture can dance, sing, listen to the drum, and talk to old friends in order to preserve the American Indian heritage. In essence, powwows serve as catalysts for the enduring Native American oral tradition, the indigenous equivalent of a history book.

Charles Pratt, an Osage Indian descendant from Oklahoma, is an elder in the Native American community as well as an active member of the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center in San Antonio. He is a large man who, like many Native Americans, takes pride in his hefty girth. He walks with a cane and flourishes a white cowboy hat. An obvious statesman among his peers, he is well-spoken and very direct. "Powwows serve as a venue for the oral history," explains Pratt. "You can come to the powwow and get the program and sit in the stands but the programs don't ever touch on what the elders' stories are about. Powwows are here to offer stories of our past."

The stories of the oral tradition come in many forms, including the retelling of family experiences and stories passed by word-of-mouth from the older generation to the younger generation. And while that still happens at powwows, many of the stories we, as onlookers, can access are inherently attached to the dances and the dress we see and the songs and drums we hear. These aspects of Native culture have been around as long as there have been indigenous people on the continent.

Originally the stories swapped between tribes -- those which are now the stuff of myth and legend -- were used to explain why the earth was the way it was. There were creation stories, and stories about the sun and the moon. Hunters passed down tales of the buffalo, the wolf, and the deer. Warriors told of battles, victory, and death. Still, at the root of every Indian tribe and history is the fecund Mother Earth, the sacred hoop, and the circle of life where everything, like the powwow circle of dancers, cycles back into rebirth. Powwows are celebrations of life.