ABSTRACT
On the surface, groups of Native Americans donning nineteenth-century costumes and dancing to music sung in the tribal language would appear to be participating in a timeless ritual that bound them to an inherited complex of ancient dance, prayer, and song. The decision of that family to bring its son out in his dance clothes publicly affirmed the importance of the songs and rituals that frame contemporary powwows on the Southern Plains. Far from being a reflection of cultural stasis, or an example of communitas, as one scholar has argued in a recent essay on Kiowa dance, powwows are a component of Southern Plains Indian identity that is continually redefined, contested, and negotiated. Determined to cut the Kiowas off from it, the agent announced that if the tribe would stop dancing, rations would be sent to the entire camp.
