{"id":28299,"date":"2024-04-07T22:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-04-08T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/san-juan-college-powwow-sees-gust-of-culture-and-celebration\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T00:26:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T06:26:12","slug":"san-juan-college-powwow-sees-gust-of-culture-and-celebration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/san-juan-college-powwow-sees-gust-of-culture-and-celebration\/","title":{"rendered":"San Juan College powwow sees gust of culture and celebration"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"The
The San Juan College Intertribal powwow was held on Saturday in Farmington at the college learning commons plaza. (Brad Ryan\/Special to the Tri-City Record)<\/span>Brad Ryan\/Special to the Tri-City Record<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The
The Intertribal powwow was held on Saturday in Farmington. (Brad Ryan\/Special to the Tri-City Record)<\/span>Brad Ryan\/Special to the Tri-City Record<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Darren
Darren Vincenti, of Dulce New Mexico, holds the eagle staff as he leads the grand entry at the San Juan College Intertribal Powwow on April 6 in the learning commons plaza. (Brad Ryan\/Special to the Tri-City Record)<\/span>Brad Ryan\/Special to the Tri-City Record<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Darren
Darren Vincenti stands with young dancers at the San Juan College Intertribal Powwow on April 6 at the college learning commons plaza. (Brad Ryan\/Special to the Tri-City Record)<\/span>Brad Ryan\/Special to the Tri-City Record<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Members
Members of the Southwest Singers drum group sing on April 6 at the San Juan College Intertribal Powwow, next to Mary\u2019s Kitchen. (Brad Ryan\/Special to the Tri-City Record)<\/span>Brad Ryan\/Special to the Tri-City Record<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"A
A young dancer participates in his category at the San Juan College Intertribal Powwow on April 6 at the learning commons plaza. (Brad Ryan\/Special to the Tri-City Record)<\/span>Brad Ryan\/Special to the Tri-City Record<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

San Juan College\u2019s learning commons plaza was filled with regalia and spectators as they gathered for the Intertribal powwow on Saturday.<\/p>\n

The wind was present while the grand entry began, as Darren Vincenti carried the eagle staff ahead of the dancers.<\/p>\n

Danielle Coleman of Ganado, Arizona, sang the national anthem in Navajo, and Dalilah Tsosie, Miss Indigenous San Juan College, said the pledge of allegiance.<\/p>\n

The Horses and Southwest Singers were the night\u2019s drum groups.<\/p>\n

Not too far from the plaza inside the sun lounge, vendors were lined up selling jewelry, art and other crafts.<\/p>\n

Outside on the plaza, spectators pulled out blankets and wore jackets as the wind blew and sun hid behind clouds.<\/p>\n

The intertribal dance kicked off the dance categories. The tiny tots, women and men categories followed.<\/p>\n

Analeah Vincenti, 7, was at the powwow in her jingle dancer regalia and participated with the young dancers.<\/p>\n

Vincenti said the weather was cold, but she danced comfortably with a blanket around her.<\/p>\n

Shauna Gallegos, Vincenti\u2019s mother, said her daughter comes from a long line of powwow dancers and was introduced to powwow dancing last summer.<\/p>\n

Brunetta Yazzie traveled from Utah with her daughter Kalena Wells and niece Moriah Garcia after seeing the event on Facebook.<\/p>\n

Well\u2019s regalia was made by a family friend and is used for the Bear Dance, Yazzie said.<\/p>\n

The men\u2019s category featured two dancers who received a roar of support while dancing and immediately after from the audience, resulting in another song.<\/p>\n

Tyrese Jensen of Dulce was one of the those dancers.<\/p>\n

Jensen said dancing is always exhilarating, especially when backed by the audience.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce you spark something, you want to keep going,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"Young
Young dancers participate in their category on April 6 at the San Juan College Intertribal Powwow despite the cold wind that accompanied the event that day. (Brad Ryan\/Special to the Tri-City Record)<\/span>Brad Ryan\/Special to the Tri-City Record<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Dancing is a way of getting through all the things people go through in life, he said.<\/p>\n

Jensen was happy to be a part of the audience\u2019s day that brought them some joy.<\/p>\n

Jensen\u2019s girlfriend, Alexis Long of Farmington, made her dancing debut at the powwow.<\/p>\n

Despite the cold weather, Long said she wanted to get up and dance for her family as they supported her debut. She said her family\u2019s support pushed her through the dance.<\/p>\n

A person in the audience received praise from the emcee, as well as a laundry basket donation for braving the cold after participating in the round dance at the end of the powwow.<\/p>\n

With the sun setting and the wind persisting, master of ceremonies Otis Halfmoon informed the audience of the event\u2019s early conclusion.<\/p>\n

Halfmoon said regardless of the weather, he really enjoyed the powwow and called the Gourd Dance excellent.<\/p>\n

In speaking with Brandon Ashley, Native American Center director, Halfmoon agreed that the powwow is a beginning to something special for students.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey walk in two cultures and they want to follow this way of life, and that\u2019s really great (because) we need to support our students,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

early after cold, wind settle into Farmington<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28300,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1240,1222,155,799,28,1241],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-28299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-aztec","tag-bloomfield","tag-education","tag-farmington","tag-headlines","tag-kirtland"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28299"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28299\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80370,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28299\/revisions\/80370"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28299"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=28299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}