{"id":94626,"date":"2019-04-14T15:52:48","date_gmt":"2019-04-14T21:52:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/hozhoni-days-celebrates-young-and-old-through-dance\/"},"modified":"2019-04-14T15:52:48","modified_gmt":"2019-04-14T21:52:48","slug":"hozhoni-days-celebrates-young-and-old-through-dance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/hozhoni-days-celebrates-young-and-old-through-dance\/","title":{"rendered":"Hozhoni Days celebrates young and old through dance"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Participants
Participants from all over the U.S. dance in the Grand Entry on Saturday during Fort Lewis College\u2019s Hozhoni Days Powwow in Whalen Gymnasium.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Native Americans of all ages from around the nation drummed, sang and danced Saturday at Fort Lewis College\u2019s Hozhoni Days Powwow, a celebration of multigenerational culture.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of people from around the region packed into the Whalen Gymnasium this weekend for an annual celebration of Native American culture, an event participants described as \u201chealing.\u201d The echo of melodic chanting and persistent percussion were accompanied by the jingle of bells and metal on people\u2019s garb as they stomped in rhythm around the gymnasium.<\/p>\n

\"The
The Buc Wild Singers play during the Grand Entry on Saturday during Fort Lewis College\u2019s Hozhoni Days Powwow in Whalen Gymnasium.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

FLC has hosted Hozhoni Days since 1966, when a group of students who called themselves the Shalako Indian Club, an early iteration of the Native American student group Wanbli Ota, wanted to organize a way to celebrate Native American culture, according to the college\u2019s website. \u201cHozhoni\u201d is a Navajo term that can be roughly translated to something like \u201cbeauty,\u201d but alludes to a deeper and more profound sense of harmony and balance, the website says.<\/p>\n

The event spans the entire weekend and also boasts the Hozhoni Ambassador Pageant, a talent, onstage question, speech competition between Native American FLC students to earn the title of Hozhoni Ambassador and represent the Native American community at the institution.<\/p>\n

\"Young
Young and old participate in the Grand Entry on Saturday during Fort Lewis College\u2019s Hozhoni Days Powwow in Whalen Gymnasium.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

And although the event was started by college students, it\u2019s meant for people of all ages.<\/p>\n

Malcolm Murphy, a 27-year-old from Window Rock, Arizona, said he came to the Hozhoni Days Powwow on behalf of his family and his tribe. He came to enjoy himself and be part of the spiritual experience that is the powwow circle.<\/p>\n

\u201cThrough this, we can bring happiness, good health and good blessings to our family,\u201d Murphy said of the powwow.<\/p>\n

Phyllis Begay, a 62-yera-old from Corner Springs, Arizona, said she loves to sing and dance and meet new people, and there\u2019s no better place for that this weekend than Hozhoni Days at FLC.<\/p>\n

\"Participants
Participants from all over the U.S. dance in the Grand Entry on Saturday during Fort Lewis College\u2019s Hozhoni Days Powwow in Whalen Gymnasium.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Saturday\u2019s event was the fifth Hozhoni Days celebration Begay has attended. It\u2019s nice to see what vendors brought to sell, too, she said. But the most moving part of the celebration is the powwow, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel a lot of happiness \u2013 it\u2019s very, very unique,\u201d Begay said. \u201cYou feel the spirit and all of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Viviana Toya, a 13-year-old from Gallop, New Mexico, said she being at the Hozhoni Days powwow felt like being around family: \u201cI mostly know everyone here,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"Tufftan
Tufftan Bia, 3, from Arizona, dances in the tiny tots category on Saturday during Fort Lewis College\u2019s Hozhoni Days Powwow in Whalen Gymnasium.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Viviana has been dancing since she was little, she said. She came to FLC on Saturday with her mother, Tamara.<\/p>\n

When she\u2019s dancing, Viviana said she isn\u2019t thinking about much at all, she has a clear mind. And she \u201cfeels a healing good,\u201d she said, when she dances with others.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like I\u2019m healing people,\u201d Viviana said. \u201cThere are people who can\u2019t dance and experience these things, so I dance for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

bhauff@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hundreds of people crowd into FLC\u2019s Whalen Gymnasium for powwow<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":94627,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[132,13,561,629,547],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-94626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-fort-lewis-college","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-native-american","tag-southern-ute-indian-tribe","tag-ute-mountain-ute-indian-tribe"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94626","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=94626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94626\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94626"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=94626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}