This year was the 22nd Annual Meno Keno Ma Ge Wen traditional pow-wow in Carter.
This year had a great turnout; however, the weather was quite hot. That didn’t stop most dancers from supporting the local pow-wow, resulting in many dancers in the arena – both Saturday and Sunday – with temperatures around the mid 80s and high humidity.
Many people of different tribes in and around Wisconsin were in high attendance, with many ways of dancing and entertainment Saturday night during the break with a moccasin game between youth against different tribes.
Friday, the annual princess competition was held where dancers of Potawatomi heritage competed for the 2015 junior and senior places. Symone Pemma, age 9, from Carter, Wis., was awarded the Junior Princess title resulting in her being happy.
“I wish to represent the FCP nation in a positive way in pow-wows around the state,” said Pemma, telling me about how she likes to dance and has been dancing for a very long time. Senior Princess was awarded to Ceyenna Boychief from Hannahville, Mich.
“I wish to make a good role model for kids older and younger than me,” she said during an interview.
Both princesses danced hard to earn their titles along with much other competition; also alongside many dancers in general during the hot heat over the weekend making a great turn out around the dance arena.
New Junior Princess:
Symone Pemma (Wazhok), 9 years old attending Wabeno Elementary School, has been awarded the 2015 Meno Keno Ma Ge Wen junior princess title. Her legal guardian is Ruth Pemma, and she is the granddaughter of Pete and the late Bertha Pemma.
She prepared for the experience by going to many powwows, especially contest powwows to practice. Starting to dance at the age of 3, many people have seen her flourish her dancing technique throughout the last couple of years.
“I went to my Aunty T’s house to dance and practice also,” she replied with a bright smile when I asked her.
When asked why she wanted to run for royalty, Pemma responded, “I want to represent FCP at a lot of powwows.” She is a very bright kid with great potential and wants to be a role model for the youth around the area.
“To make my family happy for representing” was another reason for running. Knowing her family, they’re already happy for her great potential in her education, tribal community, and how she helps her elders.
She plans to attend many powwows to represent her royalty, going to many powwows within the state and out of state. Her interests are very much like her family for liking to play basketball, play outside adventure around, and playing with her tablets of course.
She has great potential in life and would like to thank her family for supporting her in and outside of the dance arena.
New Senior Princess:
Ceyenna Boychief, age 15, from Hannahville, Mich., won royalty for the 2015 Meno Keno Ma Ge Wen pow-wow.
She is the daughter of Gina and Duane Boychief, granddaughter of Maryland and Quintin Shawano. Boychief attends Hannahville High School. She has prepared a lot for this experience.
She told PTT that she prepared by attending many powwows throughout her life, both dancing and spectating and also has a lot of confidence that helped her prepare to be princess.
“Being royalty sounds fun,” Boychief told PTT when asked why she wanted to compete for royalty. She then explained that representing the Potawatomi people and making a great image for the kids above and below her age while showing good examples and how nice she is are other reasons.
While being princess, she hopes to take many more Potawatomi language classes and to travel to more powwows to represent her royalty of the FCP around the country and maybe even some others. Helping elders is also a must for her as she plans to always help her elders out no matter what.
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