Two Cultures - One Community Powwow

02/04/2025

PENDLETON – Veteran powwow announcer Ruben Little Head Sr. will return to the microphone for the Two Cultures One Community Powwow planned Feb. 28, March 1 and 2.

Little Head, a Cheyene Indian who lives in Lawrence, Kansas, will be joined on the microphone by Mike Sanchez, a member of the Ktunaxa (Kootenai) and Lummi nations, who currently lives in Spokane.

The three-day powwow, featuring four sessions of dancing and drumming competition, will take place again at the Pendleton Convention Center. Last year, more than 600 dancers from across the United States and Canada participated in the inaugural powwow, which also featured more than a dozen competing drum groups.

Little Head’s Cheyenne name of Me’Kon’eso means “little head” and describes “the small part of the head that’s visible when sneaking up on the enemy.” Little Head grew up on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation near the Tongue River Valley and the Black Lodge agency at Lame Deer, Mont.

He’s lived most of his life in Lawrence, where he earned degrees in Business and American Indian studies from Haskell Indian Nations University. Little Head played four years of basketball at Haskell and continued graduate studies at the University of Kansas.

A powwow announcer for more than 20 years, Little Head also is an independent tribal consultant who works with various tribal organizations in the United States and Canada. He has worked as a conference facilitator within the capacity of “development, empowerment, and revitalization.” “I look forward to sharing my knowledge and experience with the community of Pendleton and surrounding area,” Little Head said.

Little Head co-parents his four children – Xavier, Junior, Haven, and Jasper. The two older boys attend college; the younger two attend elementary school and middle school.
Little Head said he met a “beautiful Navajo nurse” three years ago. “I believe the Creator sent Richanda to me so that we can eat good food, watch good movies and adventure in life making good memories together,” Little Head said, adding that Richanda has two children – Jordan and Lorenzo – who live in California.

Little Head also enjoys coaching basketball and spending time with their two dogs, Charlie, a bull terrier, and Nah’Ko Bear, a Bernese Mountain dog.

Sanchez grew up on the powwow trail and has been announcing powwows for the last 12 years. He has helped announce the Onion Lake Powwow in Saskatchewan, the Siksika Nation Powwow in Alberta, the Tsuut’ina Nation’s Sarcee Powwow in Alberta, the Piikani Nation Powwow in Brocket Alberta, and the Kalispel Tribes Powwow in Usk, Washington.

He said it is a “high honor” to help with the Two Cultures, One Community Powwow. Sanchez, whose traditional name translates to “Wolf Head,” works as a general laborer. He has four brothers and a sister. He likes to snowboard, play pool and bowl when he isn’t announcing.

Written by Wil Phinney

01/31/2025

Promoting The Two Cultures One Community Powwow Scheduled For February 28th - March 2,2025, Pendleton Convention Center, Pendleton,Oregon..

If you missed our live interview with Fred Hill and Pat Beard in the studios of KCUW 104.1 FM-LP earlier this afternoon, then enjoy the on air replay happening at 5 pm on KCUW 104.1 FM or listen on our SoundCloud page as well. Thank you.

01/25/2025

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/19nH4bATqD/?mibextid=WC7FNe

Two Cultures – One Community Powwow is coming

PENDLETON – The success of Two Cultures – One Community Powwow in 2024 made it a foregone conclusion that it wouldn’t be a one-time event. The masterminds behind the event are Pendleton Convention Center Manager Pat Beard and Umatilla Master Speaker Fred Hill of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation.

“It was like planning for a baby and a full-grown man walks out,” Beard said. “We had about 12,000 in total attendance last year. It really maxed out everything.”

Hill credits Beard with planting the seed of the idea. Beard believes it was a no-brainer.

“The Tribes’ influence on our community is indelible,” he said. “I think it’s so important that we share that with everyone.”

Hill is looking forward to the host drum, Wild Rose, which was the 2024 drum champ.

“A lot of my nephews and grandsons sing on there,” Hill said. “They really brought it last year. They’ll bring the electricity and the power.”

The powwow will be Feb. 28 through March 2. There will be 50 vendors, five food vendors outside and catering inside by Pendleton Catering LLC. Admission is $5 per session and there are four sessions. It costs $15 to attend the whole weekend. For more information call the Pendleton Convention Center at 541-276-6569 or visit https://www.twoculturesonecommunity.com/.

01/11/2025

The Two Cultures - One Community Powwow hosts its inaugural event in February! On this site, you can sign up to Drum be a Vendor and learn more about the powwow...

01/10/2025

If you would like to become a sponsor or donate to the 2025 Two Cultures One Community Pow wow, please visit our website! Scroll to the bottom of our website page and click either the sponsor or donation button!

The Two Cultures - One Community Powwow hosts its inaugural event in February! On this site, you can sign up to Drum be a Vendor and learn more about the powwow...

01/02/2025

“People’s Choice Special”

What special would you like to see at the 2025 Two Cultures One Community Powwow? Comment below!

12/07/2024

Who’s coming? Tell us where you’re traveling from!

Our online store is also in the works!!! Stay tuned 🤩

10/15/2024

Attention vendors!!!! Our vendor application is now live.

https://www.twoculturesonecommunity.com/

Scroll down to vendors and click the vendor button.

We look forward to hearing from you!!!

The Two Cultures - One Community Powwow hosts its inaugural event in February! On this site, you can sign up to Drum be a Vendor and learn more about the powwow...

10/13/2024

Acosia Red Elk, 10-time World Champion Women's Jingle Dress Dancer and International Powwow Yoga Instructor, will serve as the Head Woman Judge at the 2025 Two Cultures, One Community (TCOC) Powwow set for February 28 - March 2, 2025 at the Pendleton Convention Center in Pendleton OR.

The inaugural TCOC powwow in Pendleton last February drew more than 600 dancers from across the United States and Canada, with 13 drums, including Northern Cree, the host drum from Maskwacis, Alberta, Canada. This year the TCOC committee expects an even larger turnout of dancers, spectators, and vendors. Everyone is welcome; it is encouraged to attend the four-session event that features competition dancing for children, teens, women, and men in a number of contests, plus the drumming-and-singing contests for the invited drum groups.

A competitive dancer for more than two decades, Red Elk is also a veteran judge. For the last three years she has been the lone judge at the Black Hills Powwow in Rapid City, South Dakota, which boasts more than 3,000 dancers.

Her competitive dancing credentials are unrivaled. She has won the Gathering of Nations Women's Jingle Dress Dance title 10 times and is a world-renowned performing artist. She is an international yoga instructor, snowboarder, glass artist, cultural teacher, and wellness advocate. She performed in a Supaman video for the song “Why,,” has appeared in Weird Al Yankovich music videos, and this year played a Choctaw ancestor in the Marvel Studios television series Echo.

Red Elk, an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, added another accolade this year – the Doris Duke Artist Award, undertaken by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and designed to "empower, invest in and celebrate artists by offering multi-year, unrestricted funding as a response to financial and funding challenges both unique to the performing arts and to each grantee".[1] Started in 2011, the program supports artists in jazz, theatre, and contemporary dance – and now traditional native dance.

Red Elk is a sought-after public speaker and storyteller who has integrated her jingle dancing with yoga, creating Powwow/Yoga, a blend of tribal dancing and yoga to promote contemporary indigenous healing through movement and dance.

Red Elk, who danced in the first TCOC powwow, said she is honored to headline the judging.

“Competition is so advanced now and a judge alleviates the stress for the powwow committee,” she explained. “The head judge has a tough task, choosing judges that don’t have a niece or a nephew, any relatives, exes or traveling partners on the floor.”

Red Elk has competed in as many as 50 powwows in a year and once won 42 contests in a row. She said she is tired of the “airport lifestyle.”

“I used to travel for a living, now it’s for fun,” she said, suggesting she may develop a powwow yoga studio in Pendleton to invite participants rather than fly across the country or the world to provide instruction.

“It’s movement as medicine,” she said. “It healed me. It’s provided the culture, identify and confidence to help me excel my whole life.”

TCOC is an opportunity for the non-native community to see – and feel – powwow dancing up close.

“It’s not just hopping around. It’s an advanced art preserved for generations. It is intricate footwork that follows the song. And the songs aren’t yelling and screaming. It is loose phonetics, but advanced music. The voices are the instruments.”

Spectators, Red Elk said, should come to the powwow expecting to “feel something profound” and to be “prepared to feel the power” of the dancing, drumming and song.

“The dance can’t happen without the drum and the drum needs the dancers to feel a response,” she said. “This is a chance for Pendleton to experience healing through song and dance. We come in with mixed stereotypes, but the dance washes all that away.”

Red Elk said, “We need more bridges in Pendleton and if we do that, we become better friends. A powwow can provide positive action – social, environmental, even economic. For non-Natives it can shift perceptions. It is powerful and impactful so I’m happy Pendleton gets to see this.”

Written by Wil Phinney

09/02/2024

Wild Rose
By Wil Phinney

Wild Rose, known for their twisting, turning, thundering fancy dance songs, will serve as host drum at the second-annual Two Cultures, One Community Powwow in Pendleton set for Feb. 28- March 2, 2025.

The first TCOC powwow was a huge success with 10 contest drums, and more than 600 dancers from across the United States and Canada converging on the Pendleton Convention Center for three days of competitive drumming, singing and dancing.

A family-based drum from the Yakama Reservation, Wild Rose earned judges’ top drum honors at Pendleton. They succeed Northern Cree, the powwow’s inaugural host drum, which is expected to return to compete next year.
Caseymac Wallahee is an original member of Wild Rose, starting the group with his brother, Buck, in 1997.

Caseymac’s oldest son, Marcus, began beating the drum with his father and uncle at the age of 8. Now age 27, Marcus and his brothers, Ethan 25, and Bryson, 17, form the nucleus of the newest version of Wild Rose. “We started over with a group of younger singers,” said Caseymac, who at the time of this interview was on his way to the Shakopee Mdewakanton
Sioux Community Celebration in Minnesota, where Wild Rose was an invited drum. “All the boys ranged from about 15 to 20 and it was fun for me; I got to teach all these young singers, mold them, bring them along. Now when I see Wild Rose the average age is about 25.”

In addition to the five Wallahees, the group includes Ted and Wes Walsey, and Rooster Jackson, all from Yakama; Elijah Bevis and Kelsey Burns from the Umatilla Indian Reservation; Jonathan Nomee from Coer de Alene, Idaho; and two Warm Springs Indians - Frankie Michel from Portland and Kaiwin Clements from Pendleton. Three women – Audrey and Violet Whitegrass, Blackfeet and Winnebago from Missoula, Montana, and Wallahee’s niece, Emma EagleSpeaker, a Puyallup Indian, are the female back-up singers for Wild Rose.

“We’re mostly known for our fancy dance style songs,” said Caseymac, describing Wild Rose’s style as “energetic and lively, up tempo with a higher pitch.”

In an interview with a TV station years ago, Caseymac described it like this: "That first downbeat, gets kind of, sends a chill, you know, through your body. You feel the vibration. You feel the power of the drum. We like them loud because they help us sing louder. It makes us feel good."

Wild Rose has been busy all year, starting their season with a powwow in Hollywood, Florida, before competing the following week at the first TCOC event. “It’s been every weekend after that … Florida, Cherokee, North Carolina, Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, New Mexico, and Alberta.

Wild Rose has often been an invited or host drum, but the past year has focused on competition. The group finishes consistently in the top five at powwows. They were first, of course, at Pendleton, and finished second at the Cherokee event in North Carolina.

Fred Hill Sr., a co-chair of the TCOC Committee, has known the Wallahee family for years. In fact, he is related through his father’s mother,
Princess Wallahee, and her father, Jim Wallahee.
Hill likes the upbeat sound of fancy dance songs by Wild Rose, but he says that group can sing original songs just as well. “They are all out contemporary style, but when the time to sing regional, or local, ceremonial and honor songs, they have that too,” Hill said.

Hill knows the Wallahee family’s powwow life is influenced by Yakama traditions and customs, but he also noted that the Wallahees have a cowboy background as well. “Casey is a rodeo announcer and Wild Rose has been invited to drum at pro bull riding events where there are men’s and women’s fancy dance contests,” Hill said.

Caseymac said he was impressed by the first TCOC event in Pendleton. “For the first year we were really impressed with the turnout. It was a good celebration. We enjoyed ourselves, had a lot of fun.” He said the next one should be even better.

“Seeing that turnout, you know the word is getting around already,” Caseymac said. “We were hearing people say they’d be back so it sounds like this year will be a good turnout again.” Caseymac said Wild Rose is excited to be coming back as the host drum.

“We spend the winter months at local celebrations, but February is usually the kickoff to our season, so we’ll be looking forward to Pendleton.”

03/09/2024

We Got Mentioned...Yeehawww.. We Also Wish You The Best Of Luck At The JUNO Awards.. And I Need To Catch Up With Your Album..

03/07/2024

Find contest results and photos inside the CUJ March 2024 edition!

Read CUJ_March 2024 by Confederated Umatilla Journal on Issuu and browse thousands of other publications on our platform. Start here!

02/26/2024

The Two Cultures One Community Pow wow this weekend was a great success! It was well received and needed for our community to join together as one.

Thank you to our fiscal agent Nixyaawwii Community Financial Services. None of this would have been possible without you. Dave, Becky, Jacob and Dani were all vital and extremely helpful in our journey in the first year!!!

We wanted to express our profound gratitude to DDRC, Elkhorn Media, Confederated Umatilla Journal, and KCUW for getting the word out about our event. Also to our photographers Dallas Dick, and Robert McLean.

Thank you to all our sponsors!!!!! CTUIR, AWS, Marathon Petroleum Corporation, Cayuse Holdings/Cayuse Native Solutions, Umatilla Co Commissioners, Travel Oregon, Travel Pendleton, Laborers International Union of NA, CTUIR Department Child and Family Services, Wildhorse Resort & Casino, Iron Workers of the Pacific NW, Yellowhawk, Eastern Oregon Visitor’s Association, City of Pendleton, Pendleton Convention Center, and Wildhorse Foundation.

Thank you to our donors!!!! The Rt. Rev. Patrick Bell, Bishop-Episcopal Diocese of Eastern Oregon, Port of Kennewick, Coyote Business Park and development by CTUIR, Raddison Hotel, Pendleton Bottling Co and Farm Equipment Headquarters.

Thank you to our headstaff: Arena Director Kellen Joseph, Co-Arena Director/Judge Coordinator Colin Chief, Drum Judge Coordinator Ben Cardinal, Whipman Andrew Wildbill, Whipwoman Judy Farrow.

Thank you to our Emcees!!!! Head MC Ruben Little Head Sr., and Co-MC Carlos Calica.

Thank you to our volunteers!!!! Speel-Ya Native American Student Council EO, Pendleton Ambassador Susan Cox, Amazon Web Services, CTUIR Youth Council Member Kateri Jones, Ashley Harding, Sacas Wildbill, Marie Allman, Dean & Val Fouquette, Janene Morris, Alanna Nanegos, Shane Liab, Laura Kordatdzky, Lawanda Bronson, Irma Totus, Elk Minthorn, Umatilla Tribal Police Department , Pendleton Police Department, Damien Totus, Sarah Frank and Thomas MorningOwl.

Major and special thank you to the Don, Aaron, Wayne, and Sherri Round who are the staff at the Pendleton Convention Center. They went above and beyond their job duties to make sure all was attended to! Also to their cleaning staff TNT.

Thank you to all the drummers and dancers who traveled near and far to be with us!!!! Northern Cree you rocked the house!!!

Thank you to the vendors!!! Everyone raved about all the good finds at the vendors!

We could not have done this without you all even the community!!! We are certainly blessed and humbled to have shared a safe space together. One heart one mind.

Picture by Robert McLean

02/26/2024

Aaaand that’s a wrap for Two Cultures - One Community Powwow! Hope to see y’all again next year! My timine is happy. I’ll share more pics and vid’s later!

02/25/2024

Black Friday on a Sunday!!! Get here.

02/25/2024

We as the Two Cultures One Community Pow wow Committee thank each and every one of you who have made this weekend incredible! The goals we set and the expectations are far exceeded. We are extremely appreciative and humbled by this experience in our first year!!!

Day 3!!! Let’s go!!!!! 🙌🪶🫶🏽