Q&A: Shinnecock Spiritual Leader Talks About the Powwow's Importance to Tribal Culture, and Unity

The Reverend Michael Smith retired as pastor of the Shinnecock Presbyterian Church in 2018 after nearly 30 years in the post, but he remains a faith leader for the Shinnecock Nation and the South Fork community.

He spoke via phone last week about the annual Powwow, which will mark its 77th year this Labor Day weekend, what it means to the Shinnecock Nation, and how it has changed over the years. The interview has been edited lightly for length and clarity.

Q: What can you tell me about the Powwow and what it means to members of the Shinnecock Nation spiritually?

Well, just as an aside, I guess, the original Powwow, and for the first probably 15, 20 years, it was organized as a fundraiser for the church. So 100 percent of the proceeds from the Powwow went to the work of the church here on the reservation, the Presbyterian Church here on the reservation.

Q: And how has it evolved since then?

I would say in the 1980s, maybe, it went one-third to the nation and two-thirds to the church. And probably in the 1990s, it went to 50 percent to the nation, 50 percent to the church, and that’s of the net proceeds.

Q: As far as culturally, though, does the Powwow have a tradition of being a spiritual event?

Well, it’s a time when people came together and socialized. They interacted with one another. And from my perspective, just that human interaction is a very spiritual, if you will, exercise.

And that’s just one of the things that’s lacking today. We just don’t interact with folks, and we see the consequences of that. And one of the things that’s being said now is that loneliness is in epidemic proportion.

Q: And that’s beyond the tribe, you mean — just in general, in society?

Yeah. Yep. That’s beyond the tribe. That’s just what’s happening across the nation. And COVID, I guess, brought that to the forefront.

Q: True.

And we were living as isolated individuals, in that a sense of communal connectivity is lacking today. And that’s what the Powwow does — it brings us together as a community, as well as inviting folks from several other Native nations to participate with us.

And that’s been an ongoing kind of event, where we’ve had folks from all across the country, North and South and Central America as well.

Q: So that makes it spiritual, in a sense, because it’s about community.

Yes.

Q: About keeping alive that spirit of community.

Yes. And for folks here at Shinnecock, it’s a big homecoming, where folks who might not be here year round will … they arrange their calendars in the outside world to coincide with Labor Day weekend, and they find their way back home to make that connection with their relatives, but also to make that connection to this special place we call Shinnecock.

Q: There are elements of the Powwow that are taken as spectacle by some of the folks who visit and come to the event. But they do have a very spiritual side, right? I mean, there are dances and chants that are very spiritual in nature.

Yeah. And, as a whole, I mean, most of the presentations do have their spiritual dimension to it. And that becomes easier to understand if you have a sense of what the dances are about, what the drumming is about.

The platform here on the reservation is kind of circular in nature, and it just represents that circle of life, if you will, and that unbroken bond of generation to generation. Yeah, I mean, for those of us who grew up in this place, there is a very deeper meaning for us. It’s not just the outward appearance, but it’s what this means to us as a whole, as a nation.

And one of the other things that we’ve kind of lost touch with — and, again, this has to do with the larger society as well — is when I was coming up, everything that was done here was done on a voluntary basis. You volunteered. And that’s where we came to understand our civic responsibility to this place. You volunteered in helping to clean up, you volunteered in terms of helping to prepare for the event. And it was all on a voluntary basis. It was a way of giving back to this community for what it gave to so many of us.

And we’re losing touch with that aspect of it. Now … “I won’t do this unless I’m getting paid.”

Q: I imagine the size of the event has something to do with that, doesn’t it?

Yeah — but we went through some sizable events and folks still managed to volunteer, and that was a big part of what Powwow was. I mean, those who lived off the reservation saw the opportunity of coming back and giving something back to the community by volunteering here at the Powwow.

But, like everything else, it’s now the financial aspects of it.

Q: It starts to overshadow the spiritual side of it.

Yeah, the spiritual side, the volunteerism side. Yeah. I mean, and in one sense, you understand it, in the sense that we’re much more complex and a lot more money is needed to fund some of the programmatic activities of the nation. But I would hate to see us lose it altogether, that whole sense of volunteerism.

Q: I know they’re both important, but is it more important that people come to the Powwow from other tribes, or is it more important that people come to the Powwow from outside the Native American world to sort of experience it and to learn more?

It’s probably a little bit of both. It’s probably, from one perspective, it’s far more important for folks to come to understand and appreciate what we as indigenous people have to offer, and never before in the history of our nation has that been more important than what’s going on today.

Again, part of that loneliness, part of that alienation, part of that divisive nature — we need events to bring us together. And for non-Natives, it’s an opportunity to catch a glimpse of what Native life is like, what Native ceremonial life is like.

And it also gives Native folks an opportunity to come together and interact and see our relatives from all across the Western Hemisphere.

Q: What are you going to be doing specifically during the Powwow?

Well, I haven’t done it in a couple of years now, but probably for the 30 years that I’ve been home as pastor, and a couple of years into my retirement, I always ran the soda concession … I worked in the soda booth that we set up here on the grounds, and this is just a continuation of that. And so I’ve done that.

But I have given the invocation for the Powwow for the 30-some years that I’ve been here, and welcoming folks on behalf of the nation and the church on Powwow Sunday. That’s kind of a homecoming as well. We have Communion on Powwow Sunday, and we use fry bread as one of the Communion elements. That’s something I learned in seminary as well, so it’s not heresy. (Laughs.) Whatever you have access to when you’re administering the sacraments is seen as sacred. And that’s just a small way of promoting our unity and oneness through the celebration of that sacrament.

Q: And it seems that what you’re saying is, that’s a message that’s particularly resonant right now, not just within your own community but in the larger community.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean we need that. We’ve forgotten how … one of the other things that’s so important, and that has been historically a part of this celebration, is the civility that’s shown here. We just need to be a little more civil with one another.

I mean, you know what’s going on in our nation, and not just nationally but globally, it’s the same thing. I mean, we have very little civility with one another, very little tolerance with one another. We tend to dwell on the things that divide rather than looking at the things which unite us.

And that’s, in one sense, that’s what that drum represents, the stage represents, is that we’re within this circle of life, and we’re all interrelated.

Q: So it sounds like the Powwow can set an example at a really important time.

Yeah, I think so. I mean, it shows that we can set aside our differences for a short period of time and celebrate our common humanity.