Corn festival brings tribes together to celebrate

VIRGINIA BEACH

Jade Hughes turned 16 last week and got a tattoo. A palm-size cloud with the words "Dancing Raindrop" still is healing on her right bicep.

"I'm not going to regret it," she said. "That's my tribal name, my first tribal tattoo."

Hughes joined members from 11 Virginia tribes Saturday at the Cheroenhaka (Nottoway) Indian Intertribal Corn Harvest Fall Festival Pow Wow. Hughes and her mother drove from Kenbridge in Lunenburg County for the song and dance festival honoring the creator, or "Quaker-hun-te " in the native language.

"It's like a big family reunion for my tribe," said Hughes, adding that she doesn't know of any tribe members in Kenbridge.

Cheroenhaka (Nottoway ) Chief Walt "Red Hawk" Brown said the festival brings together the Indian nations to honor Quaker-hun-te through music, dance and worship for a prosperous corn harvest.

"It's about coherence and unity among all the native people," Brown said. "And it's a time where we meet each other again and share our traditions."

This is the second year the pow wow was held at the First Landing Historic Villages at Cape Henry at Joint Expeditionary Base Fort Story.

The ceremony opened with a calling song for the grand entry, in which all the dancers made their way around a blessed circle.

About two dozen dancers were led by senior tribal members and ended with Hughes. She is the youngest dancer in the tribe and the only one with a light blue and pink jingle dress. As she dances, she makes noise from rolled up smokeless tobacco can lids attached to her dress.

Tradition holds that the young woman who wears the jingle dress must attach each cone on her dress herself and say an individual prayer with each. Hughes had 365 cones on the outside of her dress and one inside for good luck.

A tribal story says the jingle dress was worn by a granddaughter who was helping her ill grandmother, Hughes said. When the granddaughter danced, making the noise with her dress, the creator came down and brought her grandmother back to health.

"It's about saving lives, or healing people," she said. "I'm the only jingle dancer."

It wasn't until five years ago that Hughes began to really own her heritage.

"I've always identified as Native American, but I just started dancing when I was 12," she said.

Vashiti "Sparrow Hawk" Clarke, Hughes' mother, said she doesn't know what percentage of her heritage is native, and she doesn't want to find out.

"The chief doesn't like to say 'part,' because if you're part Indian, what part? Your toe, your finger? " she said.

"It's not about what percentage of you is, it's about how much you feel connected."

Marjon Rostami, (757) 222-5207, marjon.rostami@pilotonline.com