This weekend on April 24-35 will be the last Gathering of Nations event, with promoters calling it the “The Last Dance.” The event brings in close to 100 thousand visitors every year and is often branded as the “Largest North American Powwow.” KUNM spoke with executive producer Pony Vigil, who is Diné, and will document the last official powwow and create a rock-umentary from the footage.
PONY VIGIL: It's going to be mainly music as a rocumentary. So that means stage 49, the drummers of the powwow itself, the singing and the dancing and then the interviews. And the interviews will entail different elders coming from all over the country. We do have the flag coming from I believe it's Standing Rock, South Dakota, and bringing the medicine flag, which was prayed here at the Gathering of Nations, almost 22 years ago. So behind the scenes of all of this “Last Dance” is the beginning of a legacy of sovereign movement for the people and then passing that on to the next generations.
KUNM: How big of an impact will this be on Albuquerque
and New Mexico?
VIGIL: It brings in about $30- 40 million worth of market in exchange for the tourism as well. As you know, we fill up all the hotels and motels and Airbnbs and you name it, and then we have the venue for food and everything else. So it's quite an experience.
KUNM: It's widely known that the founder is not Native American, and I'm curious, will your film focus on that aspect?
VIGIL: Yes, we are going to try to make an interview with him, but he's very private. He doesn't do interviews, and rightfully so. However, he does have a wonderful wife, you know, who's a Pueblo Native, and she's the one who actually inspired him to do this, and he was a promoter, so it just like hand in hand. It worked out that he knew how to do it, and then she knew how to bring the people together. Our rocumentary is about the people, about the artists, the venue, the vendors from there we get to meet some of our favorite actors, comedians and musicians.
KUNM: What does the Gathering of Nations represent?
VIGIL: Well, the elders, they say we were invisible for quite some time. And then the powwows themselves, as you know, they originated from the 49 warriors. The 49 warriors that didn't make it home from battle, and that's how it started, which was late night, and they would drum all night long. So that was the core mission of powwows. You know, people don't know how powwows originated, well it was because there was a fire, there was a drum and singers, and then the jingle dress, and the dancers would all dance. And it's kind of like a ceremony before it became a celebration for the public. You know, in the 60's and 50’s. When it first started, it was very taboo. We had to do it under cloak and dagger style, you know, we couldn't let everybody know. It was through the mocs and grapevine that you found out where the powwows were or family members, and then it was out on the rez, somewhere private. Then eventually was accepted, after 1976 the Independence Day, then the Congress of American Indians then passed legislation for us to be no longer illegal for our public presentations.
KUNM: So what do you hope to capture this weekend during the Gathering of Nations?
VIGIL: Oh, my goodness. First off, the excitement, you know, there's an arc on the story, and it's going to start with the innocence for the new people that have never been here, and then the excitement of all of us that have been here for decades. And the relatives, everybody starts to recognize each other. And the comedy, we all have a way of laughing at each other, which makes it even bigger. And then there's that camaraderie, and then there's unity. So the narrative is very powerful. It's a prayer. So as it starts out, it'll just be some powerful visuals that show the excitement and the humbleness at the beginning of the ceremonies and the gathering of the people. And then at that point, then it becomes the gathering of the nations. And then, once the gathering of nations is present, then you hear the music. And dancing, the feathers. When you see those feathers dancing, you know that there's survival and how far we've gone to carry those feathers, and what it means to carry those feathers as well.
KUNM: Why is it important to continue the efforts that the Gathering of Nations started?
VIGIL: Well, it's not about the Gathering of Nations. All of us are very grateful, but we do have a few relatives that are kind of offended. And I don't want to go too much into that detail, because I don't like to throw shade, but it's really about the people, we have pride in the show. I can't really speak of what's going to come next because I don't have the legal authority to say. But I know that the Nations are gathering, and there's going to be a think tank, and that's why all the elders are showing up from all over the country. They don't want to see this go away. But the family that produced this, they're getting up in their 70’s, I think they're done. And the kids don't want to do it, they have their own professional lives.
Everything that we do is a prayer and a ceremony, and this dance, “The Last Dance” is the beginning of something that we don't know what it's going to be, but we do know from the survival that we've made no longer being invisible. We're going to bring this to the next generation, and they're going to show us and tell us what is next.
