For Lakota Indian Wes Iron Shell and his family participating in powwows throughout the US provide an opportunity to drum, dance and represent the traditions of the Lakota community.

Below is an article written by Jamie Kelly published by Missoulian:

Ostentatious displays of brilliant color met with more traditional Native dress against a backdrop of drumming and chant Saturday at the Kyi-Yo Powwow in the Adams Center.

Hundreds of Native dancers and drummers converged on campus for the three-day festival, which celebrates Native culture while giving artists a chance to compete with others from across the region.

For Wes Iron Shell, the Kyi-Yo Powwow is yet another stop in a year filled with powwows. The Rosebud, S.D., man, a Lakota Indian, spends 30 weekends a year on the road, traveling to events all over the Northwest with his wife Christina and their five children.

Taking his family on the road gets “a little hectic,” he said, but it provides a steady source of income. Many people are unaware that powwows often feature contests with cash prizes - and that the powwow world is comparable to a professional rodeo circuit. First-place prizes can carry cash awards in the tens of thousands at the high end of the powwow circuit.

That's not what motivates Iron Shell and his family, although they do make a living competing in the drum and dance events. Iron Shell taught his five children the art of Native drumming and song, and together their drum group - called He-sapa, Lakota for “Black Mountains” - is among the few that feature children.

“It is kind of rare,” he said. “There are a lot of family drum groups. But we're not in this for the money. We love to sing and drum. That's who we are. We're Lakota.”

The Iron Shell children, ages 3 to 14, were dressed in colorful outfits, as were many of the younger dancers at the powwow on Saturday. In general, Iron Shell said, the younger the dancer, the more colorful the dress.

“It used to be a lot more traditional,” he said. “But that's changed. A lot of the elders look down on it. They want it to be more traditional.”

The importance of one's own dress is two-fold: To honor the traditions of the tribe, and to honor oneself.

Making an outfit is often a family affair, with elders and parents contributing to the entire outfit - with beading and stitching and gathering of eagle feathers, porcupine and deer hair - to maintain the traditions of the family and tribe.

They can takes years to make, and are never fully complete because they're constantly evolving, said Bryan Brazil, a Native from Arlee.

Brazil's dress, for instance, has been in the works for 15 years. It features intricate beadwork and patterns that have been in the family for generations.

“I try to stay closer to my traditional tribal designs,” he said. “But the fancy-dance and the grass-dance outfits, while using traditional designs, are also more colorful.”

The Kyi-Yo Powwow, in its 39th year, is organized and produced by the University of Montana Kyi-Yo student group. It is one of the oldest student-run powwows in the nation.