The Black Hills Powwow (He Sapa Wacipi)
For one weekend each October, an arena in Rapid City turns into something it is not the rest of the year. The basketball floor and convention space give way to a great circle of dancers, the sound system carries the steady pulse of drum groups, and the stands fill with families who have come from across the northern plains and well beyond. This is the Black Hills Powwow, known in Lakota as He Sapa Wacipi, a dance of the Black Hills.
A powwow is a gathering, and at its center is the dance arena, a consecrated circle where the dancing takes place. Around it sit the drum groups, each a set of singers gathered at a large drum, whose songs set the rhythm and meaning for every dance. The host drum carries special responsibilities through the weekend, but many drums travel the powwow circuit, and a large gathering may bring a dozen or more to a single arena.
The shape of the weekend
The event opens with the grand entry, when dancers file into the arena in a long procession led by an honor guard carrying flags, including the eagle staff that holds particular significance. Veterans are honored prominently, a reflection of the high regard for military service in Lakota and other Native communities. Behind them come the dancers by category, the whole arena filling with movement and color until the circle is full.
The dancing itself falls into recognized styles, each with its own regalia, footwork, and history. Men’s traditional, grass dance, and fancy dance differ in dress and motion, as do women’s traditional, jingle dress, and fancy shawl. The jingle dress, sewn with rows of metal cones that ring as the dancer moves, carries its own story of healing. Much of the weekend is given over to contest dancing, in which dancers compete by category and age for placement and prize money, judged on timing, footwork, and how well they finish exactly with the drum.
Regalia is not a costume, and the distinction matters. Each outfit is made and assembled with care, often over years, and frequently carries items handed down through a family or earned through accomplishment. Eagle feathers in particular are treated with great respect, and there are protocols for what happens if one falls to the ground during a dance.
A gathering, not only a show
Beyond the arena, the powwow is a marketplace and a reunion. Vendors sell beadwork, quillwork, star quilts, silver, and food, and the rows of booths draw browsers throughout the day. Families camp and visit, elders are looked after, and old acquaintances pick up conversations from the year before. For many who attend, the social and family dimension is as much the point as the dancing.
The Rapid City gathering grew over the years into one of the larger powwows in the region, drawing dancers and drums from many tribes and from across the United States and Canada. Its scale reflects both the depth of Native population in the surrounding area and the city’s place as a hub for the reservations of the northern plains. The event has been held in the city’s main arena complex, which gives it the room to seat large crowds and host a full slate of contest dancing.
He Sapa
The Lakota name is worth pausing on. He Sapa, the Black Hills, are sacred ground in Lakota tradition, central to the history and identity described in the longer account of the Lakota and the Black Hills. To hold a great wacipi in Rapid City, at the eastern edge of those hills, places the gathering squarely in a landscape of deep meaning. The powwow is a contemporary event, organized and ticketed and held in a modern arena, but it draws on traditions far older than the city around it.
For visitors who have never attended one, a powwow can be approached simply and respectfully: come, sit in the stands, watch and listen, follow the announcer’s guidance about when photographs are welcome and when to stand. What unfolds in the circle is a living culture, carried by the dancers and singers who fill the arena each fall.