FOOTLOOSE
TRAVEL LOG
NORTH DAKOTA Land of visual delights
W O R D S A N D P H OTO G R A P H Y H A N S TA M M E M AG I
Jingle dress dancers at Little Shell Powwow.
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pproaching Minot, North Dakota by air, it looked like God had taken an iron to a large quilt of green rectangles and pressed it flat. Having long hankered to know this remote corner of the United States, I was here to explore the wide open spaces, the big skies, the ruler-straight roads and the cowboy mentality. My first stop was New Town nestled on the shore of Lake Skakawea, which — created by damming the Missouri River — is like a watery anaconda slithering through the vast rolling prairie lands in the northwestern part of this rectangular state. This weekend, New Town, on the Fort Berthold Reservation — and home to the Mandan, Arikara and
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PEARL DECEMBER 2017 / JANUARY 2018
Hidatsa nations — was hosting the Little Shell Powwow. I met Jason Morsette, a tribal tourism manager, who described the area’s many attractions and said, “The powwow, however, is central to our tourism strategy.” The Little Shell Powwow attracts about 10,000 attendees over four days in August with dancing competitions as the main draw. That evening, I watched the Grand Entrance, a mass of dancers wearing a colourful traditional regalia of feathers and beads, all hopping and bopping to the ferocious beat of singers and drummers. It was like a kaleidoscope in vivid technicolour! The next day, I spoke with Jonna Grace Brady, who had just finished