Veteran’s powwow rocks Kicking Horse
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Talk about a packed house. As the aroma of beef stew and the throbbing of drums filled the air, dancers, spectators, veterans, friends and families overflowed from the Kicking Horse Job Corps gym Saturday during the annual Veteran Warrior Society Powwow.
“We had a good one,” VWS Honor Guard Commander Dan Jackson said of the powwow. “The contests were fun … and there were a lot of people there.”
The Society held a special honoring for late Honor Guard member Rawhide Sorrell, giving his family a shadow box with the Warrior Society emblem and pins and a recording of last year’s VWS powwow, where Sorrell and the rest of the Honor Guard received honorary medals from the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes.
“So his family got a permanent keepsake,” Jackson said, noting that about 50 of Sorrell’s family members attended the honoring.
The Warrior Society also named its royalty for the 2010-11 season in a small ceremony Saturday evening. Joe Upham took over as Young Warrior, and the title of Miss Warrior Society went to Josie Incashola.
“It would be an honor to represent the Veteran Warrior Society, because I have many family members, including my mother and father, who served in the military,” Upham stated in his application.
First runner-up for Miss Warrior Society was Shaylyn Walks Over Ice, who will take over if Incashola can’t fulfill her duties as royalty.
“I would be honored to represent our nation’s heroes … I think I would be a good role model for the younger kids,” Incashola said of why she applied for the position.
Upham and Incashola will open powwows and other ceremonies throughout the northwest with the VWS Honor Guard for the next year, Jackson said. Pageant contestants must submit an application and go through an interview process and a dance competition before the Warrior Society selects winners, who are required to uphold the Warrior Society name and act as role models for younger children.
“It helps them be proud of their heritage,” Jackson said of the pageant tradition.
Jackson said a big “thank-you” goes to Kicking Horse Job Corps for hosting the powwow and for cooking the stew dinner, which was prepared by Job Corps students. The Veteran Warrior Society puts on the powwow and free dinner with funds raised through raffles, yard sales and donations from the tribe, but, “Kicking Horse Job Corps did all the work,” VWS secretary Mary Rogers said.
