Racist behavior at powwow unappreciated
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Editor,
We attended the Elmo Powwow on July 15 … we are two older women, one a visitor from Brazil who simply wanted to learn more about Western Montana’s indigenous history and culture.
During the grand entrance, we were bullied, insulted, laughed at and threatened by a young adult Native American male (maybe 30 years old) and his two girlfriends sitting near us on the bleachers. We had to leave to avoid further escalation of their racist and disrespectful behaviors. We did buy some lovely things from the vendors (thank you) and briefly enjoyed the first few minutes of the powwow.
I will never attend this Elmo event again. It was difficult to explain to a foreign guest the unbounded racist hatred we encountered that evening. It is way too uncomfortable for an elderly non-Native person or persons to deal with that kind of thuggish behavior on the part of some younger Native Americans.
Lauren E. Dickey
Polson
