Montville ― A few hours after dancing into the large pavilion at Fort Shantok during the Mohegan Wigwam Festival’s grand entry on Sunday, Chief of the Mohegan Tribe and U.S. Treasurer Lynn Malerba could be found sitting amid a crowd of over 200 tribal and non-tribal members as they watched the other dancers.

This year’s events marked the reopening of the festival to the public and tribes outside the region. The last time the public was able to attend the sacred event was in 2019.

“This is really the traditional wigwam that we’ve always had,” Malerba said.

Last year, the festival was open only to neighboring tribes. This year it was open to all tribes and the public. Since not being open to the public for three years, Malerba said, she thinks there was a good turnout this year.

A wood fire burned in the center of the huge pavilion as at many dancers from tribes all over North America danced their way into a circle. Their regalia included all sorts of eye-catching colors, some with glittering sequins and dangling tassels.

Headdresses bobbed up and down and dresses, brightly colored and shining, flowed back and forth as the dancers mashed moccasined feet into the soil. Feather fans were flung and swayed back and forth in a wild display. Many tribal members’ hair was done in braids, often ending in tassels, and they had earrings, either dangling or gauged.

That was the scene at the second day of the Mohegan Tribe’s annual Wigwam festival, as over 200 people crowded under the tent to take in the spectacular sights and sounds of the tribes’ grand entry.

There was even a tribal member blowing a conch shell, who Malerba said was probably from the Pacific islands.

“Wig Wam in our language means ‘welcome.’ And so, we’re welcoming our relatives and our neighbors and our local community to come visit with us and learn more about our history,“ Malerba said.

“These are really sacred grounds for us,” Malerba said.

The dance

“I’m a terrible dancer, so I never compete,” Malerba joked. “It’s funny, our medicine woman and I used to laugh as we were going into grand entry: ‘We’re the worst dancers here’.”

David Eichelberg, a Mohegan tribal member, was this year’s head man dancer for the first time.

What Eichelberg said is special about this year’s festival is the energy from the dancers. Dancers came from all over the country: New York, Massachussetts, even Canada.

“It’s just an honor to see our kids, our adults and our elders giving it all they have in the dance circle. There is a lot of ceremony in these dances and it’s nice to see,” Eichelberg said.

In his new role as head man dancer, Eichelberg led all the other dancers in for grand entry and stayed in the pavilion all day to dance in all the intertribal dances, led social dances and served as a familiar face to congratulate the dancers.

“It doesn’t mean I’m the best, it doesn’t mean I’m the fanciest, it means I have a role to make sure all these dancers feel welcome and feel honored to be here,” Eichelberg said.

Meanwhile David Weeden, a Mashpee Wampanoag tribal member and tribal historic preservation officer, said he’s been dancing at the Mohegan powwow for quite a while.

“We do it as a family. We make a lot of friends along the trail, as we call it. Over the years, some of the folks I’ve known as a child, dancing against them when I was a kid when I did it with my parents.”

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Regalia

Malerba explained her regalia: red, representing strong women in Mohegan. Her regalia includes a heart, for “Many Hearts,” her Mohegan name, and includes stars that symbolize her relatives, ancestors and current-day Mohegans, and corn stalks as food for the soul.

And a representation of the trail of life, representing the ups and downs of the journey, and the hills of New England.

Eastern vs. Western Culture

“We always lived near the water, because we were fisherman, we were whalers. We always got a lot of sustenance from the water. We lived in wigwams, structures made out of saplings and treebark. Eastern woodlands tribes stayed where they were,” Malerba said.

Western Native American cultures were more nomadic, lived in teepees and needed to move to hunt buffalo.

“We didn’t necessarily cultivate crops like the colonizers did when they got here, but we grew corn and we grew sweet grass and we grew traditional medicines and harvested berries. So we were really hunter gatherers as opposed to nomadic people,” she said.

“Everybody’s familiar with teepees and horse culture and plains,” said Weeden. “They’re less aware of the Native Americans that were here, and our ways and customs and traditions. They’re just not as familiar. They think we’re all gone and we’re not. We’re still here. I address it by representing who I am and where I’m from by the attire I wear and the dance style I dance.”

The circuit

The Mohegan event was one of many held by tribes at this time of year. The Mashantucket Pequots will hold theirs next week.

“Our powwow was last week. This is the Powwow season,“ said Chief Sachem of the Narragansett tribe Anthony Dean Stanton.

“It’s been a great time. I always enjoy myself here. The people are friendly. It’s a nice atmosphere. Nice place to dance,” Stanton said.

“It’s the spirit and the energy that carries forth,” Stanton said. “This’ll carry me through the winter. I’ll think back in the wintertime at the great time that I had and say ‘I can’t wait to do it again.’”

Stanton said the festival is an important cultural exchange.

“They see us in a different light because they don’t get to see this too often. It’s an exchange of ideas and culture and tradition.”

d.drainville@theday.com