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South Route: Saturday May 17, 2008 Shreveport - Marksville (Tunica-Bikoxi Pow Wow) |
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Today we left Downtown Shreveport and left to Marksville, LA to attend the Tunica-Bikoxi Tribe of Louisiana's Pow-wow. It was not so hot today but somewhat muggy. We stopped in Alexandria to eat lunch that was provided to us by the South Texas Chapter of AIM. The food was great! I couldn't get over the fresh fruit. We walked into the pow-wow and circled up and we were introduced to the crowd. I met an elder named Mary from the Winnebago Tribe in Nebraska and she was telling me about the issue of car corporations using Native Nation's names and copyrighting their name to sell their product and never putting money back into the Nation whose name they used. She used her nation as an example, and mentioned other cars that are named after Native Nations. This reminded me of the issue of mascoting and how sports teams use racial slurs as mascots and make a profit off of racism. She also told me about how she was about to go through eye surgery. I told her I would pray for her and carry her prayer to D.C. There were 7 walkers decked out in their regalia. We fundraised (amount of money). Later on, we sang the AIM song and walked around in a circle with our fists in the air. It was truly a powerful moment. We camped out across from the campgrounds and I was so happy to find out that their was showers after two days of having no shower access.
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