Introducing The Gathering 2015 Arena Director Louis Campbell

Louis Campbell: Arena Director 2015

Clarke County, Virginia – The Gathering council of elders announced today that Native American Indian Louis Campbell accepted their invitation to be Arena Director for The Gathering Harvest Dance this fall.
     The Arena Director is a Pow Wow's Best Kept Secret.  (See Story and Slide Show below.)

QUOTE: “My goal is to spread as much truth and knowledge about Native American Culture as I can, and to keep our traditions alive through our children.” -- Louis Campbell

The Boss. The Marshall. The Guide. Circle Mover. Helper. Unselfish.

Introducing Louis Campbell

• Louis was born in Baltimore, Maryland
• Majority of his family resides throughout North Carolina
• Currently lives in Baltimore with his wife and two children
• Followed his Native American Indian culture since he was born
• Proud to be a part of the Lumbee and Blackfoot tribes
• Dances Northern Traditional
  
• Danced at Pow-Wows and shows for the past ten years
• QUOTE: “My goal is to spread as much truth and knowledge about Native American Culture as I can, and to keep our traditions alive through our children.”

    The Gathering is an educational celebration of agri-culture and seed of Thanksgiving and humanity being planted in the Northern Virginia area Oct. 30 – Nov. 1, 2015. Dancers, exhibitors and vendors are encouraged to pre-register at www.HarvestGathering.org.
     Photo Slide Show photo assistance from: Tracy Yvette Roberts, Dorie Ann Lucas Powers, Davina Campbell, Coconut Sage ©Photos by Tracy Y. Roberts, Brenda Williams, Lisa Kneer, Angelo Locklear, Sherry Price Walsh and Mary Ellen Norrisey Hodges.

Arena Directors:
The Pow Wow’s Best Kept Secret
by Indian Country Today Network.com

Quotes from the original story HERE.

• "The arena directors are the hardest-working members of a dance’s head staff," Freddy Banderas, Apache Tribe of Oklahoma, refers to the AD as “the boss of the arena.”
• For Thomas Muskrat, Cherokee, the AD is “The marshal.”
• “Arena directors are important because they are the ones who guide the pow wow through its functions and procedures which, in turn, determines whether or not the pow wow itself is being carried out in a proper manner,” said George “Cricket” Shields, Pawnee, Otoe and Sioux. “They are the primary persons who will usually make the appropriate decisions--on the spot--about what takes place in the arena during a pow wow.”
• Arena Director keeps the circle moving. In addition to an ability enforce protocol, many AD’s are selected for their desire to lend an extra hand when needed.
• “I enjoy seeing the dancers come in,” said Charlie Soap, Cherokee. “You meet so many people. You’re friends with people. That’s what I enjoy. What I enjoy watching is the dancers—their grace, their beauty. The amount of work they put into the featherwork and the beadwork. The pride that they show that they’re Indian people.”
• “I think the common one was that, at one time, the arena director was like the whipman. The whipman keeps order in the arena. They make sure everything is apropos, no one’s cutting up, running around or misbehaving.” Joe Bointy, Comanche and Kiowa
• “You can’t be selfish,” said J.C. Pewo, Comanche and Kiowa. “You think of the people. You think of that drum. You think of everybody before yourself…You keep the pow wow going.”

Never Been to a Pow Wow?

If you have never been to a Pow Wow, quietly wait until there is a break in the action and ask the folks near the drum(s) to point you towards the Arena Director.

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