Powwow and the People Who Bring it to Life

Scott Strong Hawk Foster is a Black-Native American photographer whose proud roots include Hassanamisco Nipmuc, Mohegan, and Cherokee lineage. While attending powwows, cultural events, and Indigenous practices that span millennia, Scott’s passion has become highlighting the resilient, rich, and diverse cultures and history of the Indigenous peoples that are still here and living among us. Scott’s images tell a story. They enable the viewer to feel the atmosphere, mood, and emotions of his subject in that moment. He shares his artistry and experiences through the lens of his camera. Scott’s tagline, “Capture the Moment….Share the Experience,”© vividly expresses his philosophy that life is filled with unique and fleeting moments that must be captured and imprinted or they could be lost forever.

Dr. Rob Adelman uses photography to capture people at their most genuine and true, to experience something visceral, honest, and ephemeral. As an adopted Colombian orphan, half of Rob’s ancestry is Native, though it remains a complicated part of his identity. He started shooting powwows and other Native events both to support Native communities and to acknowledge and connect with that side of himself. Photography builds our collective memory, becoming symbols, mementos, a reminder of the amazing people in our lives, or the images that we see every time we go to a particular place. Both as a psychologist and as a photographer, Dr. Adelman endeavors to see individuals clearly and seeks to foster a deeper understanding of people.

New England powwow season kicks off in July with the Mashpee Wampanoag Powwow in Mashpee, Massachusetts, followed by the oldest recorded powwow in North America, the Narragansett Tribal Annual August Meeting Green Corn Celebration/Powwow. Following this are the Mohegan Tribe’s Wigwam Festival, Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation’s Schemitzun, Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head Aquinnah’s Powwow in Martha’s Vineyard, and Shinnecock Nation’s Powwow in Long Island, New York.