by George Lewinnek ·
Friday, May 22, 2026
The Humble Spirit musicians raise their instruments in preparation before singing and playing music to accompany a dance honoring women. From left: Ana Madden, Chris Three Bears Butterfield (hidden), Jenn Little Feather Mahlert, Cheryl-Ann Little-One, Mark Soaring Cloud, Judy Daddario, James White Horse Runs With Buffalo Cardoza, Warren Slow Bear Smith, and Jay Singing Spirit. (Photos by Hannah Taylor)
At the far northern edge of Devens, behind a building that had once been a stable, the United Native American Culture Center held its annual powwow on Saturday, May 16, and Sunday, May 17. Drummers and singers at the edge of the sacred circle provided the music for dancers, some in traditional Native American dress and some in modern American casual clothes.
Doreen Benanti, the fire-keeper, offered smudging to new arrivals. To rid the arriving visitor of negative energy, she used part of a turkey’s wing to fan the smoke of smoldering sage onto the visitor, front and back. She touched the fan to the visitor and said a blessing to complete the ceremony. From time to time, she left this post to tend the fire in the center of the circle. Should she neglect this responsibility and should the fire go out, then the powwow ended, no matter what time was on the clock.
Jay Singing Spirit Cunningham, a member of the Passamaquoddy tribe, was one of the drummers. He said, “Music is medicine. People make connections with each other through music. They make connections with the Creator.”
Singing Spirit said the half-dozen men around his drum played Eastern Woodland music, while the group around the one other drum that was used played Northern Native American music. To this reporter, the differences were not apparent. Singing Spirit also plays acoustic guitar, with gigs involving country and folk music.
The dancers did not dance as couples, and usually did not dance in groups, but they were aware of one another as they maintained their spacing as they danced around the circle. For some dances, only members of one tribe or group went into the circle. Other dances were for everyone.
Joe Guevara joins the dance circle, wearing a traditional headdress adorned with feathers and antlers.
One special dress was a jingle dance dress. The jingling came from metal cones sewn into the skirt. The dancer was Kennie Young, a young woman who grew up on a Paiute reservation in California. She moved to Rhode Island a year ago to work for an insurance company as a claims adjustor. In response to a question, she said she misses the closeness of the reservation, but with a smile that suggested she is comfortable with her life now. She noted the change of weather between California and Rhode Island, which has been a big change in her life.
A dancer with different regalia was Joe Guevara, from Micronesia. It included a headdress with deer antlers rather than the palm leaves worn for dances on his home island. When asked how he learned to dance, he said, “Listen. Go with the music. Go with the wind, like the branches of a tree.” He gestured behind him towards a tree with branches swaying in the gentle wind.
While not everyone in the crowd was Native American, everyone appeared to have a good time. The lyrics of the songs were intelligible only to a few, and it did not matter. The melodies used a five-note scale, or a pentatonic scale, for the most part, more like some Chinese, Korean, and Japanese traditional music and less like the seven-note or 12-note (if one includes flats and sharps) scales used in most European and American music. What everyone heard was the musical energy. The regular, hypnotic beat of the drums acted like Joe Guevara’s wind in the branches of a tree. The dancers responded.
In an interval between dances, a man played a lively tune on a wooden flute. (Traditionally, women do not play the flute). This flute was blown into, like a recorder, not across, like a symphony orchestra flute.
Among the crowd was Yogi Claymore, who is Ojibway and Rosebud Sioux. He grew up on the impoverished Standing Rock Reservation in South Dakota. In his high school class of 200, there were five suicides before graduation. Upon graduation, he saw three choices: death, prison, or the service. He knew even at a young age that there were two wrong choices. His sister, Kristy Claymore, said she used to be a jingle dancer, but she has needed operations on her neck and can’t do the dance anymore.
Yogi Claymore said, “Indian is not about the color of your skin. It is a spiritual experience.” Like others at the powwow, he used the name “Indian” freely. He said other Native Americans do the same and found efforts to use names other than “Indian” amusing.
Kennie Young dances, her dress decorated with jingling metal cones adding musicality to her movement.
The chief of the United Native American Culture Center for the past three years is Peter Searching Owl. He is Mohawk. He wants people to know, “We are still here.”
In fact, Native Americans have been here for at least 10,000 years. There are estimates that there were between 2 million and 18 million in the United States area when Europeans arrived. The numbers dropped and then began to recover in the mid-20th century, so that now there are about 4 million.
For Native Americans, Searching Owl said, community is important. The emphasis is on love, honor, and respect, now and for three generations into the past and three generations into the future—for 250 years. There is a circle of life. Everything in the circle is treated with respect. If a Native American kills a deer, he thanks the deer for what the deer offers. One needs to walk in balance, he said.
Lorena Novak, an Alaskan Iñupiat, is a member of UNACC’s board of directors. She recounted the history of the organization. Edward Guillemette, from a First Nation in Canada, in which his name was “Onkwe Tase,” petitioned for space in Devens in the 1990s when the Army left. He looked for a space that had not been contaminated by lead or mercury. He found a building at 29 Antietam Street that UNACC now occupies. It had once been a stable, then it was a museum. To save money the first year, UNACC had the second floor while the Massachusetts Land Bank occupied the first floor. The Land Bank paid for renovations that were left for UNACC after the Land Bank moved out.
Now UNACC has the powwow each year on Armed Forces Weekend. Many native Americans, like Yogi Claymore, have served in the armed forces. UNACC also has bear feasts in the fall—not to eat bear meat, but to note the time when bears go into hibernation. In the spring they have another feast as the bears rouse again, featuring foods that bears eat, like berries.
In the past UNACC has been involved with the Veterans Administration in a vocational training program for alcoholic veterans from the Cheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota. Native Americans may lack two enzymes that the body uses to metabolize alcohol. Scientists have disagreed about this, but if it is true, it would contribute to the alcoholism problem. The program ended when it had little success.
UNACC is a nonprofit group with 100 members, including both individual members and family members. It is a resource for anyone who wishes to learn more about Native American people. To arrange programs, email unacc29@gmail.com, or check their website, www.unacc.org.