Try @ TXST

Giselle Kowalski:
Hi, y'all. My name is Giselle Kowalski, and I'm the digital content producer here at Texas State University. You're listening to Try @ TXST. Back in early October, the Try @ TXST team went to experience the Sacred Springs Powwow, where different people from different tribes as well as the San Martian community, come together to witness Indigenous dances, food, clothing, and more at the Meadows Center. I got to chat with Aaron Pyle, elder and director of the Sacred Springs Powwow, about the history behind the event and to get educated on Indigenous cultures here in Central Texas.
So for those that don't know you, can you please tell us your name and what you do for the Sacred Springs Powwow?

Aaron Pyle:
Absolutely. I am Aaron Ishcomer Pyle. I am director of the Sacred Springs Powwow, and I sit on the Board of Elders of the Indigenous Cultures Institute, which is the umbrella organization that puts on the powwow.

Giselle Kowalski:
So for those that are not part of the Native American culture nor the Indigenous culture, what is your relation to that in terms of San Marcos? Is there a tribe that you are a part of? Just please educate me.

Aaron Pyle:
Absolutely. So I am a member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. I grew up in Southeastern Oklahoma there on the tribe's reservation land, but as a teenager, my family moved here to Central Texas, and I felt myself disconnected from that part of my identity, a group and a place where native culture is just interwoven with everyday life. My family was very involved with the tribe when I was a kid, but then all of a sudden we moved to Central Texas and was disconnected from that part of my identity in my community.
But it was while I was an undergrad at Texas State University, one day I was roaming across campus going up the steps of Alkek and I began to hear some drums that sounded very familiar. And lo and behold, I managed to stumble across the campus powwow that day. And I spent the afternoon talking with vendors, dancers. I met elders who would go on to be some of my mentors through Four Winds Intertribal Society and Indigenous Cultures Institute. That day kind of changed my life. It connected me with the local intertribal community. It put me on a path to pursue my Ph.D., examining Indigenous experience in education settings. And for a Choctaw very far from Choctaw country, that little campus powwow did a lot for me.

Giselle Kowalski:
That's beautiful. So I got to go and experience that Sacred Springs Powwow firsthand, and I thought it was beautiful. But for those that don't know what a powwow is, even that word, how do you describe it and what is that definition?

Aaron Pyle:
Absolutely. A powwow is a Indigenous Native American cultural festival. Now, many parts of powwow come from many different traditions across Turtle Island, which is what in the Indigenous community, what we call North America. But the powwow itself, the word comes from an Algonquin term. The powwow, this type of festival, goes back thousands of years, right? It manifests in a lot of different forms. But the modern powwow really grew in the mid-20th century, in the 1950s, for two big reasons.
One, in the 1950s, the Eisenhower administration pushed to relocate Native Americans from rural lands into urban lands. The result of that is today approximately half of Native Americans live in urban settings. Now, the goal of the Eisenhower administration was to push assimilation, right? To get native people away from their lands, get them into the wider community as a way of, well, watering down our culture. It did not work. We got into cities and we started building community groups and having potlucks and powwow. Putting together this powwow was a big part of that effort to build community and connectivity in these places that weren't our traditional tribal lands.
Another big thing that went along with the powwow growing in the mid-20th century was the end of World War II, and powwow was used as a way of honoring veterans returning from the war. Veterans hold a very special place in Native American culture. We still have our, among ethnic groups in the United States, ours is, we have the largest percentages of our members going into the military service compared with other groups. So it is a big part of our culture. Most often what you'll see is a powwow is intertribal, meaning our powwow at Sacred Springs, we have Choctaw, Cherokee, Chickasaw representatives from across different groups, communities and tribal nations. And what you'll see at powwow is just a collection of art, music, dancing, food from across Native American traditions.

Giselle Kowalski:
You touched on this. It's a very big community aspect, and it's not just people that are from Native American cultures, like everyone is welcome. And that's what I loved about it, because I got to learn so much about where I live and things that I didn't know about before. So speaking of that, we're in San Marcos, we're in beautiful San Marcos, we have a lot of natural wonders. Can you describe to me the meaning behind the blessing of the springs, and what is that deep connection to nature that you guys hold so dearly? And how can we as San Martians tap into that?

Aaron Pyle:
A really beautiful question. It's pretty well-known that what's now known as the Meadows Center, formerly Aquarena Center, the spring-like headwaters of the San Marcos River, has been deemed the longest continually inhabited spot in North America. But part of the story that often doesn't get told outside Indigenous circles is that the San Marcos Springs are one of four springs that feature in the origin story of the Coahuiltecan people. The Coahuiltecans of course, are the Native Americans indigenous to Northern Mexico, Southern Texas, folks who have a long history of connectivity to the land that we're on.
But through politics and policy and history and racism and all the things that go along with a lot of the story of the history of natives in Texas, they're not what we call a federally recognized tribe. Today they're largely called Hispanics or Latinx or Latinos. Now, I'm not saying that every Hispanic, Latinx, Latino in Texas is Indigenous, but it's been estimated that approximately 70% of them are. So associating this powwow is a very intentional effort to us to build bridges between Indigenous people of the South and Indigenous people of the North, and San Marcos based off our history, is a big part of that.
But you asked specifically about the blessing, and I will say that from guidance of our elders, our perspective is that when we go at the beginning of the powwow to have a blessing of the springs, it's not that we are going to the waters to bless the waters. That's part of Mother Nature. That is part of the origin story of the Coahuiltecans. It doesn't take a human to pass on blessings to it. Instead, what that moment is about is having our elders open up the crowd and prepare us all to receive and accept the blessings from the springs.

Giselle Kowalski:
So I know that there have been a lot of historical challenges within Indigenous cultures, and how have you guys with the powwow addressed those challenges?

Aaron Pyle:
Absolutely. I'd like to first give a little pause on framing native identity around challenges just because this is something that happens so often in the mainstream zeitgeist. I think of Eve Tuck, a wonderful Indigenous scholar out of the University of Toronto, once wrote that, "I have to tell my own stories, otherwise the only stories that get told about me are stories of pain and oppression." There are challenges in Indian Country. There are issues of land loss and poverty. These are real. But at the same time, the past few decades have seen incredible work being made around self-determination, education, Indigenous healthcare. There has been incredible success in Indian Country, and our young people have the right to hear those stories too. So I always try to push that narrative that, yes, there are challenges in Indian Country, but that is not the end of the story.
So how is powwow involved in that? Well, there's a couple pieces I can look at. One is we are always stronger when Indigenous people come together, form relationships and form partnerships. You can see that throughout history. You can see that in Oklahoma right now in the coalitions between tribes pushing back against state government. There is a lot that could be unpacked there. But the story is that we are in a lot better case when there are strong relationships, and that's what powwow is about. We're bringing together and building connectivity across people and communities. And at the end of it, going back to what we were talking earlier about the ’50s and the growth of the powwow as kind of a community focal point, and that's at the center of it. But there are other things that we're doing. Education.
To quote Joy Culbreath, the retired director of Choctaw Programming and Education, she once told me that education changes the lives of people. It changes what you are, what can be, and what you'll become. And she talked about decades ago when the tribe was just getting on its feet, the challenges of we're building businesses and needing lawyers and doctors, but we always had to hire those outside, weren't able to hire those from tribal members. But through a couple of decades of investing in education, both K through 12 and higher education, these days the tribe is able to hire from within Choctaw, doctors, lawyers, business people. So education really is the key to our future. And how that ties into powwow is, powwow is a place where we come together and meet and form relationships, but it is also a place to push education and education programming.

Giselle Kowalski:
You've been with this Sacred Springs Powwow for quite a bit of time, and you've seen it since you were a student up until now, and I'm sure moving forward there will be a lot more to happen with the powwow, as you're saying. It's grown a lot. Do you have a specific moment from all these years working with it that sticks out to you and just is special to you that you could share with us?

Aaron Pyle:
Oh, it's hard to pinpoint a moment, but I will emphasize something that I've seen over the past years that really warms my heart and gives me a lot of confidence in the future, that when this powwow first began 14 years ago, there was just a handful of us out there doing all the work to make it happen, right? I remember one of our elders and I actually carrying benches around, actually place it the morning of the powwow, and doing all of this wonderful work. But over the past 14 years, we just celebrated year number 14 for the powwow.
Over the past decade and a half, the community has really responded to this event in a beautiful way. We have over 200 volunteers now. We have over 25 committee chairs. The local university, Texas State University, their student groups are involved in volunteering and doing setup and really engaging with us, not just at the event, but that open invitation to them is, "This is your powwow. Come help us plan it and put it on and build it throughout the year." So the way that the community has grown and really invested in it and really made it a part of the San Marcos identity has been really wonderful to see over the past decade and a half.

Giselle Kowalski:
That's fantastic. So how can people continue to learn about Native American cultures and Indigenous cultures in San Marcos beyond the powwow? Say that that weekend has passed and no one was, and that the person that's listening to this was not able to join. How can they involve themselves and educate themselves?

Aaron Pyle:
Absolutely. There is a lot of wonderful opportunity to engage in the Indigenous community of Central Texas. It's not often pointed out, but Texas has the fifth largest Native American population of any of the states. So we are here and doing incredible work, oftentimes not quite as visible or accessible, but we are indeed here.
Now, specifically in San Marcos, the Indigenous Cultures Institute, which puts on the Sacred Springs Powwow, we're the most active group in our region and in Hays County. And throughout the year, there are many opportunities to be engaged. As I mentioned, we have 12 different programs ranging from education to entertainment, arts and crafts, as well as lecture series. So checking out indigenouscultures.org will give you a good idea of what's available and ways of being involved throughout the year. But the best way to approach any community is just show up and be willing to learn and listen and add your own contributions. That's what we're aiming to do, is building strong and positive relationships in the region.

Giselle Kowalski:
Right. And if you could go back to your younger self when you were a student at Texas State who had just come across those drums, what would you tell him?

Aaron Pyle:
Keep reciprocity centered when trying to do this work. Indigenous people, that is a big part of our identity, do what you say you're going to do and show up willing to learn as much as you're willing to contribute.

Giselle Kowalski:
One of my final questions is, what are your hopes for the future of the Sacred Springs Powwow and that of San Marcos and Texas State as well when it comes to Native American cultures?

Aaron Pyle:
Absolutely. There is a lot of good work still to be done. There's a lot of good work being done, but there's much more opportunity to build bridges between the Indigenous community of Central Texas as well as the mainstream community. And part of that, I'm hoping that the powwow will play a factor in that, is just providing an opportunity for these groups to come together. Oh, we're an event that has been running 14 years strong. We see lots of opportunity to incorporate this event in and seeing it as an opportunity for people to get their foot in the door on the good work that's being done with ICI. So lots of hope for the future.

Giselle Kowalski:
How can people get involved if they're listening to this and they want to join the powwow or be part of the people that make it happen?

Aaron Pyle:
A wonderful question. Our best point of contact is either through our social media page, Facebook, Instagram, but also just go to our website, sspowwow.com, and it'll give you a contact opportunity. And yeah, whatever you're interested in, we are happy to point you in the direction to our team members working in that field.

Giselle Kowalski:
Awesome. And yes, thank you so much for letting us come out and for teaching both our interns as well as our staff here at Texas State so much. We all enjoyed that weekend. And I'm still thinking about it, and I always find our conversations with you very enlightening. So thank you, Aaron.

Aaron Pyle:
It's my pleasure. Thank you so much for having me.

Giselle Kowalski:
Of course.
Thank you so much to Aaron and the Indigenous Cultures Institute for sharing your history, culture, and powwow with us. And thank you for listening to this episode of the Try @ TXST Podcast. Make sure to tune in next time to learn more about something else you can try on campus at Texas State. And also remember to follow us on our social media @TXST. This podcast is a production of the Division of Marketing and Communications at Texas State University. Podcasts appearing on the Texas State University Network represent the views of the hosts and guests, not of Texas State University. Again, I'm your host, Giselle Kowalski, and I'll see you next time. Bye y'all.