Red Paint Powwow, New Mexico, Part 2: The Chinese Hopi

Miao girls, China. Source: The source is no longer a safe URL; removed from this post.

The Red Paint Powwow is an annual event in Silver City, New Mexico, hosted by the Chiricahua Apache. I attended the powwow on Saturday, January 19, 2013.

I saw many styles of attire at the Red Paint Powwow. But one woman's regalia drew my attention because she was dressed like no one else. I picked through my mental file cabinet. Result:

 "No file found." 

I was eager for this mystery to be solved as the day unfolded.

In the afternoon, the emcee, Otis Half Moon, called up various powwow dignitaries for recognition in front of the dais. Among them were the "royalty."

Two young women came forward. One was a teen from Tularosa, Miss Mescalero Apache, I believe. She gave a sweet talk about what she wants to accomplish during her reign. 

The other young woman was the person whose attire I didn't recognize. She explained that she was a member of a minority tribe in China, and that when she came to the U.S., she was homesick. Her husband somehow connected her to a Hopi community and she felt an immediate kinship: "I saw my brothers and sisters!" And she felt she'd found a home with the Hopi.

Obviously, her American Hopi brothers and sisters feel the same, as she was an honored guest at the powwow. 

It was very moving.

Miao woman, China. Credit: Bowers Museum.

 

By the way, the Hopi apparently have their own version of Revelations in which Elder Brother (as represented by China, India, Africa, and Islamic nations) will rejoin with Younger Brother (the Hopi) after the United States (except for Hopi lands) is destroyed by atomic bombs and radioactivity.