Feeling the drumbeat in her heart

McAllister learned about her culture through the Native American Education Program Title VII, which was created to address the educational and cultural needs of Native American students by offering tutoring and cultural classes to kids in Vancouver, Evergreen and Battle Ground schools. The program also sponsors the Pow Wow.

At the Pow Wow on Saturday, McAllister was one of two head dancers, along with Justice Florendo, 13, a student at Vancouver School of Arts and Academics. McAllister was recommended for the position and selected through the Title VII Program, which she has attended for as long as she can remember.

“As head dancer, I’m just supposed to be out there as a good role model for the little ones,” she said.

On Saturday, McAllister danced around the Covington gym throughout the day dressed in colorful regalia. McAllister is a “fancy dancer,” she said, meaning her regalia consisted of a shawl with ribbons hanging at her side that filled the air with color when she stretched her arms out, “like a butterfly.” She also wore hair ties her mother sewed of a blue and green tulip McAllister drew as a child and an eagle feather.

It was an honor to be picked as head dancer, McAllister said, especially since some of her fondest memories of past Pow Wows come from sitting in the Covington gym and feeling the beating drums while in the bleachers.

“I could always just feel the drumbeat in my heart,” she said. “I’ve been dancing since I could walk, and before that, I was carried around by siblings or my mother.”

The Pow Wow is a family event even for those who don’t have relatives at the school. While the halls and cafeteria at Covington were full of vendors selling handmade crafts, jewelry and clothing, they were also packed with people hugging and reacquainting themselves.

“A Pow Wow is a celebration of life,” said Ed Wulf, arena director at the event. “It’s a time to say ‘hello’ and see how everyone is doing.”

While plenty of people moseyed around looking at vendors, or waited on a long line for fry bread, a bulk of the hundreds of visitors on Saturday sat in the gym watching 10-plus drum groups and more than 100 dancers from all throughout the Northwest perform.

Anthony Bluehorse has performed at the event for the last five or six years. He and his drum group, Hold Your Horses, traveled from Tulalip for the Pow Wow.

“I’ll always support school Pow Wows,” he said. “It’s important. We were taught by our parents and grandparents about our culture. We have to build and show that it’s going to be here for much longer.”