In 1966 the Devils Lake Camber of Commerce and the Devils Lake Sioux Tribe met and decided to have a celebration for the one hundredth anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of peace between the United States Government and the Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakota and the Cut Head Nakota. This treaty established the Devils Lake, North Dakota, and Lake Traverse, South Dakota Reservations. As the treaty was signed in April of 1867 it was decided to celebrate the event in July, as April might have inclement weather. The event was to be called “Fort Totten Days” to be held the last weekend in July, the date of the first pow-wow was July 28, 29, and 30, – a Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Thursday before the start, was designated the traditional “Camping Day.”

Frank Foughty (Turtle Mountain Ojibwa), a prominent Devils Lake attorney, and President of the Chamber and Mr. Lewis Goodhouse Chairman of the tribe would head up the arrangements. They established the Fort Totten Days Committee with William Herold as President. In turn Harry Hopkins Senior (Chief Clear Sky) was selected as Vice-President and spokesman. Mr. Foughty was given the name of Wambditanka (Chief Big Eagle) in a naming ceremony in which Mr. Foughty in appreciation of this great honor gave away many gifts. The words to his Honor Song are as follows:

Wambditanka akicita yaun [You are a veteran Big Eagle]

Dakota wicoĥan waŝteyadaka [You love the Dakota traditions]

Dakota kin wacinniyanpi [The Dakota depend on you]

Frank Foughty was later given an award by the Tribe for spending more time than anyone else in helping make the Centennial Celebration as success.

The main event was to be a pow-wow accompanied by chariot races and a rodeo. In the 1960’s the custom was for the announcer to call on the dancers to come and dance, “don’t let these good songs go to waste” was the usual admonition. Slowly by one and twos male dances would enter the arbor and begin to dance. Usually within the hour most of the dancers made their appearance. Harry Hopkins decided to change this routine. Remembering the opening of a rodeo, the riders would race into the arena with the first one carrying the American Flag followed by all the contestants. The dancers would enter the arena led by veterans carrying the American and State Flag. This way the audience would be able to see each of the dancers as they circled clockwise around the interior of the dance arbor. This change in protocol began what is called The Grand Entry. This idea was taken home by the dancers and spectators to reservations all over the surrounding states. Today one can go to any pow-wow and find the opening ceremony preceded by the Grand Entry. This is the standard opening by which the Spirit Lake Dakota and Harry Hopkins Senior can be proud to say “We were the First.”

After the Grand Entry, the Flag Song and Victory Song was followed by the Fort Totten Days Song. The words to this song are as follows:

Dakod wicoĥan kin teĥike yedo [Dakota customs are difficult]

Yuha iyotiyekiya waun yedo [ I am doing the best I can for you]

As part of the celebration, prizes for the best dancers were awarded. In the past first place was $25.00, second place $15.00, and third place $10.00. The pow-wow committee decided to do something unheard of – offer a prize of $500 to the champion male dancer. The second and third place winners received $300 and $200 respectively. The purpose was to attract the best dancers from all over the United States and Canada. Again, the Spirit Lake Dakota became the first to offer large dancing prizes. Never again could a large venue pow-wow offer small cash prizes. Money, Money, Waci Po was the words to a song composed by Myron Redday. The pow-wow was transformed from a cultural event to one where the dancers came to win money. Tyrone Head of Rosebud, South Dakota has the distinction of winning the grand prize of Five Hundred Dollars at the first Fort Totten Days Pow-wow in July 1967. By 1977 first prize was elevated to One Thousand Dollars.

True to the expectations of the chamber and tribe, the event was an overwhelming success. Pow-wow buttons were sold for one dollar (those under age 16 admitted free) to gain entry so as to offset the immense expense of putting on this three-day event. The button eventually cost five dollars before finally making the celebration free for all to attend. The decision was made to make this celebration an annual event. This was accomplished with a smaller two day pow-wow in 1968; Peter Belgarde Senior was elected President. By the time the second and third year rolled around the old people began to kick about Fort Totten Days replacing their traditional Fourth of July Celebration. No one was interested in having this old-time event and it died off with the Lone Buffalo Club’s Fourth of July circa 1985. To put on the Fort Totten Days event, large amounts of money had to be raised. Funds came from donations, button sales, food, and craft vendor fees. The pow-wow was run by White people. Francis ‘Mutsey” Belisle, the owner of the St. Michael General Store and Western Shop joined to help, Doris Johnson, the Postmistress of Tokio, North Dakota joined the committee.

The committee incorporated to legitimizing the fund raising. The people began to murmur, what were these White people doing running this Indian event? They must be making lots of money for themselves, was the rumor. Naturally the Whites bowed out and passed the torch to a committee made of tribal members. Through a series of bad judgments and mismanagement Ft. Totten Days fell into debt. The tribe could not cancel this event, it was too big a tourist draws, and the embarrassment would be too great to abandon the pow-wow. The Devils Lake Sioux Tribe decided to fund the event in its entirety.

On advice of their attorneys, the name of the celebration was changed to Akicita (Veterans) Wacipi (Dance) and placed under the control of the Tribes Veterans. The Tribal Council and the Veterans oversee the celebration that now costs the Tribe between $150,000 – 300,000 to stage. Money, Money, Waci Po.

One of the original ideas to raise the money to meet the great expense of the celebrations was to elect a Pow-wow Princess each year. The girls had to be between the ages of 16 to 21 years old, and be tribal members. Candidates were to win votes by raising money. The girl who raised the most would be crowned Fort Totten Days Princess. The girls and their families would place coffee cans and jars with their photograph pasted on the outside. These receptacles were placed on the counter in various stores and other frequented locations on the reservation. The very first Princess was Ardis Shaw (1967), with her court, consisting of Lenore Alberts, Theresa Herald, Jennie Cavanaugh, and Catherine Yankton. Imogene Belgarde (Oyatewacinyanpiwin -The People Depend on Her) won in 1969. Beverly McKay (Howaŝtemahpiwin – Good Voice in the Heavens) won the title for 1970.

The number of dance contests increased through the years. Originally there was only one contest for the men and one for the women. The fashion of the time for the men was what is known today as “the Grass Dance outfit.” For the women, they wore a dress with high top moccasins, belt, and beaded medallion upon the breast; copied from the Ft. Berthold people to the west.

The very first celebration in 1967 brought many dancers from all over. This led to the introduction of the fancy feather outfit for the men and the Shawl Dance outfit for the women. The Jingle Dress was worn way back in the 1950’s, but fell out of fashion. Fort Totten Days decided to have a special contest just for Jingle Dress Dancers. Only visiting Ojibwe women participated. Within a year or two the Jungle fashion was worn by girls who now entered the contest. I don’t know if I could say that this was the introduction of this dress on to the pow-wow circuit, but probably was, and perhaps another first for Fort Totten Days, too.

Fort Totten Days early on had many events and gimmicks to attract people. Famous celebrities such as Billy Mills and Casey Tibbs were chosen as the Parade Marshall. Crazy Crow and his warriors would attack the wagon train as it arrived from Jamestown on the old Ft. Seward to Ft. Totten trail. The part of Crazy Crow was first Elmer White, Senior, later the torch was passed to Lawrence Joshua, Junior. This was both a publicity stunt as well as a crowd pleaser. Newspaper articles kept up the threats of Crazy Crow, answered the next week by the wagon train participants. Crazy Crow even captured Jim Smorada of Jamestown one year.

There were Tipi contests for the best decorated and authentically pitched tipi, judged by Edward Milligan, a history professor from Bottineau, North Dakota, who danced in the 1936 Sun Dance at Little Eagle, South Dakota and in 1937 at Cannonball, North Dakota (Milligan: 1969). There was a fly-over from the Grandforks Air Base, 6 man tug –of- war contest between reservations. Chariot and horse races, Door to Door singing at 5 a.m., old time fiddlers contest, specialty dances such as Hoop and Eagle dances. The Eagle Dance brought a torrent of rain which swamped the area with inches of water, bringing the celebration to a halt that afternoon. Needless to say no more Eagle dances.

The Moccasin Game was played by the men, a tradition which continues to this day. An ecumenical church service was held in the dance arbor on Sunday morning. One cannot forget the parade which began after the church service at 1 p.m. The horseback parade was an old tradition now reintroduced along with motor vehicles decorated with quilts and pick-up trucks loaded with singers rounded out with parade floats, each vying to win the Parade Contest. The Rodeo brought cowboys and cowgirls from all over, Indian and white as it still does today. Saddle and bareback bronco riding, bull riding, calf roping, barrel racing and now for the little ones, mutton busting under the direction of Demus McDonald were some of the rodeo events.

One of the old traditions continued by the Fort Totten Days committee was feeding all the campers. Every morning about 9 a.m. a pick-up truck would deliver to each tent a box of rations including frozen meat. In 1969 Crazy Crow (Joshua) killed a buffalo donated by George Torson of Warwick; this meat was given to supply a feast on Sunday for all the participants. The tables were turned one year when the pow-wow committee secured two buffalo from the park service out west. They rented a U-Haul truck in which to bring the butchered buffalo back. On the return trip they stopped for gas and the attendant noticed blood dripping from the truck. He called the police. A few miles down the road they met a road block of a posse of armed men who pointed guns at them. They were allowed to continue on their way when they showed the proper paperwork. Mike Thompson said he didn’t know what to think when he saw these armed men emerge from the ditch to confront them. The law officers thought they were rustlers.

The first few Fort Totten Days were held in the field just west of the Blue Building as the Tribal Headquarters and Bureau of Indian Affairs office building is affectionately named. Fortunately good weather prevailed, but in 1969 to insure the event, a big circus tent was rented from Louis Brown; he was from the Fort Berthold Reservation. In 1919 a big circus tent was used for the annual Fourth of July and October Fall Fairs, so its 1969 use was bringing back a tradition. Due to the hot days of July, the pow-wow committee decided to cover the entire dancing circle and spectator’s gallery with a camouflage net obtained from Sioux Manufacturing Corporation; this helped aleviate the heat.

As it was with all the celebrations pre- Fort Totten Days, the pow-wow Chairman and his committee would select a veteran and raise his flag on a flag pole. At 8 a.m. The Flag Song was sung as the flag was raised, followed by the Victory Song. This last song was danced to by all the attendees. The same ceremony was repeated in the evening about 6 p.m. when the flag was taken down by the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW). The veteran’s family had a Giveaway to thank the people for the great honor of selecting their loved one’s flag. Some families fed the entire gathering of pow-wow people. The next day another veteran was selected to raise his flag. As the Fort Totten Days Pow-wow became larger, it was impossible for a family to afford to have their flag raised and the flag ceremony was dropped from the program. The Flag Ceremony is now part of the Grand Entry.

Bibliography

Foughty, Helen, widow of the first pow-wow Chairman, kindly gave me a tote bag full of newspaper clippings the family had saved.

Milligan, Edward A., Sun Dance of the Sioux, Bottineau, ND 1969 privately published. Copies are available at Bonanza Ville in West Fargo, ND.

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