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Pow wow wow Organizers of the seventh Kanehsatake Traditional Pow Wow had wide grins on their faces last Sunday. According to Marie David of the organizing committee, an estimated crowd of between 3,000 and 4,000 people showed up at the spiritual gathering over the weekend. The Pow Wow began with a peaceful demonstration in the town of Oka to commemorate the 1990 standoff. At the end of the march, one demonstrator replaced the little yellow flag in the first hole of the now-famous municipal golf course with a traditional Mohawk flag while golfers watched in silence.
Even so, this symbolic gesture of defiance took a back seat to other, more amicable festivities. Volunteer Karla Nemiroff, who has helped organize the Pow Wow every year since its inception, says the friendship dance--in which two separate circles of dancers join hands to make a single circle of natives and non-natives together--has become a highlight. "The political situation has deteriorated over the years," Nemiroff said of government relations with aboriginals, "but the rapport between people and groups at the Pow Wow has been improving steadily." Marc O. Rainville
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