The Native American powwow as a cultural form is enjoying increasing popularity with Native Americans and non-Native Americans alike, especially in Central Ohio where there are no reservations and where the general public may have difficulty satisfying curiosity about contemporary Native American existence. Powwows sponsored by Indian organizations allow non-Indians to participate in an aspect of Native American life, as Native Americans live it, without being particularly intrusive.
Powwows play an important role in continuing ethnic identity, by providing a venue for learning the cultural context important to costume, dance, foodways, and customs. By applying Barbara Meyerhoff's theories of secular ritual, the complementary and equally important facet of invented transformative ritual at the societal level may be elucidated: powwows are a ritual reconnection to culture which the off-reservation Indian community needs in their existence as Indians in a non-Indian world, an existence which Meyerhoff would characterize as fragmented and anxiety-ridden. At powwows, the political and social definitions of concepts such as "tradition," "authenticity", and even "Indian" are debated and solidified, formally and informally. My interviewing and participant/observation research is focused with the general questions: What is a powwow? Why do Indians go to powwows? How and why are powwows important to Indians? How are powwows used to construct an Indian identity for both Indian participants and non-Indian observers?
This approach leads to the central goal of the project: an exploration of how Central Ohio's off-reservation, traditional inter-tribal powwows function in terms of ethnic identification; maintenance of ethnic identity, cultural practices and identity; tradition, invention of tradition, authenticity and emergent identity; and relation to the social and political spheres; strategic construction of "ethnicity" "identity" "tradition" and "authenticity" for ideological purposes.