Golden State Gourd Society (1973)

Various head and shoulder and close-up shots of a middle-aged Native man with short hair speaking to the camera while standing in front of cork board with flyers for California State University Long Beach, maps, etc.,; the camera starts and stops a few times; (at 10:15) several shots of a Pawnee man of similar age with short hair, wearing sunglasses, addresses the camera; (at 11:29) close-up of a beaded necklace on another younger man, then the rings on his hand, and camera pans up to his face and longer wrapped braids; (at 13:03) shots of another Native (from Oklahoma) man with short hair and glasses addressing the camera; (at 15:01) shots of a middle-aged Omaha man in a cowboy hat and glasses addressing the camera; camera goes blank for a bit; (at 17:09) first man interviewed addresses the assembled group of men on a mic in what looks to be a gym with a boxing ring; camera pulls back to show the president (Oklahoma man with glasses) sitting next to him with a guitar, the man with the cowboy hat and another man fit a large, red sash around the inductee’s waist and over his shoulder with a beaded bandolier; different shot of the cowboy hat man speaking to the inductee as the main speaker continues in background; the inductee turns around to face the crowd while holding a staff with a feather and beadwork on it in one hand, and a rattle in the other; the president stands beside him and camera pans over to the drum circle; closer views of the drummers playing and back to the three men from the ceremony dancing in line around the room, back to a close up of drummers, back to the men dancing (including a close-up of beaded boots) and then wider shot of more men dancing behind them now; back to drummers’ faces; and then a nice wide shot of the whole room, and then individual dancers; back to the room after the ceremony ends and the inductee shakes all the dancers’ hands walking past in a line; back to various shots of the drummers, drummer behind; close-up of boys’ faces; various shots of women in attendance, then back to various shots of dancers; close-up of one man’s metals pinned to his sash; another’s rings and rattle, another man’s U.S. Marines and medic insignias on his sash and his beaded bolo tie; another man’s beaded bolo; close-ups of a young woman and a baby; the line of women and girl dancers behind the drum circle and male singers; close-up of an elder man in a cowboy hat looking directly into the camera, then over to two more men next to him; close-up of a man’s necklace with metal bells and a bear’s claw (?) then up to his eyes; shots of seated women and men in the audience; shot down the line of men singers; male singers moving around the room; camera shoots the first interviewee’s body as he sings and shakes his rattle, then the same of another man; back to the camera moving from singer to singer and around the group; a ceremonially dressed woman dancing, and then to other women dancing in a line, close-up of a woman watching.

"It comes from a reel of outtakes from a Los Angeles TV station that was preparing a report on off-reservation Indians in Los Angeles. It was filmed at the powwow of the Many Trails Indian Club of Los Angeles in 1973.  For the same report the TV crew filmed a 'How to Make Fry Bread' and 'Many Trails Indian Club of Los Angeles' segments found elsewhere in the (Tribesourcing and) American Indian Film Gallery website(s).  This latter group has a website; Many Trails seems to have dissolved some time ago."  -- (Paraphrase) J. Fred MacDonald

See also: Joan Weibel Orlando, Indian Country, L.A.: Maintaining Ethnic Community in Complex Society (Champaign-Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1999), 210 and following.