
DATE: Thursday, August 14, 1997             TAG: 9708130172

SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN             PAGE: 06   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Cover Story 

SOURCE: BY FRANK ROBERTS, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:  110 lines

RITUAL GATHERING THE NANSEMOND INDIAN TRIBE HOSTS IT'S ANNUAL POWWOW THIS WEEKEND.

AMONG THE NATIVE American Indians participating in this weekend's pow wow at Lone Star Lakes are Morning Sky, Two Wolves, Black Feather, Iron Horse - and Jack Markowitz.

Hickory Apache and Laguna Pueblo on his father's side, Tohono O'odham on his mother's side, Markowitz is adrum - a member of Wabunoongejig, to be exact.

The Nansemond Indian Tribal 10th Annual Pow Wow, Saturday and Sunday, will include a presentation by the native American drummer/singers, collectively called Wabunoongejig. Each member is called a drum.

Wabunoongejig, offering traditional and contemporary American Indian music, represents many tribes, including some from the southwest, home of Markowitz's tribes.

An Indian named Markowitz begs explanation.

``I was adopted by a Jewish family,'' the 29-year-old Virginia Beach resident said. ``I was raised in that faith and in the native American religion.''

A graduate of Kempsville High School, where he was a band member, he was born in California.

Soon after his adoption, when he was 12 weeks old, Leon and Lillian Markowitz moved to Virginia Beach. They live on Waller Court.

``My family is Conservative,'' he said. ``I had a Jewish wedding, I went through a bar mitzvah.''

Still, ``I've known I was Indian since I was a kid. My mom always talked about it. She called me her adopted Apache angel.''

Markowitz's spiritual life has been a mix - wearing a yarmulke in synagogue one day, a head dress at a pow wow the next.

He sees a common thread between Jews and American Indians - ``the oppressions that both peoples have gone through.''

When Markowitz visits his biological father - they met for the first time three years ago - the tribe will have a naming ceremony for him at a reservation in Dulce, N.M.

``My wife and I are looking into adopting an Indian baby from the Tohono O'odham reservation,'' he said. Markowitz will have come full circle.

The primary purpose of Wabunoongejig is to bring American Indians together; the secondary purpose is to educate people to the fact that Indian culture exists today and will continue.

Mike Butler, the lead singer, is an Ojibwe. His son, Michael Richard Butler, is the only member who is not full-blooded Indian.

Many of the drums are in the Navy, including James Chupco of Wisconsin. His father is a Creek, his mother a Menominee and Seminole.

John Yazzie and Delono Ashley are Navajo Indians from Arizona. Randy Holliday and Vernell Capitan are Navajos from Utah.

Joe Ruybe of Texas is Jicarilla Apache. Another drum is Orlando Alexis, a civilian, a native of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. He is Lakota Sioux.

``We don't know the age of some of the traditional songs we do, but we do know that some date to the 1800s,'' Butler said. ``The old songs get passed from drum to drum. The younger drums create their own songs.''

Pow wow drums were originally used for ceremonial purposes, ``but now,'' Butler said, ``they . . . express our Indian-ness.''

Another drum presentation will be Falling Water, whose members are Chickahominy, Rappahannock, Mashpee-Wamponoag and Creek, as well as non-Indians who are married to Indians.

Together since 1988, they work with the Rising Water Dancers.

Both groups were organized by Nokomis Fortune Lemons, a descendant of the Rappahannocks.

The Nansemond Indian Tribal Pow Wow also features traditional and fancy dancers, and American Indian demonstrations by Bill and Susie Gingras.

There will be a demonstration of Native American Indian survival techniques; traders and crafters will sell jewelry, pottery and other items.

Susie Fortune will sell Indian fry breads and tacos. The Chuckatuck Volunteer Fire Department will be cooking up other food.

``The pow wow is a way of keeping our culture alive, and sharing it with our non-native brothers and sisters,'' said Earl L. Bass II, assistant chief of the Nansemond Indian Tribal Association.

``We feel like we're performing a public service,'' he said. `` Come to our pow wow. You'll feel a good spirit.'''' MEMO: [For a related story, see page 7 of THE SUFFOLK SUN for this

date.] ILLUSTRATION: [Cover, Color photo]

File photo by MICHAEL KESTNER

John "Blackfeather" Jeffries salutes the dancers suring the Grand

Entrance ceremony at last year's Nansemond Indian powwow at Lone

Star Lakes in Chuckatuck.\

File photo by MICHAEL KESTNER

American Indians representing a number of tribes across the United

States dance during the Grand Entrance at the '96 powwow at Lone

Star Lakes.

Flags and banners mark the Grand Entrance during last year's tribal

pow wow. The Nansemond Indian Tribal 10th Annual Pow Wow, to be held

Saturday and Sunday, will include a presentation by the Native