In the Fancy Dance, Native American men step, jump, split and cartwheel to the beat of a drum at powwows and competitions. It's a flashy, athletic modern dance style with origins in Oklahoma, though it's now performed by Indigenous dancers across North America.
"In a modern style like ballet or hip hop type of dance that's rehearsed, they have a strict routine on what they're doing and how they're doing it," Coeur d’Alene Tribal member Jonathon Nomee said. "Versus powwow, it's on the spot, you're on the go, you're creating movement from the drum.
"You go out there, and you let the drum and that music move you."
Nomee is a wildland firefighter by trade, but he's been a Fancy Dancer as long as he can remember.
And on Oct. 25 at the Red Deer Resort and Casino in Alberta, he was crowned the Fancy Dancer World Champion.
He spoke with SPR’s Owen Henderson from his home on the Coeur d'Alene Reservation after returning from his win.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
OWEN HENDERSON: How did you begin dancing and who were some of the dancers you used to look up to?
JONATHON NOMEE: I've been in the powwow circle my entire life. I've always been a fancy dancer. I've always been fascinated with the colors and the flash and the movement of the fancy dance.
And so growing up for me, I would travel with my grandmother, and she would take me across the U.S. time and time again since I was really little. And there's so many people that I have come across, good people, good Indian people, powwow people, that have caught my eye and given me inspiration.
I can name a few. The late Spike Draper, he was my number one all-time idol when I was growing up. Stan Whiteman and Luke Whiteman—we've seen them a lot over here in Idaho, Montana, Washington area. Even some of the little guys now, the younger kids now, they're crazy. It's crazy. It's athletic. and it's awesome to see where powwow's going.
I mean, that list goes on and on. I feel disrespectful not saying everybody's name, but the list goes on forever and ever. It's crazy.
OH: Do you mind explaining a little bit about the regalia you're wearing while you're performing these very impressive athletic feats?
JN: My regalia, my specific one that I wear, it was handmade by my grandmother, Philomena Nomee.
She passed away back in March and I still wear it to honor her. My Indian name is Pretty Horse. Every set of beadwork that she had made me, it has a beaded horse on there.
And then it also represents our plateau style, Northwest style of flowers.
And then also I have lightning bolts on mine. I had a tragic accident, car accident back in 2013. And after that had happened, my uncle, he's Diné, he's Navajo from Arizona.
And his dad had come up here to do a ceremony for me. He called it the lightning ceremony. And what he said is that the lightning and the thunder and the rainstorms, when they come, it's washing away any of the bad, any of the negative, any of that.
And so I have different things on my beadwork to represent different things in my life or myself, and also my people, my family, my community.
Overall, the biggest thing that I like to represent when I wear that beadwork is continuing the legacy of my grandmother.
OH: Because it's largely improvised in the moment, how does a competition work? What are the kinds of things that make a good fancy dancer?
JN: It's very subjective. When you go to a powwow, there's different age groups and different categories. So for the little tiny babies and stuff from six and under, they kind of just get them out there just to get them introduced to the floor, like in the powwow circle and watching the kids dance. They don't really understand the competition aspect of it yet. And so they're out there just to have a good time, enjoy themselves. And people enjoy watching that.
And then from there, you move up from seven years old to 12 years old is the junior category. So just introducing them into the competition style. And then you get into from 13 to 17 is the teenage category, the teens. And that's when they're like, okay, it's starting to get a little bit more competitive.
And then depending on the powwow, they do junior adult and senior adults. And so usually junior adults is from 18 to 35.
And then senior adults would be 36 to 49-ish. And then they kind of go into the golden age category, which is usually like 50 years old and up.
And for those age groups, they have different categories, both for men and women, boys and girls.
And for the women's side of things, there's the women's fancy shell category, the women's jingle category, and then the women's traditional category.
And the same thing kind of goes on the men's side of things too. So for the men's categories, there's obviously the men's fancy, there's the men's grass, men's traditional, men's chicken, men's southern straight.
For an example, they'd be calling that junior men's fancy, which would be the category that I would come out into. And we all have a number, a competition number. And so on that competition number, then we would dance, you know, two songs, a regular straight song, which is kind of just like a normal beat, just a straight beat. It could be a more of an up-tempo beat.
And then they would call it a change-up song, which can be like, it could be a crow hop, which is like a slower, slower beat. And there's also a ruffle or a sneak up, and it's got a shake to it.
There's different songs that come to it.
But then after we get done with those two songs, we would line up and in that line, we'd have, you know, upwards of five judges, 10 judges, three judges. And they're judging us on staying on beat and on time with the drum, stopping when that drum stops, our overall style and originality. Also, they judge us on our regalia, our beadwork.
OH: You mentioned you've been doing fancy dance almost as long as you can remember. Do you ever dance other categories?
JN: Actually, yeah, I do. I've danced all of them before, but I would say my secondary category would be the men's chicken. I've danced chicken in a couple of specials and done pretty well in them.
OH: You know, part of the reason we're having this conversation is you won the championship up in Alberta over the weekend. What did it feel like to win?
OH: It's still kind of crazy, surreal. Like, I never thought I would be considered a champion. I remember growing up and I was watching Spike Draper and Michael Roberts and Joe Boynton.
And I was watching those guys and seeing them become champions. To me, like, those guys were like somebody watching Michael Jordan play live or LeBron James play live. And that's how it is to be in the powwow world.
And that's what's very different about the powwow world is we're just regular people. We've got to go home to our regular homes. We still have to work nine to five.
And to me, winning this whole thing is, it's not about the win. It's not about the title. It's not about the championship. It's not about that at all.
The biggest thing that I took away from this whole experience is when I was up there, there was a young kid that had come up to me. It was him and his grandmother had come up to me, and they wanted to take a picture.
And he told me that he flew all the way from Ontario to come and watch me dance on that stage. And to me, that's winning. That's the championship title right there: to know that the young kids are watching.
And I saw myself in that little guy. That was me and my grandma when I was growing up. 'Yeah, let's go watch Spike.' That was me. And so that that's the biggest takeaway about this whole thing.
It's not about the title of the championship or nothing like that. It's the kids. It's a younger generation that's coming up. And that's a win for me.
OH: What's next? Are you going to keep continuing going to through the powwow circuit and continue dancing?
JN: Yeah, 100%. It doesn't matter how many wins or championships or anything like that. It's never going to take me away from that circle.
I'll always be a part of that and continue to express my culture and represent my tribe and my family and keep going. And for part of this championship thing, the founder of it is his name is Patrick Mitsuing. He's from Canada.
And he his vision on this whole thing is to make it to where our Indian people, our Native American people—in our culture, like powwow, it's hard for some families to travel.
Because if you don't go to these powwows and you don't win, you know, you know, make the pay window is what we call it. It's hard to continue that without struggling financially.
And so that's why we have to have a nine to five job to, you know, make sure that there's food on the table.
When we travel to powwows, like I said, you can win upwards $1,000, $2,000 for first place. And that's a gamble. It's not guaranteed.
And then you've got to think $2,000, we just traveled to to Alberta, Canada, to Red Deer, and $2,000? That's how much it was for us to get up there to feed our kids to put gas in our vehicles for lodging, things like that.
And so Patrick's overall vision on this whole thing is so that our Native American people won't have to do that. It's going to be a championship—kind of like a UFC style—where we can do this every six months to to every four months, every two months, every month.
He wants to make powwow professional, if that makes any sense. Because right now powwow is kind of just—it's not, it's just a lifestyle.
And like I said, for me to do that 100% and continue to travel, but not everybody can.
OH: Jonathan Nomi is a Coeur d'Alene tribal member and the newest world champion fancy dancer.
Thank you so much for sharing your time and your story.
JN: Thank you guys. I appreciate it.
