Ceremonial seeks kid appeal
Gallup's annual event hopes to attract more children, teenages

By Bill Donovan
Staff Writer

GALLUP — When was the last time that Gallup children tugged at their father’s pants begging to be taken to the Inter-tribal Indian Ceremonial?

Or when was the last time that Gallup area teenagers who weren’t interested in team roping and bull riding thought that going to the Ceremonial was “cool?”

Ceremonial officials are hoping the next year or two will see children and teenagers start flocking to the Ceremonial because of new events.

Jeri Poletto, the Ceremonial’s executive director, said the Ceremonial board is looking at ways to broaden the Ceremonial’s appeal to attract segments of the population that up until now have not shown up in any major numbers to the annual event.

For teenagers, the Ceremonial associations looking at having Native American bands perform on one or more days of the event. For children, there’s talk of creating a children’s village.

The village would provide a place for children to get hands-on experience in creating a craft. For example, the Ceremonial would provide sand and glue and drawing materials so children can produce their own sand painting.

Poletto said that although Red Rock Park is filling up with events during the Ceremonial, there’s still room to add a couple of more attractions.

“You have the Gathering of the Nations, and what it does is fine, but it only presents a powwow. The Indian Market only provides an arena for craftsmen to sell their products. No one provides all of the stuff people want to see,” she said, adding that nowadays if people want to get the whole gambit of Native American entertainment, they have to attend several different events.

She said she wants to change that and provide a sort of one-stop venue for people who want to see all aspects of traditional and contemporary Native American culture. At the same time, she said, expanding the Ceremonial’s scope will just add to its luster.

Louis Bonaguidi, chairman of the Ceremonial board of directors, agreed that this may be a way to finally get more people in Gallup to attend the event.

“We go to Santa Fe and we meet people who have been to the Ceremonial three or four times but there are people here in Gallup who have been only once or have never been to a Ceremonial,” he said.

He said he’s not sure if there is enough time to implement these ideas for the 2008 event but it’s a definite possibility for next year.

He said the Ceremonial is also looking at providing young Native American craftsmen their own category.

“Right now their entries are grouped in with the adults but it’s possible that we can have a master’s category as well as one for amateurs,” he said.

Poletto said another area in the exhibit category that is being looked at is to give out awards for photography.

“A lot of Native Americans are going into photography,” she said, adding that other shows have added photography as a category for competition.

The board is still looking at what kind of criteria to use in accepting entries and judging the competition, but she said this may be added to the categories as early as next year.