5-6-08

Gathering of Nations

Gathering of Nations was a big success for Tanka Bar almost in spite of ourselves. Our friends and fans carried us when we were burnt out. Overall, we learned a lot and connected with some awesome people and were reminded that we want to conduct ourselves in the best way possible.

Day 1
Gathering was a trip! We were riding very low on the springs in our packed vehicle throughout the whole road trip. We even picked up a photographer in Denver, David Bernie. He works with our friends over at Native American Rights Fund and volunteered to help out Tanka Bar for the weekend. His main occupation may be more artistic, but by the time the weekend was over, he was a journeyman laborer with expertise in vehicle packing and box transportation.

After we hit town, we unloaded our bags and luggage into our hotel room and suddenly felt like drug dealers for moving so many cases of “product” in such a clandestine manner. A quick rest up and we stopped by Rez Dogs’ booth on Central and University. They were fighting with the wind the whole time they were setting up. By the way, be sure to check out “New Urban Transportation” for all your scooter and motorcycle needs in Albuquerque. Keith over at Rez Dogs wanted to make sure we gave those guys props for letting him set up shop in their parking lot for Gathering for the past several years and for overall having been really good to a native businessman.

We caught wind of a free concert being held by Keva, the oldest Native student organization in New Mexico. Calico, a quartet of native artists, was doing a set fresh off their performance at Red Ink Magazine's Premiere. The venue was poorly lit with a real small turnout, but the music and the energy was awesome! Rose B. Simpson, the lead singer, started with a spoken word piece that grabbed the audience by the guts. She later introduced the rest of the band, a group of Lakota cousins affectionately called, “The Two Bulls.” I can't remember their individual names, but the music was a solid foundation for their singer to lay her voice over. There were only three people dancing, but somehow the show was still pretty jumping. I picked up a Frankenstein patch from the merchandise table to support the band and we were out the door.

I heard through our MySpace friend, Indigenous Flygirl, that GMB was promoting a show downtown at the Sauce that was tagged as the kick off to Gathering of Nations. On the way to the show, I randomly gave out a Tanka Bar to some folks walking by.
“Is this the Tanka Bar? I have been waiting to try this!”
“Sure is ma'am. Where did you hear about us from?”
“Lakota Harden is always talking about you guys in the Bay. Do you know her?”
“Heck yes! Koty has had our back from the beginning!”

If you read this, Koty, wopila tanka tunwin.

The show started slow, but before long, the crowd rolled in and filled up the small club nicely. Big Chief Indian Ink was tattooing live at the event, and I was considering getting the Tanka Bar logo on my arm, but I think I will hold off till I have some more impressive guns. Bunky Echo-Hawk was slated to do a live painting and introduced us to hip hop artist Redcloud, who did an awesome set! Not to be shown up, Quese IMC was real strong on the mike and incorporated Tanka Bar into his flow. How cool is that? Big shout to Quese for reppin’ us. It is inspiring to see our native artists not just emulate mainstream hip hop but to make it our own, with their own styles, messages, and images we can connect to. We are proud of all the artists who really showed up that night to represent their craft, their nation and all native people.

One of the recurring themes of the night is that we kept running into people we had only met through MySpace. That was really cool and helped us see that this little page reaches a lot of folks from all over! I even got to meet Gary Farmer outside the club, but I didn't have a Tanka Bar on hand for him! I am still kicking myself over that. The night was fun, but the morning was coming quickly and I knew that it would bring a lot of challenges for us.

Day 2

After packing up our T-shirts, banners, brochures, tattoos and Tanka Bars, we were armed to the teeth with promotional gear and set our sights on the Pit itself. On the way to the pow wow, we stopped by Rez Dog's booth to put up our signs and drop off some T-shirts. Just as we were about ready to leave, a group of folks stopped by to buy some Tanka Bars. They saw the Tanka Bar sign and were ready to buy! They were a trio of Lakotas from Aberdeen, S.D., and we had officially made our first sale of the weekend! We took this as a positive sign of things to come.

We parked about a half mile from the Pit and wandered over to the main entrance. The line to get in was massive but swift-moving after you wound your way through the maze-like cattle chute to get a wristband. One of the things we were not really ready for was the sheer size of the event! We knew in our heads that, yes, this is the largest pow wow in the country, but there is a big difference from having that knowledge and seeing it for yourself. This place is not for the claustrophobic! It takes a long time to walk anywhere just from the massive size of the crowds inside of the venue.

We wound our way to Creative Native's booth that was setup in front of a pizza stand that no one was using. It is easy to be impressed by the sheer number of different artists and drum groups whose music they carry. Before long, we had one of our banners standing up and people were exchanging hard currency for buffalo and cranberry goodness. The Tanka Bar had arrived at Gathering of Nations!

We slowly waded through the crowds to the vendor tents and met up with our vendor folks who were ready to purchase Tanka Bars for their booths. The merchants at Gathering had everything from animal wood cutouts for a dollar, to buffalo robe winter coats ranging in the thousands. From the most ornate hand-crafted jewelry to the most large-scale produced toys from mainland China, to spiritual enlightenment over at the World Baha’i Church. I was much more into the turquoise trinkets, though. I had an easier time understanding the trinkets than a different perspective on religion, but the folks at their booth were respectful and handed out free crowns.

We were busy making sales and, after ever new vendor we signed, we had to make the long trek back to the vehicle for their Tanka Bars. My feet were not happy with me by evening time.

Toward meal break, we met up with some friends we know from back home and they helped us handout flyers and tattoos. Toni, Melissa, Allison, Eric, Chance, and David formed the core of the most fearless street team I have seen at any powwow. Right off the bat, Melissa handed out a Tanka Bar flyer to an old grandma walking by with her granddaughter.

“How dare you hand out flyers for a bar to children! This is a sober pow wow! Take it elsewhere!”
“But you don't understa-.”

But by then, she was already gone. Haha. That would have driven a lesser team over the edge, but our crew stuck together and kept on pumping out energy for Tanka Bar. I remember the sun shining so bright and warm, but the wind being so cool and crisp. It was like being bathed in light and chilled at the same time. It was a beautiful day.

One of the sad things about Gathering of Nations is that we had almost no time to actually enjoy the pow wow, see the dancers, listen to the drums or even visit with friends we haven't seen in a long time. I listened to two songs the entire pow wow. We kept on our feet and did our best to keep moving. All our friends who helped us are the ones who deserve the credit for making us a big hit down there.

I remember the day being a long one and we didn't call it quits till long after sundown. Some of our team went out to hit up more of the nightlife and, from what I hear, Tanka Bar had its name all over town. In a good way, that's what they tell me at least. Haha. After a good cigar and a long swim in the pool, I was comatose till sunrise.

Day 3

During the final day of Gathering, we knew the pressure was on and we felt like we were not selling enough. Ideally, we wanted everyone who had a booth to sell Tanka Bars and everyone at the pow wow to have one in their hands. If we couldn't do that, we hoped that we could at least get people a Tanka Bar flyer and have our team flash our logo in their eyes once or twice.

The announcer Rubin gave Tanka Bar a shout out in front of the whole pow wow and that made us happy and drove people to the vendors selling the Tanka Bar.

I am just going to come out and say it: You have to see Gathering. There is at least one person from every tribe in America there and I am sure a lot of Canada as well. You can't throw a stone without hitting some really good-looking people. Believe me, I tried and ended up almost clipping some native models. Even the old grandmas put on their best duds to really show off. Seeing this many natives in one place just makes you think where we can take Indian Country together.

Over at Stage 49, we saw some cool acts when we had a minute to stand still. Ethnic Degeneration was rockin’ the Tanka Bar shirt on stage in front of the audience. These guys kick ass! Thank you for supporting us guys!

We met up with so many people that we have only known through MySpace. One of our very first friends and fanatical supporters, SugaMamma, was helping down at the Native Skate Booth. She was helping us promote back before we had anything to sell! We had a chance for the Baker Twins out of Canada to try the Tanka Bar and they loved it! We had models help us promote from Runway Beauties, Native Model Studio, and Native Talent Network. There was one trio of gorgeous natives that stick out in my mind. I don't know if they were from a native model outfit or were freelance. I can't remember their Dine' names, but I know one of the sisters by her MySpace tag, Sunshine. She and her friends graced our camera with their faces. It was kind of funny seeing them all share one Tanka Bar.

“Yes, three native models can survive for days just with one Tanka Bar!”
"When I need to stay runway fit and have energy on the go, I eat a Tanka Bar!”

We teased the girls a bit, but they were good sports about it. Shout out to you, Sunshine, Dee and the rest of your bear crew. Thank you for supporting us!

Quese and Happy Frejo were giving us much publicity every time we touched base. These two have a lot of talent and a big heart for the people. Check out our GON photo album to see their mugshots.
Bunky Echo-Hawk got tagged to paint up a car for Keith Secola's music video and, if you look in the car, there is a big, bright Tanka Bar shirt.

Toward nightfall, Flyingman's Lemonade Stand let us hand out samples of the Tanka Bar right at their booth. We found out that lemonade washes down a delicious Tanka Bar quite nicely! I have to give a special mention to Natanti, Adoesha, Brandi Jade, Stephani Jerome and all their crews for handing out flyers and directing folks toward their samples. Our energy was on coasting mode toward the end there, but these women kept people coming to the booth to taste the Tanka Bar.

The taste has always been the biggest sell about the Tanka Bar! Once you taste it for the first time, your eyebrows pop up for a second and the most common thing we hear is, “Wow.”

By the time we wrapped up at the pow wow, the wind was blowing hard and the air was chilly. It was past 10 p.m., but the hardcore pow wow people wouldn't be slowing down till nearly 4 in the morning. Gathering of Nations only comes once a year and you have to make the most of it.

Day 4

After a long and restless night worrying about whether or not we did our jobs well enough, we trucked on over to Rez Dog's booth to settle up with them. Our promotional T-shirts, with loud and bright colors didn't fare too well against the more urban and hip threads that people had a chance to choose from over at their booth. However, the Tanka Bar did sell well and Rez Dog is taking it on the road with them.

We burned some sage in the car to start a new day and headed over to the All Nations Skate Jam. This was a really cool event. I ate mutton soup with extra salt and threw in a Tanka Bar for flavor. The skate park was just packed with skaters, zipping by without any concern, and you could till these kids were totally in their element. If you nearly got crashed into that was your fault for being in their way.

The event was sponsored by Vans, Wounded Knee SkateBoards, Native Skates and Nakota Designs and was a huge success. They got exactly the right group of people to show up, and the people sponsoring the event couldn't have been more supportive. Steve Van Dorn, the founder of Vans, spent hours in the hot sun making waffles for everyone. Who does that? I had a chance for him and old-school skater Tony Alba of Dogtown fame autograph a Tanka Bar sign for us. We're holding onto that one. Just as they were signing, the batteries for my camera died! Never use cheap batteries and always have extra in your bag. Lesson learned.

We did a whirlwind tour of the skate park handing out flyers and samples of the Tanka Bar. I remember one young skater ate a Tanka Bar and said, “Oh man, that's sick!” Haha. From the smile on his face, I take it he liked it. This was billed as the Native Skate Jam but you got a chance to see kids from every background out there, doing tricks and it didn't matter the color of your skin. And for a lot of them, it didn't even matter how much skill you had. Just that you wanted to be there and loved what you were doing.

On the promotional end of things, we made a big splash at the Skate Jam. It was a more intimate setting than Gathering of Nations and you had enough room to breathe and feel the sun on your skin. There was a cool fashion show with many beautiful native models and Jackie Bird was narrating and giving commenting on the clothes. Our friend, Adoesha, made a dress out of a Tanka Bar shirt and showed it off as fashionable attire. The fashion show was a cool and slightly odd addition to the skate jam.

I had a chance to give Keith Secola a Tanka Bar and to thank him for introducing me to the writings of Italian poet Rumi when I was a teenager. This man is still riding in his Indian Car and keeping it real.