Kilted at the Gathering of Nations

[Riverkilt]

Just back from The Gathering of Nations in Albuquerque, New Mexico USA. Its the nation's largest Pow Wow - or so the organizers claim. There were thousands and thousands of people there. My lady and my first time there. We had lots of fun. The dancer's costumes were incredible.

I wore my new MacLean Hunting Casual from USA Kilts to drive over and on the drive back. Wore my Cameron Black and Red and my X Marks the Scot kilts from Kathy's Kilts to the Gathering Friday and Saturday respectively. Stayed low key, just wore a t-shirt, sporran, kilt hose/flashes, and tennis shoes. Since the focus was on the Native dancers, just dressed a respectful casual.

We were loading up at my lady's house in Keams Canyon on the Hopi Reservation when a neighbor stopped to chat about my kilt. Turns out he's the mysterious teacher who wears kilts to school. But he said he only wears them occasionaly and he's at the middle school, not the high school. He just lives across the street from her and one house over in the government housing.

Friday morning we stopped at an Albertsons in what turned out to be a funky part of western Albuquerque. A drunk panhandler hollered out at me, "Hey Switzerland!" which has to be the stupidest comment I've had to date when kilted. No points for him since he was drunk though.

At the gathering got the expected questions....do I play the bagpipes? Did you play today? What clan? What tartan? May I take your picture? The children seemed to be more interested....only boy about seven kept pulling his father's sleeve shouting, "Look dad look!" in a positive way.

One lady stopped me and said she was born and raised in Scotland for 32 years before moving to the U.S. She thanked me for wearing a kilt. A young vendor said she'd lived in Aberdeen Scotland for a year and was happy to see a kilt.

One lady said her 15 year old grandson loved to play the bagpipes and his parents had bought him a set and a kilt was next on his list. Gave her some company names.

Met a group from the High Desert Pipe and Drum in Albuquerque, they had their t-shirts on, but not their kilts. Of course they knew Kathy Lare since she made all their kilts for the band.

Another guy literally grabbed me and dragged me about 15 feet to his wife all the time shouting for her to look. Turns out he's a student at the University of New Mexico, wears kilts a lot, says there are three others on campus he knows that wear kilts. He was going to wear his kilt to the Gathering but his wife said no. After showing me to her he told her he was going to go home and change into a kilt and come back.

The wildest experience came as we were leaving Saturday afternoon. The only other kilted guy there just came through the gate. He locked on to me of course. Think I impressed him by guessing he was wearing a MacLeod Hunting tartan kilt. Didn't get a read on the kiltmaker, but he knew Kathy Lare. Don't know if he was a little "off" or if he was in some sort of special attire. He had a LOT of pheasant feathers sticking out of his hair at odd angles, some up, some down...and more attached to his body...as if to make a camo look out of pheasant feathers. And, he had a dirk slung on his left waist. Couldn't imagine how security let that past unless the feather's hid it....and he did enter by a back gate where security was pretty easy going. So, no clue if he was some kinda loose cannon or an authentic pheasant feather camo'd Scotsman.

It was all positive. The energy of the Gathering is very positive.

Interestingly, all the comments I had about my kilt were from either Anglos or Hispanics. Native peoples made no comment, positive or negative. Just accepted.

Ron

[Moosehead]

Always wanted to hit the Gathering. I'm a traditional dancer myself. Glad your experiences were all good. If I showed up kilted at a POW Wow down this way, nobody would know how to react. And if they did say something, it wouldn't be nice.

[Riverkilt]

Tell you what, some of the fast dancing (shawl dance?) the ladies were doing had footwork that would rival any Irish dancing or Scottish sword dancing. Them ladies were both light and fast on their feet...they really pranced!

Ron

[Moosehead]

Yep, shawl dancers can be impressive. Same goes with guy's grass dance. Up this way, there is no such thing as a competition pow wow. Closest is in Kahnawake, in Quebec. So, we just don't get the numbers like the Gathering does, or Schemitzun in Connecticut. Me, I'm too old for that foolishness! My knees would kill me for days. I, more or less, stopped dancing at pow wows some years ago. I'm a Sundancer, and once thats over, my body just has nothing more to give for months.

I wanted to finish off my new website today, but some of the boys showed up while I was burning the lawn, asking for a sweat. Yardwork and sweats don't mix! The cramps in my legs right now is bad.