When Skyhapinko was a kid, he, his mom, his grandma, and his two brothers would pile into

a car and set off.

I feel like I grew up in a car, you know, driving from power to power, or even just like

my grandma would always love to just travel around.

Back when he was young, Skyhapinko was a power out dancer, and his family would spend weekends

driving around the west coast, headed to powwows.

There they could connect with friends, family, other members of the Native American community,

they'd dance and sing and tell stories, and there were certain spots, certain powwows

and campsites.

They'd return to over and over again.

I have a lot of memories of, I don't know, just like making a little fort in the back

of the conversion van for like the bed put down, you know, and just like that was my

little area, and looking at the back window, watching the cars behind us.

Listening to, because like my mom would also like record powwows music, like with the

tape recorder, go record drums, perform in songs to learn them, and so they would

not listen to a lot of these recordings, just as a sort of studying the songs, you know.

The powwows itself, I can remember dancing in dances and watching that, but it's always

those moments that are sort of on the outskirts of the spectacle that stand out, I think very

often too, just the memories of getting up in the morning and kind of running around

as a kid, but my grandma would have coffee made and have an extra chair set out so people

could come by and visit, and just people visiting and talking and laughing, you know, and telling

stories and sitting around and listening to those stories.

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