Last weekend, women singers pulled out all the stops during Empero Corral's contest “special.” The 15-year-old powwow princess sponsored the event to mark the end of her reign as Miss Spokane Tribe during her community's 93rd annual Spokane Tribal Powwow.
As the contest came to an end, Gabby Corral Sr. teased the last group to sing in the three-day contest.
Singers were vying for a $1,000 first-place prize and jackets. As her father announced, Empero oversaw a team of judges. This wasn't the first special for Empero, who has been part of powwow royalty for two-thirds of her life.
“I decided to go out with something different,” she said.
Her father said Empero knows “there are a lot of women out there who want to sing. So, she wanted to bring that to her home powwow and welcome the women to come here and sing. They had that choice to either sing at the big drum or backup sing.”
Carla McLean of Browning - one of two backup singers for Chubs and the Crew - said she heard Empero sing in a hand drum contest in Usk, Wash., this summer. “She was the only woman who got in it. She has a beautiful voice.”
Empero knows challenges exist for women singers, especially those who want to sing at a drum instead of behind it.
Her dad offers this advice: “When you go to a powwow, ask the people. When you go to a powwow, ask the committee. Don't be rude and just set your drum up.”
Still, many women have been sitting at the drum and singing most of their lives. “Some say women don't belong at the drum,” said Justine Slim John, a Blackfeet and Chippewa Cree from Browning. “They only stand in back.”
Slim John grew up being accepted at the drum. “I like it. I know how to sing. It's an enjoyment of participating and being part of the powwow.”
She started singing at age 9. She also sang with her father's group, the Two Medicine Lake Singers from the Blackfeet Reservation.
Her father, Floyd Rider, composed all the songs for his drum.
“He made some good songs, people like them, and they are still going,” Slim John said. “Every powwow I go to, I hear one or two come out.”
Slim John entered Empero's singing special with four other women, including her daughter Ramona Crofft, who said she started backup singing at age 21 after being encouraged by her mother-in-law, Louise Scabby Robe. Crofft now thanks her “for actually making me get up there and sing. Otherwise, I'd probably be sitting back in my chair, humming to myself.”
Slim John's niece, Regina McDonald of Olympia, Wash., said backup singing comes naturally with a little practice. “As a singer, you can follow almost any song, especially if it's just vocals or original style.”
Like Slim John, Gladys Jefferson of Crow Agency had also been singing for more than 40 years. She said she learned from her mother, Dorothy Holds The Enemy-Jefferson. Jefferson has since won backup singing contests, including the Denver March Powwow, one of the country's largest dance celebrations.
Slim John asked Jefferson to help provide backup to The Agency drum group. At least eight drum groups signed up for Empero's special. Only three groups would claim a prize.
Now it was time to sing.
Most belted out songs at full throttle.
When Chubs and the Crew finished, Courtney Gopher was one of the first people to rush up to the group, which had spectators whooping and clapping.
“That's my dad, Chubs,” she said after the final contest song. “I was coaching them. I thought they did really, really good.”
The judges did, too.
Chubs and the Crew of the Blackfeet Reservation were awarded first place. The Agency singers pulled in a second. And Andre Picard's Stickgamers, of Fort Hall, Idaho, claimed third.
Even though Chubs and the Crew had been working with new material, they clearly mastered their final and toughest song.
“It was kind of complicated,” said Carla McLean. “We had to practice it a few times. On a scale of 1 to 10, I'd give it a 9.5. It had a lot of highs and we had to drop super low.”
While Gopher and Cayto Rider sang the men's verses, McLean and her sister, Montina, harmonized songs that marked McLean's first public debut.
“Nobody had actually heard me sing before.” She said she overcame nervousness by telling herself: “I've done this before.
“It was finally something for women,” said McLean. “Just because we don't pound a stick, it doesn't mean we can't sing. I really enjoyed myself. It's actually a secret passion of mine. I don't really get a chance to do it.”
Reach Missoulian columnist Jodi Rave at 800-366-7186 or jodi.rave@lee.net
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