Gathering of Nations Pow Wow draws people and criticism

Gathering of Nations billboard on Interstate 40 heading into Albuquerque.

The Gathering of Nations Pow Wow, being held this weekend at the University of New Mexico, is advertised as the largest such event in the nation, attracting members of more than 500 tribes from across the country who dance, make music and reconnect.

One of the city’s largest tourism events, the pow wow brings tens of millions of dollars into the local economy each year. The public is invited to take it all in and, while they’re at it, purchase a few Indian arts and crafts.

But over the decades, consistent criticism has bubbled up related to the sole ownership of Gathering of Nations by one man – Derek Mathews — and his family, resulting in a tug-of-war of accusations and recriminations that happens largely out of public view.

This year is no different. Critics again are charging that Mathews is a non-native person who continually exerts control over all aspects of the pow wow, in order to enhance the profits he makes from the event.

“If they were to open up [their organization], and said they were going to let Native Americans take care of this event, be transparent, start distributing some of this wealth to tribal nations, to truly be about ‘if you take, then you give, then I think I’d have a different feeling about it,’ said Litefoot, a Native American hip-hop artist and activist who participated in the Pow Wow for many years.

Litefoot kicked off the latest round of scrutiny surrounding the Mathews family in 2007 by announcing his withdrawal from the Pow Wow and starting a petition asking people to boycott the gathering. Since then, online debates have kept the issue  percolating underneath the high profile media and publicity the event receives.

Mathews declined this week to be interviewed for this article, making only a few comments. But in the past he has responded to his critics. His publicist, meanwhile, told the Independent this week that his critics were just jealous of the event’s success.

A little background

Mathews and his critics have a long history.

In 1990, only a few years after the first Gathering of Nations, American Indian activists were accusing Mathews of being a non-native who was exploiting Indian culture by charging an entrance fee for a pow wow. (The events are traditionally free.) Mathews responded then by saying he was one-quarter Cherokee, and didn’t gain any personal profit from the event.

Mathews told The Independent this week in response to similar criticisms now that his wife and daughter are enrolled members of New Mexico’s Santa Clara Pueblo.

In 2001 Tom Bee, the founder of seminal ’70s band XIT, won a Grammy Award for drumming recorded at the gathering. But Mathews then barred Bee from recording at future events because he felt Bee didn’t accept the award with proper deference to Mathews and the artists involved. Mathews then started his own recording company, according to published reports at the time.

Mathews’ critics point to these situations as evidence that Mathews is controlling the event to maximize profits.

Mathews family controls the board that runs the event

The Gathering of Nations organization is a private non-profit enterprise, registered with the federal government. An annual public report required by the federal government shows that the nonprofit’s board of directors consists of the three members of the Mathews family, who founded the event in the 1980s — evidence, critics say, of how the Mathews family retains control of the event.

In contrast, the Denver March Pow Wow—also a large metropolitan pow wow not under the auspices of one particular tribe—has a board of directors composed of members of several different tribes.

A publicist for Mathews told The Independent in an e-mail that “the Board is limited to the Mathews family as they want the competitions to be fair and neutral from all tribal influence.”

Another sore point for critics is the cost of attending the event, which they say overly commercializes the pow wow.

For instance, it costs $19 for a one-day pass, with returning dancers and musicians given a discount. Vendors are charged a fee, and are barred from selling t-shirts. Zia Graphics has an exclusive contract to sell t-shirts inside the venue, with the Gathering of Nations organization getting 20 percent of the proceeds.

The publicist also said the Mathews family gives back to the Native American community, including scholarships for Native students. A request for names of scholarship recipients went unanswered.

Litefoot’s Story

Litefoot, the Hiphop artist, told The Independent he began going to the gathering each year beginning in 1994, as a speaker, in exchange for a booth space from which to sell his music. He said he saw it as an opportunity to support a native gathering.

Then, in 2002 he said Mathews told him that he could no longer be inside the venue. Fire Marshals had declared his booth a fire hazard apparently, due to the throngs of fans always surrounding it.

Mathews took Litefoot outside behind the Traders Market tent, and told him he could create whatever he wanted in that space, Litefoot said.“There were a bunch of trash cans, dumpsters, excess overflow staff parking back there,” Litefoot said, “He said, ‘we’ll call it the Litefoot encampment,’ almost as though it was a concession.”

Litefoot decided to take it in stride, and make “lemonade out of lemons,” he said, because he saw his participation in the gathering as supportive of a native event.

Over the next four years, the stage Litefoot organized outside blossomed, turning into a major draw. The stage was used to raise funds for his nonprofit outreach campaign, ‘Reach the Rez.’ Eventually, it was a full-blown production, with ‘Reach the Rez’ sponsored buses surrounding the outdoor site, Litefoot said.

Those sponsorships became a problem though. The Mathews family sent him several emails, he said, complaining about the presence of organizations and tribes who were sponsoring the stage but not directly sponsoring their organization.

Plus, as the stage became successful, Mathews asked that the New Mexico Music Commission be allowed to utilize the stage, with the organization eventually controlling the stage for most of the afternoon on each day of the gathering.  Mathews is currently a New Mexico Music Commissioner.

Litefoot could see the writing on the wall, he said.

“It’s not about promoting Native Americans,” he said. “It’s about you can only rise to the point that they lose sponsorship dollars. I had to stay and be a party to it, or leave.”

Litefoot says he feels “hustled and duped” by his experience with the Mathews. And, he said, the Mathews lack of transparency in how it uses the revenue generated by the event opens them to suspicion that they are simply profiting off of the culture of the Native American community.

Litefoot’s account is supported by others involved with the stage. Knifewing Segura, who owns a Native American talent and event production company, said Litefoot was “ousted” by the Mathews after the stage became successful.

Segura said Litefoot approached him to help put up a stage, but didn’t have much by way of resources. Segura saw it as an opportunity. Everyone donated to make it a success, including himself and other artists, he said.

“It was built up to be a very successful area, he has a strong following and artists wanted to be out there,” he said. “We wanted to reach the level where there was enough sponsorship so that performers wouldn’t have to pay. Litefoot put a lot out of his own pocket to do it. Then they ousted him and took over the stage.”

Segura said the Mathews then contacted him to continue providing the stage. But after talking it over with his family and others, he decided it wouldn’t be good business to go back.

Mathews declined to discuss his critics’ accusations with The Independent this week, saying his recent posting on Myspace in which he  defended his operation of the pow wow was all he would be saying on the subject. His publicist said the critics were jealous and envious of the event’s success. In Mathews Myspace missive, he pointed out the economic benefit of the pow wow to many:

No one is exploited and many people benefit from the event. Over 2 million dollars is received by the vendors at the Indian Traders Market. The Gathering is a major employer of Natives and non-Natives for the weekend and a major event that stimulates the economy at a local, state, and national level.

In 2009, the Gathering of Nations organization reported to the Hispano Chamber of Commerce that 100,000 people attended the event. The Chamber conducted a survey of attendees as they entered the event, and found that 55,000 were from out of state.

Further calculations showed that almost 70,000 hotel rooms were purchased by attendees over a nine-day period, Minerve Jurado, convention and tourism representative for the Hispano Chamber told The Independent. The estimated economic impact of the event to the city is $35 million.