Providing disability accommodations for powwow participants isn’t very common on the powwow circuit, but one man has made it his mission to bring the practice to dances across North America.

“ I saw the need to fulfill something that is genuine to my heart,” said Puyallup Tribe member Shawn Reynolds. “And that is offering time on the floor for individuals with special needs, autism, Down syndrome, and any other special needs, as well as disabilities.”

In many respects, the Fourth Annual South Sound Powwow in Graham, Wash., was nothing out of the ordinary.

On a late-September afternoon, a procession began a slow march across the Bethel High School gym, with a steady drumbeat and a commanding voice that rang out across the floor. It was led by a beadwork-laden man carrying a staff adorned with eagle feathers. A contingent of veterans wearing cedar-woven hats held national, state, and tribal flags. They were followed by the powwow’s head dancers — a young man in a beaded chest plate and feathered roach, and two young women in jingle dresses strung with conical bells.

But two less conventional figures rounded out this procession, Shawn’s sons Nakotah and Dakotah Reynolds of the Puyallup and Otoe-Missouria Tribes. It’s often required to wear all the appropriate regalia to go out on the powwow floor. But these 11-year-old twin boys wore T-shirts, shorts, beaded headbands, and matching stoles. One boy had a pair of noise-dampening headphones clamped around his ears.

Nakotah and Dakotah have autism. Wearing all the customary regalia — and much of the powwow environment itself — can be overstimulating for them.

“ All the noise, all the drumming, the colors, the bells, the stomping, all of that can be triggering,” Shawn said.

Both boys also hold royalty titles from a powwow in April, entitling them and their family to sponsor a “special”, a dance of their choosing, at a powwow within the next year. And that gave their dad an idea.

“I’ve been doing powwows for a really long time, most of my life,” Shawn said. “One of the things that I don’t see is categories, or specials, for our individuals with disabilities or special needs.”

Shawn set out to change that four months ago. He reached out to South Sound Powwow directors Rachel Barger and Grace Leatham with a pitch — hold a special where dancers of all ages and all abilities could join the dancing, using whatever accommodations they needed.

“ I danced in my school district powwow growing up, and it wasn’t ever something we included,” Leatham said.

Leatham, who is Tsimshian and Blackfeet, is a Bethel High School Native American Education teacher.

“I know we had special needs students in our programs, but I didn’t see them ever participating in our powwow classes or our powwow itself,” Leatham said. “I just felt like it was really important to bring that accessibility in.”

After several hours of dancing, drumming, and singing, Shawn stepped up to the front of the gym to explain his special to the crowd.

“ You can come down with your blankets, your tablets, your headphones,” he said. “You don’t have to be in regalia. You can have your caregivers with you. You can have your parents with you, a support person or persons.”

While some powwows have competitive dance categories and most categories are limited by age or dance style, the same doesn’t have to be true of specials. So, Shawn told participants to dance however they wanted.

“You can do the worm,” he said. “You can do whatever you’ve got to do. I just want to see you come touch the dance floor … I wanted to give you guys a safe space to come down here and participate in your culture.”

Nakotah and Dakotah stepped out to the center of the gym. They were accompanied by their sisters, Cheyenne and Kailee. A drum struck up a beat, slower and smoother than some of the previous songs. Cheyenne, who also has autism, began to twirl and step to the rhythm, the purple ribbons on her shawl swaying and arcing through the air.

“It’s kind of like creating medicine when you spin … It’s like you’re about to dance with ancestors,” Cheyenne said. “ It feels like you’re not the only one just dancing out there who is autistic.”

A crowd filtered down from the bleachers and gathered on the floor, including elders, young adults and kids alike. Some held the arm of a family member as they moved around in a circle. Some, like Nakotah, wore headphones. Many wore bits and pieces of regalia, or street clothes alone.

Among them was Hadlee, a young Sioux Nation descendant, who was born with a heart condition called Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome. Her mother, Aundrea Carmichael, said she was worried when Hadlee was younger that the condition would limit her physical ability. But on the floor that day, Hadlee moved with the circle.

“It was so touching to see her actively participate physically today in this dance culture,” Carmichael said. “ Intuitively, she followed the beat, she moved her feet, and she knew exactly what to do. It was really touching to see. It was really impressive and incredible to be included in.”

Shawn now aims to spread this idea to other powwow organizers and provide spaces for all to participate.

“ My plan is to try and get powwows across the country, both in the U.S. and Canada, to incorporate not only specials, but a full dance category specifically catering to our individuals with special needs and disabilities,” Shawn said.

“ I know I can’t be the first person to do something like this,” he said. “But I don’t want to be the last.”

Owen Henderson is a reporter with KUOW.

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News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2026/10/04/powwow-dancing-isnt-always-accessible-this-puyallup-tribe-dad-wants-to-change-that/