This authentic Badlands powwow throws open the welcome doors

The swirl of color is mesmerizing as athletic dancers compete in the Man's Fancy Dance contest.

The Twin Buttes Powwow is tucked in the hills leading to the old Missouri River Valley. It’s a great place for the Twin Buttes Powwow construction, and for the powwow itself.

Before improvements, in 2006, the powwow grounds sat in the bottom of a valley leading to Lake Sakakawea.

It’s one of my favorite powwows because it is authentic.

Not a chamber of commerce event.

It is not a tourism department event.

It’s a celebration of families, clans, ancestry of the Mandan people.

They’d love for you to join in the celebration.

The Twin Buttes segment, or South Segment of the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation is a very rural area in Dunn County.

Cows graze in a vista of green summer grasslands in Dunn County, North Dakota.

Rolling hillsides create good pasture for cattle, and occasionally flat land area will be turned to small grains. But it’s mostly livestock. And that’s what makes it pretty.

As the grasses mature and change color, the landscape melts into variegated greens and browns and reds. And on the edge of that vista is the powwow grounds, surrounded by the colors of the prairie.

Changes coming

The Twin Buttes powwow complex is growing. So if you see it now, it will look expanded next year.

Business Council Rep Cody Spotted Bear says there’s lot to come in the Twin Buttes fairgrounds project:

an indoor rodeo arena,
outdoor rode arena,
Indian relay race horse track,
powwow arbor,
RV parking,
campground shower building.

Goal: increase events to drive the economy and local opportunities.

Lake Sakakwea sits next to the powwow grounds

The swirl of color hypnotizes as athletic dancers compete in the Man’s Fancy Dance contest.

The powwow is where it centers, and that’s one reason we like to attend.

During the right time of day, the photo opps capture impressive authentic sites.

Check the calendar and make plans to catch an authentic powwow.

I think you’ll be impressed by the authenticity, the powwow and the upcoming Twin Buttes Powwow construction.

Mike Kopp

Love to tell stories -- romantic, nostalgic stories of our explorations in the Northern Plains. 15 years a television reporter/anchor, 12 years radio news director, 3 years newspaper editor, 6 years documentary producer -- a lifetime of communication.