For the first time since 2020, John Carroll is able to host the Morning Star Pow Wow, which is scheduled for January 14, 2023.

The Morning Star Pow Wow is a gathering of Cheyenne Native Americans, drum groups, dancers, craftsmen that culminates in a traditional Pow Wow meal.

Mr. Gary Scholl, a longtime member of the John Carroll community, is the leading force behind the Pow Wow at John Carroll.

Mr. Scholl has been connected to the Cheyenne community in Montana for over 50 years and has helped John Carroll host this Pow Wow for over 20 years. This coming January will be the 21st annual event.

“It is a way to expand our diversity efforts, to engage our students and our families with a different culture and a different community,” said Mr. Scholl.

People come to the Pow Wow every year to celebrate Native American traditions, renew friendships, and make connections with a variety of people. Vendors and craftsmen sell a variety of Native American crafted jewelry and trinkets.

The Morning Star Pow Wow is incredibly important to both the John Carroll community and the mid-Atlantic Native American community who attends it. Aside from being a community event, the Pow Wow is a benefit event for St. Labre Indian School, which serves northern Cheyenne and Cros children out in Montana.

The Pow Wow has been hosted for the last two years it was held by Wilhelm Bullcoming, a respected Cheyenne chief and member of the Dog Soldiers Society.

Mr. Scholl remarked that he is also “hoping to have Roger Davis attend the event.” Davis is a traditional Cheyenne singer who is well-known in western Oklahoma. His grandfather, Moses Starr, was a Cheyenne crier, and Davis learned much about singing from him.

Mr. Scholl said, “I try and run this Pow Wow in an authentic way. I’m not native. My connection is over 50 years of being part of this community of Cheyenne people in Oklahoma. I try to keep that connection going and this is one way to do that.”

The Morning Star Pow Wow holds a special significance to Mr. Scholl and the John Carroll community, as well as the Cheyenne people. It is important to our school and our Catholic identity that we do what we can to bring support, healing, and reconciliation to a group that’s been persecuted by others in the past.

Mr. Scholl’s final message to the John Carroll community is: “For the students, I would say, they really need to take advantage of this opportunity to have exposure to a different way of life, a different culture. There is such richness in the music and in the dance, in the spirituality, in the family, in the community, in the ways of the Indian people. There’s so much to learn.”