'God allowed us to be here'

After a long period of silence, the sound of drums and song filled the air when the Circle of the Bluffs Powwow returned to the foot of Scotts Bluff National Monument on Saturday. The powwow, held at Legacy of the Plains Museum, was the first of its kind to celebrate Native American culture in the area since 2017. Event emcee Kelly Looking Horse, of Pine Ridge, South Dakota, welcomed the crowd back after their many years apart, which were lengthened by the outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020.

"We are here because God allowed us to be here," Looking Horse said. "We went through a pandemic. We went through a hard time.

" Looking Horse shared a personal story about the difficulty his own family faced during the COVID-19 pandemic, involving the challenge of burying a close family member who died overseas after contracting the virus. "He died on April 23, and we weren't able to put his body into the earth until June 4," he said. "He's a farmer, and he lived in Hemingford, Nebraska, with my parents.

They picked potatoes there ...

That's just one example. COVID has taken a lot of people from us." Despite the hardships of the pandemic, Looking Horse said that his family and community continue to thrive and live hopeful lives by the grace of God.

"We as American Indians have been through a lot, but we keep thriving because God is the reason why we're here," he said. "He's the one that made us and blessed us. We have no choice but to man up and hold our heads up and carry on the best that we k.