It’d be quite the understatement to describe Native American culture as “fascinating”. Their culture is as captivating as it is beautiful, and no single word can do it justice. One aspect of their culture that is still kept alive today is their celebrations, known as Powwow.

This Powwow was held in Oklahoma. The local Iowa tribe, who organized the event, invited veteran U.S marines to join the celebration. The tribe states that this particular Powwow was held in celebration of all forms of veterans, from ones who are retired or fallen to ones that are still here.

While everyone may know of the U.S state of Iowa, it isn’t exactly common knowledge that it takes its name from the Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma.

The Iowa tribe also calls themselves the Baxoje people (note: pronounced “Bakoje”), and they are historically indigenous to the Great Lakes area and are part of the Winnebago Nation.

Uploaded roughly 6 years ago, this father and son dance at a 2014 Powwow is currently sitting at over 2.6 million views on YouTube. It isn’t hard to see why once you understand the context. The 2-day long Oklahoma Powwow, held from June 20th to 22nd 2014, is the 29th annual celebration of its kind.

Present at the celebration was Lance Corporal Marland Trey Kent, a veteran U.S Marine who happens to also have Native American heritage, making him a perfect guest to have invited to the celebration.

Also present was Corporal Vincent Kent, his father and a veteran marine himself. He also happens to be the one dancing and wearing the Native American headpiece (a war bonnet) in the video.

The video shows him and his son performing a traditional native dance at the celebration, where his son keeps his uniform on.

Corporal Vincent Kent and his son are actually both experienced dancers! Which explains the basically nonexistent hesitation in their dancing. They’ve done this hundreds of times before, nothing to worry about. Look at them go!

The senior Corporal Kent even shared that the two of them are experienced straight dancers from the Ponca War Dance society. That’s why neither of them needed any practice for this little performance.

“The only thing that needs to be known is that is a father and son next to each other, not just a random guy. Both active duty at the time it was shot. Corporal Vincent Kent (combat veteran) with Lance Corporal Marland Trey Kent. This is also a changing of the guard, Native American style. That is the story we are telling in our dancing we crossed paths just once with myself in front and with son behind me, and then I turned to let him lead the rest of the way).”

One interesting statistic is that, while they make up for 1.4% of the U.S population, Native Americans also make up 1.7% of all people serving in the armed forces. In other words, there are proportionally more Native American people serving the country than in the civilian population! Some have chalked this up to their culture’s historical admiration of their warriors.

The father and son pair represent both the legacy of historical Indigenous tribes in the U.S. and also their family’s great contribution to serving their country. Those two things are definitely worth all the celebration if you ask us.

Give their performance some love and appreciation by watching the video below for yourself!

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Source: [Hugh Foley : YouTube]