The pow-wow is the most widespread venue for traditional Indigenous music and dance in North America. The author focuses on the Northern pow-wow of the northern Great Plains and Great Lakes to investigate the underlying frameworks that reinforce personal community and nation affiliations. Interviews with dancers and her own participation in pow-wow events provide detail to a rare ethnomusicological analysis of Northern music and dance.

1. All about theory, method, and pow-wows -- 2. People and histories -- 3. Dance styles and regalia -- 4. Making and singing songs -- 5. Pow-wows in space and time -- 6. The dancing of six generations : I have grown up liking the Lakota ways -- 7. The musical life of an Anishnaabeg family : together we dance -- Afterword : when the pow-wow's over, sweetheart ...