by Lauren Kirschman, UW News
Jessica Bissett Perea (Dena’ina) had never heard powwow singing before attending an Indigenous music conference in Toronto in 2008.
She was born north of Anchorage, Alaska, where powwows just started appearing in the last 25 years. At the conference, she was drawn to the singing voice of John-Carlos Perea(Mescalero Apache, Irish, Chicano, German). The pair discovered they had a lot in common, eventually marrying in 2009.
“It’s a beautiful thing, how I’ve learned about powwows through participating with John-Carlos over the years,” Bissett Perea said. “We have invitational dance forms in Alaska. But as more of a newcomer who doesn’t know all the things about powwows, it’s been good for me to be able to ask questions to John-Carlos.”
The pair recently joined the faculty at the University of Washington: Bissett Perea is an associate professor of American Indian Studies and an adjunct associate professor of music history and Comparative History of Ideas; Perea is associate professor and interim head of ethnomusicology, adjunct associate professor of American Indian Studies and Comparative History of Ideas. This quarter, they are co-teaching a new iteration of “Powwow Cultures in Native North America.”