This story is excerpted from an interview conducted in Bennettsville in October 2026

Karen: Friendship dance. Friendship dance is is to welcome all our friends, whether you’re native or not native, to welcome all our friends and become everybody is one family, and that’s what we believe. We believe we believe that all of us we’re all related in some way, and we believe that everybody is our family. Thank you so much for running that down. 

Savannah Turgal: Yeah, I appreciate that so much. Thank you. 

Karen: So we, but we have different dances now. We have, as as powwows go, there there’s competition dances, fancy dance, men’s fancy dance women’s and that’s the regalia in there is fancy dance women and fancy dance men traditional and tradition and there’s prize monies for that but it’s all of it is more spiritual than you started off as as spiritual that’s what we we would do to celebrate and offer thanks and guidance and those kind of things.