Bermuda gombeys are becoming a significant part of a cultural reconnection between Bermudians of Native American ancestry and Native American communities in the United States.

When 33 members of the Warwick Gombeys, led by Irwin Trott, took part in the Mashpee Wampanoag Powwow in Mashpee, Cape Cod, Massachusetts this summer it was an emotional moment for both communities.

"When we are up there, everywhere you go you hear 'welcome back cousin, we are glad to see you'," said Mr. Trott.

That would be perfectly ordinary, if these particular cousins hadn't lost touch about 350 years ago.

Many Bermudians have Native American heritage that stretches back to the 17th century. After various wars in the 1600s between New England Puritans and Native Americans, the surviving Native Americans, mainly women and children, were enslaved and sent away from the colony, to places like Bermuda, to avoid further uprisings.

Significant wars included the Pequot Wars (1636 - 1637) and King Philip's War (1675 - 1676). King Philip's War involved Native Americans from all over New England, including the Wampanoag. Other Indians in the area include Mashantucket Pequot, Narragansett, Mashpee, Northeastern Cherokee, and others.

For centuries the families of those sent to Bermuda were cut off from their relatives in the United States. But their memory remained through oral history and traditions such as cooking special meals outside on an open fire.

The biannual Native Bermuda powwow held at the St. David's Cricket Club grounds has become a vehicle for this reunification with people from tribes and nations in the United States flying down for the powwow to dance and connect with their Bermuda cousins.

"When they visited Bermuda and first saw the gombey regalia, heard the music and saw the dancing, the Mashantucket Pequot tribal chairman, Michael J. Thomas, said 'wow, I see so many resemblances to our culture'," said Mr. Trott. "He wanted to know more about it. He said we have to get these guys up to us."

So the gombeys visited a powwow in New England for the first time in 2002, with the Mr. Thomas' group financially assisting with the visit. Since then Bermudians have taken part in the powwows of several different groups. This summer a group of Bermudians and the Warwick Gombeys visited the Mashpee powwow for the second time.

Ronnie Chameau, well-known Bermudian doll maker and St. David's community organiser, took her 91-year-old mother, Nina Smith to a Pequot powwow in 2003.

"Five generations of our family went," she said. "My mother looked so Indian. She had long braids and never cut her hair."

Mrs. Chameau said to a lady there, 'Am I really Pequot?'.

"She said 'you don't ask a thing like that'," said Mrs. Chameau. "'It is your feeling on the inside'. She said 'if you only knew how we feel. We have found you! We have found our cousins!' She said 'you are a part of us. Forget all this new technology [DNA testing]. You are a part of us'. It was a similar story from the Wampanoag. They have embraced us."

Mrs. Chameau said the Mashpee powwow is very traditional, whereas other powwows can be quite "glitzy".

"The fire is lit for three days, and you dance around the fire," said Mrs. Chameau. "Starting off they have the grand entry. Everyone comes in with flags. The elders are first. This is in Mashpee, Cape Cod."

She said normally about six or seven St. David's Islanders attend the Mashpee powwow. She stays with the chief's daughter, Marlene 'Woman of Wisdom' Lopez. St. Clair 'Brinky' Tucker, a leader in the St. David's Island Native American community, stays with the chief, Vernon 'Bunny' 'Silent Drum' Lopez.

Mrs. Chameau hopes to one day get a special Indian name, usually bestowed on people by a medicine man.

"You have to get up really early in the morning," said Mrs. Chameau. "We went to the graveyard last time I was up there waiting for my name and the guy didn't show up. It was raining. I think the medicine man was sick that day. He had been in the hospital.

"Usually the medicine man calls you over and then talks with you for 15 or 20 minutes, and then gives you a name that fits your story. Maybe my name will be 'Doll Maker'."

This year, Mr. Trott took his son, Trae, 15, who has been gombey dancing since he was two years old.

"He really loves going to the powwows," said Mr. Trott. "In this day in age of technology, who wants to know about your great-great-grandfather? I am surprised he is interested at his age. He recently came home and said he wanted to try DNA testing to find out more about our past."

Mr. Trott said he hasn't done a lot of family history himself, and his family only stumbled on the knowledge that they had St. David's heritage.

When we were young, my father, Ivan, used to take us to cricket games. We were from Bailey's Bay. When we went to one cricket game in St. David's my father learned from a relative that he had property in St. David's."

It had come down to him through his grandmother, HeddyAnn Burchall.

"Her father left her and two sisters a plot of land on Smith's Hill," said Mr. Trott. "It had been subdivided into three. The other siblings of the family couldn't sell their lot until my father dealt with his. That is when we started digging up who we were and the family."

Mr. Trott started out dancing at the age of six for the Pickle Spence Carnival Gombeys.

"They were trendsetters in terms of changing the appearance of the traditional gombey look," said Mr. Trott. "Before they had the mask and traditional stuff. The dancers in the Pickle Spence Carnival troupe didn't wear masks. There was no gender status. Before that, only men danced. The hats were decorated with peacock feathers. He was pushing the traditional use of gombey regalia.

"Now I am pushing it. We make sure our colours are very bright. We try not to use too many earth tone colours. Our masks and headdress are connected to give us more space to be creative."

Mothers of children in the Warwick Gombeys are responsible for making the dancers' costumes.

"We feel that if you are actually making it for your own child you take more pride in it," he said.

And the costumes now include Native American symbols such as the eagle.