A celebration of tribal pride

The dancers, the drums, the food and the people—the annual Naimuma Powwow has all the ingredients for a good time.

It will open at the Stott Center with the first grand entry May 5 at 1 p.m., followed by the second at 7 p.m. The third grand entry will take place May 6 at 1 p.m.

The powwow was planned by the United Indian Students for Higher Education, a student organization which helps indigenous students maintain their cultural values while pursuing their education.

“What’s unique about the native community is that we are one of the largest urban communities, and PSU is right in the middle of it, so that connection is part of our traditions, not separate,” said co-coordinator Shulamit Christine Urenia, a part-Apache Indigenous Nations Studies graduate student.

The powwow will be divided into two sections, one on Saturday and one on Sunday. People will march in with flags, including an eagle staff, the U.S. flag, possibly the Oregon state flag and various tribal flags.

They will be followed by dancers, moving to the sound of drums and performing traditional dancing, chicken dancing, Aztec dancing, Pacific Island dancing and other styles, said Indigenous Nations Studies Center specialist Rachel Cushman. Some families privately fund dances because their culture considers it a great honor.

“Depending on the dance, the song varies, but there are these dances called inter-tribal, where they have all of the dancers, whether in their regalia or not,” she said. “So the community can come out and dance, too.”

For attendees of the event, take note that indigenous nations consider the drums and the regalia of the dancers sacred. Attendees of the powwow should carefully avoid touching them.

Vendors will sell traditional Seminole food, including fry bread and stew. UISHE will serve a free dinner at the Stott Center Saturday at 5 p.m.

“Part of our traditional protocol is to always feed your guests,” Urenia said. “You never let them leave without eating when you arrange a powwow or gathering or ceremony.”

The powwow serves a community-building function, bringing together people of many different backgrounds and ethnicities from across the Northwest in celebration.

“Everybody is welcome to dance. No matter what tribe or ethnic background, everyone can enter the circle,” Urenia said. “We will have exhibition dancers dancing, but we consider it a time when we share our culture, not just put it on display.”

The powwow will include a board dancing event Sunday to honor veterans and sick people. It will also include a song to honor PSU alumni.

For arts and crafts enthusiasts, small projects, such as shirt design, can be entered into contests for prizes and gift certificates. Last year, 28 entrants won prizes from these contests. They help fund the powwow, which will also feature a drum contest where the last drummer to quit drumming wins.

Of more than 500 extant indigenous nations, only a handful will be present at the powwow. Many of them bear no resemblance to the Hollywood portrayal of indigenous nations.

The Naimuma Powwow began in the 1970s thanks to a group of indigenous PSU students. This group included Tom Ball, the current assistant director of the Graduate School of Education at the University of Oregon.

Most universities have powwows, said Cushman, because they serve as great recruitment tools for bringing indigenous students into post-secondary education.

“It’s an opportunity for people to see a university setting,” Cushman said. “It’s also an opportunity for a student’s family to come visit them, since we have a lot of students who come from far away, so they can participate in a community that’s warm and welcoming.”

Cushman, a Portland native, has attended the powwow every year since high school. She enrolled at the University of Oregon but traveled to PSU every year to attend the powwow.

In the past, attendees of the powwow were offered tours of the PSU campus, though Cushman doesn’t know whether they will this year.

UISHE does not require its members to enroll in the Indigenous Nations Studies program, and the faculty of that program do not directly involve themselves in planning the powwow.

The Native American Studies program recently changed its name to the Indigenous Nations Studies program to broaden its scope to include first nations in Canada, Pacific Islanders, native Mexicans and others.

The tradition of the powwow began in the Great Plains and spread across the continent.

“We have all these traditions and cultures and songs because we are allowed to have them—our ancestors helped make that possible for us,” Urenia said. “And that’s part of our higher education, I think, for the native community.”