Smiling faces held plates of frybread tacos as families ready their children in traditional regalia ahead of their time to dance in the center of the circle. All of this is backgrounded by the sound of drums, shakers and jingle dresses. The Powwow brings together the San Fernando Valley to participate in a centuries-old event.
The American Indian Student Association (AISA) held the 39th Annual CSUN Powwow on Saturday, Nov. 30 at the Sierra Quad, an intertribal celebration that united various tribes and community members to celebrate resilience and culture through intergenerational traditions.
With family tents set around the lawn, the event kicked off with communal songs and Gourd Dancing, a warrior dance where men dance in the form of a circle and women dance on the outer edge. The tradition is native to
Oklahoma and was banned by the U.S. government in the 1800s. By the late 1950s, the dances were brought back by those who remembered them, said Randy Pico before the dance.
The Grand Entrance followed the Gourd Dancing. This dance is an opportunity where tribe members of all ages can participate as a victory song is sung. They wore colorful garments as drums were played. The dance is a way to celebrate togetherness as well as one’s own spirituality.
“My dancing is a prayer. A prayer for myself to celebrate my life and my existence, but also a prayer for the people that come into my mind that are in need or just in support of who they are as individuals, native and non-native,” said Whirlwind Sister, a dancer from the Lipan Apache people. He held a hand-beaded Eagle Staff with a lightning bolt down the side, symbolizing his desire to learn and preserve his culture from the people who came before him.
Vendors lined the quad, selling jewelry sourced directly from tribes and clothing, as well as figurines, shells and bird whistles. One seller sourced buffalo bones and metal beads for jewelry from a tradesman up North. The vendors have traveled throughout the country, selling at Powwows in different states.
One attendee saw CSUN’s Powwow as an opportunity for people to learn about the lives of Native people in the present day.
“I think a lot of people think about Native people like we’re in the past. They think of us in this historical timeline of living in a particular way or that all Natives live in teepees, but in reality, especially here in California, so many Natives lived in very different ways, have very different styles and there’s so many different tribes and languages,” said Esmeralda Xochitl Flores, a CSUN alumna and former American Indian Student Association member who has been attending the event for the last 30 years.
There was food served by Sue’s Frybread and Yellow Horse Frybread & Indian Tacos. Both sold Navajo frybread, a food commonly served at Powwows and has become a dish eaten across tribes.
Younger attendees could play a Zuni corn husk hackysack game or make their own God’s Eye ornament.
As the AISA celebrated the success of Saturday’s Powwow, they began planning to improve the next one.
“I think our American Indian Studies program has thirteen board members and all of us board members kind of came together and we looked at what we’ve done in the previous years and what we can do differently this year– what we keep the same, what we want to change up a little bit and how we can bring new community members in,” said Dayle Bingham, a board member of the American Indian Studies program.
“We start planning for this the day after this Powwow ends because we want to make sure that this is one of the big standalone events here at CSUN,” said Bingham.
