Cultural Event: University of Denver Spring Powwow

  On Saturday, May 21, 2011 the Native Student Alliance at the University of Denver held their spring powwow "New beginnings." The event was held outdoors on Driscoll green and was a smashing success. Our original intention was to have Grand entry be at noon and then have things wrap up at around dusk. However, the Law School had their graduation on the same day and wanted to use Driscoll green at the same time as us. Despite the fact NSA had booked the area months in advance we allowed them to use the area until one when we rescheduled Grand Entry.  

As part of NSA I had to be there at around 10 to help start getting things set up. It was already turning out to be a warm and sunny day and I could feel the energy in the air. By the time I got there there were already several vendors setting up their tents and tables. I started helping some of the more elderly vendors move their stuff from their cars to the grass and also moving tables and chairs for the vendors to use. It started getting busier and busier as more and more people showed up and the vendor I was most excited to see was Tocabe. Tocabe is an American Indian eatery and is one of the only places I have found in the Denver to get decent frybread. As a volunteer I got a free voucher for Tocabe and I would say I definitely put it to good use.

There were about seven drum groups and twenty-five vendors that showed up in total, which I think is a really good amount. Unfortunately there were not too many dancers as the Denver Indian Center was having another powwow on the same day (yet again we had scheduled and publicized ours months in advance). However, the dancers that did show up looked wonderful and it made me proud that we were sharing our Native heritage with the DU community. I am always disappointed with the lack of the DU community's participation during cultural heritage events, but a decent amount of people outside of the Native community showed up. NSA received a lot of positive feedback from the event which makes me excited to work on possible events like this in the future!