By If you’ve been going to school here, you’ve probably heard about the Puvungna sacred site, Cal State Long Beach’s ties to the Native American community, and you may have even happened to hear about the university’s annual pow wow event that takes place every spring.
This Saturday and Sunday, students will have the opportunity to experience all the hearsay and find out what’s really going on at the 38th Annual CSULB Pow Wow, which takes place Upper Campus. CSULB’s annual pow wow is the first university pow wow of the season and the largest spring event of its kind.
If you do show up to Upper Campus, on what pow wow coordinators hope is a bright, warm weekend for the festivities, this event is difficult to miss.
Whether you want to or not, you will hear the massive drum beats, chatter of hundreds of visitors representing various native tribes, and you will literally smell the fry bread, corn soup and Navajo tacos.
More politically minded students with an interest in Native American issues may find refuge in a related event on Friday night in the cool, dark surroundings of the University Theater. The Los Angeles premiere of the award-winning documentary “Our Land, Our Life: The Struggle for Western Shoshone Land Rights” will be screened for free at 8 p.m.
Directed by George and Beth Gage, the film documents two Western Shoshone elders’ 30-year struggle to protect their ancestral homeland and traditional ways of life. The story is an intriguing saga that made its way all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court and eventually the United Nations.
The pow wow begins at 11 a.m. the day after the film screening and continues until 10 p.m. Saturday. It will continue from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday.
The center of the pow wow festivities are the tribal dances, which include gourd dancing and competitive inter-tribal dance contests. This year the head staff for the event (which is comprised of paid professionals, some of whom are nationally known within the Native American community) includes Lewis Perkins and Cindy Dawson as the lead man and lady dancers.
Together, with the both nationally known artists Head Southern Singer John Begay and Host Northern Drum Bearspring, the dancers and musicians will work closely together in colorful detailed regalia to convey the true spirit of Native American culture.
American Indian vendors will also sell traditional and contemporary art from jewelry to original handmade crafts and trinkets, as well as a wide array of traditional delicacies.
The pow wow is presented by CSULB’s American Indian Studies Department, the American Indian Student Council, the Native American Alumni and Friends Chapter, Student Services, 49er Shops, Student Life & Development and Associated Students, Inc.
The film screening is co-sponsored by the CSULB American Indian Studies Department and Film and Electronic Arts Department, with the sole media sponsor, KPFK.
For more information on the event, visit, the official website or call (562) 985-8528.
For a trailer of the documentary, visit YouTube.
