Downtown Detroit will awaken with dances and drum beats to honor Indigenous culture and resilience. For the first time in over 30 years, there will be a powwow downtown.
The event will open at noon with a Grand Entry, a procession of dancers in regalia. Hart Plaza will host drum performances, and the day will continue with contest dances. Visitors may even partake in those dances.
The event is organized by the North American Indian Association of Detroit with American Indian Health and Family Services, South Eastern Michigan Indians, Inc. and the Detroit Indigenous People’s Alliance.
Food and craft vendors from all over Michigan, Ontario, and Ohio will boast frybread tacos, beadwork, and other items for sale. Attendees are encouraged to bring cash to purchase items from vendors, but entry to the powwow is free and open to the public.
“It's just going to be a good time for everybody to come together, not only just the native community, to come together and celebrate this milestone in our community, but also the non native communities as well, to come to be a part of that and just be a bigger community even more,” Travis Schuyler, a NAIA Hart Plaza event organizer, said.
Brian Moore, the executive director of the North American Indian Association of Detroit, attended the last powwow in Detroit over 30 years ago. The day ignited a community at Hart Plaza, Moore said. He is excited to reignite that.
“I clearly remember dancing there and singing there and all of those people that aren't with us anymore their families are still here in the area,” Moore said.
There's a historical significance to the event, Schuyler said. “It's also to pay respects to the original stewards of this land, the Potawatomi people and the Three Fires Confederacy as well, too, who once inhabited this area along with other tribal communities who have come in and out during those times as well, too,” Schuyler said.
Because the powwow, which is a social event, is open to the public, organizers expect attendees to have questions, and they're encouraged to respectfully ask Native people.
Schuyler said he hopes the powwow becomes an annual event.
“We wanted to put on the best powwow we possibly could at our first try back down in Hart Plaza by the waterfront,” Schuyler said. “So that way we could hopefully secure the opportunity or solidify that there is going to be a second and a third and a fourth and so on and so forth.”
The Powwow will take place in Hart Plaza on Monday, October 13, from noon to 6 p.m.
