After 10 Years, A Pow Wow Is Returning to the University of Arizona On April 13th!
The entire campus and Tucson community are invited to visit and enjoy the upcoming 2024 Spring Social Pow Wow on Saturday, April 13, 2024, from 10:00am-7:00pm at the University of Arizona Bear Down Field, located at 1440 E 4th St. Tucson, AZ 85719. The 2024 Spring Social Pow Wow is presented by the Tucson Indian Center and the University of Arizona.
The admission is free for the entire day, including the Tucson Indian Center’s Fun Run/Walk beginning at 9:00am (registration for the run starts at 8:30 am). After the morning run/walk, the registration and Marketplace will open at 10 am, and welcoming and blessing will be taking place at 10:45. At 11 am, the Gourd Dance hosted by the Southwest Gourd Society will start, and the 1st Grand Entry will occur at 1 pm. Between the afternoon break from 3 to 4 pm, visitors can enjoy games, including UArizona Fruit Scramble and Tucson Indian Center Giant Volleyball. The 2nd Grand Entry and Community Leadership Recognition will start at 4 pm. The event will be closing at 7 pm.
The purpose of the 2024 Spring Social Pow Wow is to gather the local Native American and non-Native American community members together for a celebration of Native American cultural dancing, singing, artistry, health, wellness, and prayer. It is an important cultural event that reinforces cultural traditions and highlights the many different backgrounds of the Native American student, faculty and staff population at the university. There are approximately 150 different tribal communities represented on our campus, and over 570 federally recognized tribal communities in the U.S. The Tucson Indian Center is a local social service and health agency that provides a variety of support services for thousands of urban Native American community members, and is an important community partner for the University of Arizona students, faculty, and staff.
The collaboration between the Tucson Indian Center and the University of Arizona in this endeavor is historical in that both entities have hosted their own individual pow wow in previous years. The last “University of Arizona Wildcat Pow Wow” was held 10 years ago. In its most prominent years, during the 1990’s, it was organized and run by student organizations on campus.
Sponsors of the 2024 Spring Social Pow Wow include the Tucson Indian Center, the Office of Native American Advancement and Tribal Engagement, Native American Student Affairs, the Agnese Nelms Haury Program in Environment and Social Justice, the Indigenous Resilience Center, Native American Initiatives, Native SOAR, and Indigi Wellbeing.
For more information on the event, including what is a pow wow, appropriate etiquette, and details on the location, please visit the event website or contact Nickolis Joe, Tucson Indian Center, or Julian Juan, University of Arizona Native American Student Affairs.