Let the Powwow Season begin

BOZEMAN — The annual Montana State University American Indian Council Powwow will be held April 10-11 at MSU’s Brick Breeden Fieldhouse.

The MSU powwow is free and open to all.

The powwow begins at 6 p.m. Friday, April 10, with the Grand Entry. There will also be Grand Entries at noon and 6 p.m. on Saturday, April 11. Dance and drum competitions are always a key feature of the event. Booths around the edge of the dance arena will offer the crafts of traditional artists and artisans throughout the event. A free chili dinner will be served on Saturday beginning about 4:30 p.m.

In addition, a Nation’s Prayer Breakfast will be held at 8 a.m. Saturday at MSU’s Brick Breeden Fieldhouse. A golf tournament and fun run and half-marathon are also scheduled on Saturday morning. For information about the golf tournament, contact James Vallie at james.vallie@gmail.com. For information about the fun run and marathon, contact Shane Doyle at shanemrdoyle@yahoo.com. A basketball tournament sponsored by American Indian Science and Engineering Society will also be held April 10-11 in conjunction with the powwow. For more information, contact Tashina Tibbets at tashinat@montana.edu.

Two symposiums will be held in conjunction with the powwow. Representatives from Montana’s tribal colleges will report on the histories of the state’s tribes during a Native American Studies symposium to be held April 6 and April 8 at MSU. Sponsored by the MSU Department of Native American Studies, the two-day event will be held in the Great Room of the MSU Foundation and Alumni Building. There will be no events April 7.

An American Indian Law and Resistance symposium will be held Friday, April 10, in SUB Ballroom A on the MSU campus. Robert Tim Coulter, director of the Indian Law Resource Center and a member of the Potawatomi Tribe, will speak at 1 p.m. on “Demanding Change in unjust Legal Rules: Using Human Rights Law on Indigenous Peoples.” Denise Juneau, Montana State Superintendent of Public Instruction, will speak at 2 p.m. Edward Valandra of South Dakota State University speaking at 10 a.m. Dion Killsback, an MSU graduate and member of the Northern Cheyenne Tribe who is currently an attorney in Los Angeles, will speak at 9 a.m. A student panel will discuss American Indian Studies at 8 a.m. For more information, contact the MSU Department of Native American Studies at (406) 994-3881.

For more information about the powwow, go to http://www.montana.edu/wwwnas/club/powwow_09.htm.

Or, contact Jim Burns at (406) 994-4880 or jburns@montana.edu, or call MSU Department of Native American Studies, (406) 994-3881.