UW-Green Bay to host community Pow Wow at Kress Events Center April 14
The University of Wisconsin-Green Bay will revive a popular traditional event Saturday, April 14, when it hosts the UW-Green Bay Pow Wow at the Kress Events Center on campus.
Long a University staple, the Pow Wow is returning after a several-year break with the theme “Honoring the Ones Who Came Before Us.” The event was a fixture at the old Phoenix Sports Center for nearly two decades, but has been on hiatus for various reasons.
This year’s Pow Wow will run from 1-9 p.m., with Grand Entrances scheduled for 1 and 7 p.m. at the Kress Events Center. A Pow Wow feast featuring such traditional food as wild rice casserole and fry bread will be served from 5-5:30 p.m. at the nearby Mauthe Center, just across the parking lot from the Kress. The events are free and open to the public.
UW-Green Bay’s Intertribal Student Council is thrilled to be reviving the event, one highlight of which will be the well-known Host Drum Bear Creek, said senior Luanne Funmaker, a member of the Intertribal Student Council and the Pow Wow planning committee. Other invited drums include Smokeytown, Young Firekeepers, Ho-Chunk Station and Chief Hill. Dan King will serve as emcee for the event, while John Teller Jr. is the arena director. The male head dancer is Alan Caldwell, and the female head dancer is Connie Danforth.
“For me, it really means a sense of community, for not only the UWGB campus, but also the surrounding communities,” Funmaker said. “Some people look at it as a ceremony, some people look at it as a gathering — so in the end, it really reminds me of community, and bringing together the surrounding tribes.”
In addition to the music, dancing and food, the UW-Green Bay Pow Wow will feature a variety of Native American vendors. Event cosponsors are UW-Green Bay’s Organizacion Latino America, Office of the Provost, Diversity Task Force, Good Times Programming, Alumni, Office of Student Life, Democracy and Justice Studies, Dean of Liberal Arts and Sciences and Adult Degree Program. For more information, contact Deborah Rezac at (920) 465-2720 or rezacd@uwgb.edu.
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