For the fourth year in a row, the University of Pittsburgh and the Council of Three Rivers American Indian Center will partner to bring the Indigenous Cultural Festival to the Pittsburgh campus in September.

The Indigenous Cultural Festival offers family-friendly educational activities that celebrate the historic and ongoing contributions of Native Americans in Pennsylvania and across the U.S.

A mini-powwow from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sept. 24 on the Cathedral of Learning lawn will lead into COTRAIC’s 46th annual powwow, from noon to 9 p.m. Sept. 27 and noon to 5 p.m. Sept. 28 at the organization’s grounds in Dorseyville, Indiana Township.

Admission to the COTRAIC powwow in Dorseyville is free for Pitt affiliates with their Pitt ID.

A powwow is a sacred social gathering held by indigenous peoples in the United States and Canada. They Native American singing, drumming, dancing, crafts and food.  

A pow wow is a form of celebration. A time that people can come together and talk and laugh and share our dancing and singing. There are Native American pow wows across the country and even in other parts of the world.

Using “pow wow” to refer generally to a social get-together or to a meeting for discussion is considered to be an offensive appropriation of a term of great cultural importance to Indigenous Americans. Here is an explanation of when the appropriation of the term pow-wow and other phrases may be considered offensive.