Redbird Powwow Returns

July 18 through 20, 2008 will mark the return of Redbird's Children of Many Colors Intertribal Native American Powwow to Moorpark College.

Originally held on a horse ranch in Moorpark in 1994, the powwow has faced its challenges, but like Native Americans themselves, it carries on.

California was home to nearly as many Indian nations as the rest of the United States combined before European settlement took its toll on their cultures. The history of California Indians was all but erased in little more than a generation.

In the 1950s the "Termination Act" attempted to abolish the reservation system entirely by encouraging Native Americans to leave their ancestral homes and move to large urban areas. There they were promised jobs and housing.

California became home to many thousands of Indians from tribes throughout the United States. These people brought with them the culture of the powwow...an intertribal gathering of singing and dancing styles from across the Americas.

California Indians had many ceremonies and rituals of their own, and they were able to keep them alive by keeping them largely to themselves. It was only in 1978 that the Religious Freedom Act gave Native American people the right to practice their own ceremonies and celebrations. The active preservation of cultural ways from one generation to the next was done sereptitiously for many years.

Now, California's first people had to adapt to fit in to this powwow culture that was now taking place on their home lands.

Today, Redbird's powwow, held on land that was once home to the Chumash nation, welcomes singers, dancers and artisans from throughout the western hemisphere...including members of the Chumash, Tongva, Tatavium, Juaneno and other local Indian nations.