By Stacy Fisher
Susanville 15th Annual Indian Rancheria Pow-Wow June 21-23,2024
An Annual Event
Photos courtesy Susanville Indian Rancheria, 8-28-2021
The 16th Annual Indian Rancheria Pow-Wow to which the community is invited, will be held June 21-23, 2024.
Featuring dance competitions on Saturday, Native Americans in the northeast California region display their rich cultural customs in the form of song and dance that includes cash prizes .
Several local Native American tribes will be represented at this spectacular event that features 4 BANDZ of White Swan, WA as host drum..
The Red Dress Special Dance honors and brings awareness to Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and girls (MMIWG).
A vast selection of Native American art, crafts, jewelry, and food will be available for sale. As past years can attest, the Pow-Wow promises to be an unforgettable cultural experience.
The Susanville Indian Rancheria (SIR), comprised of members of the Maidu, Paiute, Pit River, and Washoe tribes are creating this year’s annual Pow-Wow to celebrate and honor the elders, veterans, and ancestors of these indigenous peoples.
Organizers note that Elders are those who have earned the respect of their own community and who are looked upon as the repositories of cultural and philosophical knowledge and are the transmitters of such information to the next generation.
Align Scabbyrobe is Arena Director. Head Woman is Tasha GoodwiAlissa Sanchez ll of Sioux Falls, SD. Head Man is Nigel Schuyler of Dearborn, MI.
This is a drug and alcohol free event.
For additional information on this free event, including questions on camping or parking at the site call SIR Pow-Wow Coordinator Amelia Luna at 530-249-7192. Email: info@sir-powwow.com or crzyluna@hotmail.com. Website: www.sir-powwow.com.
Women Are Sacred by Stacy Fisher – Published August 28, 2021
The Red Dress Dance is performed each year at the powwow in Susanville. The statistics are stunning. For Native women from the ages of 10 to 24, homicide is the third leading cause of death.
Indigenous Women today are living out both the traumas and healing of the past and present generations. With this great understanding, it is time to protect and heal.
Connections are found between disappearances and murders of Native women and the presence of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, stalking and sex trafficking through a lens of understanding their trauma.
“We honor the women we have lost and extend our prayers to those who are still suffering” notes the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center (NIWRC), an organization staffed by Native Women who are dedicated to protecting the sacredness of Indigenous Womanhood and all that it embodies. “We rid ourselves of the silence that once bound us. It is time for us to honor the sacredness of women in our homes, in our daily living, in our actions and in our spirituality.”
The Red Dress is worn to educate and to empower, referring to the special dance held at the Annual Indian Rancheria Pow-Wow. “We wear the Red Dress to honor our sacred women.”
Traction has built in the efforts advocating for missing and murdered Indigenous women, “but our fight is far from over. … The current reports of abduction and murder of Native women and girls are alarming and represent one of the most horrific aspects of the spectrum of violence committed against Native women,” states the NIWRC. “The murder rate of Native women is more than ten times the national average on some reservations. These disappearances or murders are often connected to domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, stalking, and sex trafficking.”
Continuing, “It is important to understand the connection between domestic, dating, and sexual violence and the high incidence of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls in the United States. This long-standing
crisis of MMIWG can be attributed to the historical and intergenerational trauma caused by colonization and its ongoing effects in Indigenous communities stretching back more than 500 years.”
”
