Hundreds of people gathered for the 34th anniversary of the Indigenous People\u2019s Day Powwow at MLK Jr. Civic Center Park on Saturday, Oct. 10, 2026. The powwow featured an activity-filled program organized by the Indigenous Peoples\u2019 Day committee, led by Randy Pico of the Luse\u00f1o tribe and Aurora Mamea of the Blackfoot tribe.<\/p>\n
Berkeley is the first city in the United States to recognize the second Monday in October as Indigenous Peoples\u2019 Day instead of Columbus Day, serving as a trailblazer for cities across the country. Berkeley has celebrated Indigenous Peoples\u2019 Day with a powwow, a ceremonial gathering of indigenous tribes since the first recognition of the holiday in 1992; for many, honoring Indigenous culture has become an act of resistance to colonization and genocide.<\/p>\n
In the present day, many people in the Bay Area have formed their own personal connection to the Berkeley powwow. \u201cThere are over 200 different tribes in the Bay Area. A lot of people don\u2019t know that,\u201d Marie Hernandez, a member of the Indigenous Peoples\u2019 Day committee said, \u201cA lot of people think that we\u2019re no longer here and it makes me so happy that they see that no, (we are) \u2026 It reminds us that we\u2019re all human, we are all connected.\u201d<\/p>\n
During the event, attendees supported Indigenous artists, gained information regarding topics such as Indigenous mental health and the West Berkeley Shellmound, and witnessed traditional forms of prayer through dance and drums. The Yaqui Deer Dancers and the drummers from All Nations and So Ex Style could be seen anywhere in the festival by nature of the powwow\u2019s circular layout.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Joyce Ledezma, a community member partaking in the ceremony of the Mashika people and member of the vendor\u2019s committee, voiced opinions on how the ceremony should be recognized. \u201cMany people think it\u2019s a performance. It may look like one because we look very flashy and beautiful. But it\u2019s 100 percent a prayer. This is how our people used to pray in the past, through our feet,\u201d she said, referring to how the people in the ceremonies were barefoot, \u201cWe\u2019re not doing it for the spectators. We\u2019re doing it as a form of connecting with our ancestors and putting energy back into Mother Earth.\u201d<\/p>\n
BHS junior Luca Macquart-Moulin described the event as educational and an opportunity to learn about a culture he\u2019s less familiar with. \u201cThis is made for \u2026 allies of the Native American movement and people who want to learn more about Indigenous heritage,\u201d he said, \u201cI actually don\u2019t (know much about the history of the event), and that\u2019s why I came here, to understand the Indigenous culture.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the event is highly regarded within the community, some people of Indigenous heritage noted that they don\u2019t believe the city is doing enough to actively resist the culture of colonization. \u201cThey\u2019re trying. They have \u2018you\u2019re on Ohlone land,\u2019 on the signs and stuff like that,\u201d a vendor Crystal Salas said, \u201c(But) I think sometimes Berkeley can be like a double-edged sword. It can portray itself as being extremely liberal, yet there are times that they are just tone deaf to what\u2019s going on.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The annual Berkeley powwow ceremonies mark one of the biggest efforts to highlight the Indigenous community, providing avenues for community members to honor Indigenous cultures. \u201cWe don\u2019t have enough of us to have a neighborhood,\u201d Salas said, \u201cSo in order to create a community, we gather.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hundreds of people gathered for the 34th anniversary of the Indigenous People\u2019s Day Powwow at MLK Jr. Civic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":506246,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,145,144],"class_list":["post-506245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=506245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506245\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/506246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=506245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=506245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=506245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}