A celebration honoring Brooklyn’s Indigenous roots is returning to Prospect Park this fall as the Third United Lenape/Lunàapeew Nations Pow Wow brings dancers, drummers, artists and food makers to the borough for a free two-day event.
The Pow Wow will take place Oct. 3 and 4 at the LeFrak Center at Lakeside. The event runs from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and to 4 p.m. Sunday and is presented by Prospect Park Alliance, the Éenda-Lŭnaapeewáhkiing Collective and American Indian Community House.
Lenape/Lunáapeew is the name of the Indigenous peoples whose ancestral homelands encompassed what is now Brooklyn and the surrounding region. The term means human beings, or more specifically, “the ones who came from thought,” according to event organizers.
Pow Wows are gatherings where Lenape/Lunáapeew and neighboring Indigenous nations come together to socialize and celebrate life. Prospect Park previously hosted intertribal Pow Wows from 1916 to 1972, making the return of the tradition part of a much longer history in Brooklyn.
“Reviving the Pow Wow tradition in Prospect Park provides the Lenape/Lunáapeew who were forced to relocate across the continent back to their ancestral homelands to reunite and celebrate, and offers Brooklynites of all backgrounds the chance to immerse themselves in the cultures of the original stewards of this land,” said Morgan Monaco, president of Prospect Park Alliance. “This historic event is a crucial step in healing deep-seated wounds from our nation’s past and ensuring that all in our community see themselves in our programming.”
EL Collective founder George Stonefish revived the modern Pow Wow tradition by organizing the first United Lenape/Lunáapeew Nations Pow Wow at the Park Avenue Armory in 2018. Prospect Park Alliance held a culture fair with EL Collective and American Indian Community House in 2024, then hosted a full Pow Wow at the LeFrak Center in 2025.
The event will feature drummers, dancers, and art.Photo courtesy of Bob Levine/Prospect Park Alliance
“We’re proud to welcome the United Lenape/Lunáapeew Nations Pow Wow back to Prospect Park for a day of conversation, celebration, and culture, NYC Parks Commissioner Tricia Shimamura said in a statement. “Events like this demonstrate how critical our public parks are as welcoming spaces that foster connection and bring people together.”
For Stonefish, the gathering is also an opportunity for Lenape communities dispersed across North America to reconnect.
“We are thrilled to join our partners at Prospect Park Alliance, American Indian Community House and the City in our work to bring together our Lenape communities from across Turtle Island,” said George Stonefish, founder of EL Collective. “This Pow Wow serves as an educational message to the broader community, and a social and cultural message for us, the Lenape people. We want all to leave the Pow Wow with a deeper understanding about why we as contemporary Native Americans still follow our culture, practice our dances and share our songs today.”
This year’s event will put a particular emphasis on younger generations. The Pow Wow will feature a Youth Spotlight highlighting performers aged six to 17, while two young adults — Emma Hannah K. Stonefish and Javid Ridgeway — have been brought on as Pow Wow coordinators.
“This third annual Pow Wow will focus on Lunáapeew/Lenape youth from across the continent,” Brent Stonefish, co-founder of EL Collective, said. “Two young Lunáapeew/Lenape young adults have been hired as coordinators of this event, while being mentored by their older relatives to help develop their leadership skills ensuring that our future generations continue to thrive and carry our rich culture into the future.”
The Pow Wow is part of Prospect Park Alliance’s ReImagine Lefferts initiative, which is reworking Lefferts Historic House to explore the lives, resistance and resilience of the Indigenous people of Lenapehoking, as well as the Africans enslaved by the Lefferts family.
A related exhibit, “Eelunaapéewi Ehaptoonáakanal: Voices of Lunáapeew/Lenape,” will be on view at Lefferts with the Pow Wow. The exhibition features video interviews with Lunáapeew/Lenape knowledge-keepers and culture bearers discussing their relationships with their ancestral homelands.
“New Yorkers are deeply interested in the original peoples of this land and their heritage, culture and art,” Dylan Yeats, Ph.D., Prospect Park Alliance’s Lefferts Historic House museum director, said in a statement. “This Pow Wow will be very special since Lenape/Lunáapeew from across the continent will be reconnecting with their lands and each other. It is a real privilege and honor for Brooklynites to be able to host and participate in this historic event, which will also be incredibly fun.”
The Pow Wow is free and open to the public, though organizers are asking attendees to RSVP through Prospect Park Alliance.