The Native American Cultural Center and the Schwarzman Center are preparing for celebration, which will include live performances, interactive showcases, food and vendors.
Hannah Liu
Contributing Reporter
Alex Hong, Contributing Photographer
Yale’s 2025 Powwow of Light will be held Saturday in Commons from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Organized by the Native American Cultural Center, or the NACC, and the Schwarzman Center, the intertribal celebration is open to the public. Highlighting indigenous culture and community, the event will feature dancers, drummers, artisan vendors and indigenous dishes for attendees to enjoy.
“The general vision of the powwow is a social gathering that celebrates dances, music and food from Native American cultures,” Denise Morales, the assistant director of the NACC, wrote in an email to the News.
Performances will feature both traditional and contemporary dances such as round dance, two step dance and potato dance, with opportunities for audience members to interact and participate. The Powwow will also feature a presentation of hula dancers during intermission.
“It’s definitely about visibility and an opportunity to share culture, to share community and being a space to share different traditions,” Matthew Makomenaw, an assistant dean of Yale College and the director of the NACC, said. “There’s really an opportunity for people to come together and socialize.”
Makomenaw and the planning committee, which includes three Yale students, also expressed excitement about the opportunity to hold the celebration in Commons. They expect upwards of 500 attendees. Previously, the event was held in the Payne Whitney Gymnasium in 2023.
The Powwow will be a visible expression of Native culture and invites all members of the Yale and New Haven community to celebrate, organizers said.
“As a leader, what I hope to see through this are members who are a part of the broader Yale and New Haven community come together and celebrate with us,” NACC peer liaison Taylor Dineyazhe ’27 said. “One of the main reasons why we put on this event is to serve as a reminder that we as native and indigenous peoples are still here and continue to celebrate the traditions that make us who we are.”
In addition to activities hosted by student organizations within the NACC, the Powwow will include art and food vendors from outside of Yale.
The Powwow will bring back several Yale alumni, including Truman Pipestem ’24, who will be the master of ceremony, and Hema Patel ’23, the head dancer.
For Kainalu Spear ’29, a native Hawaiian and member of Yale’s Pasifika community, the Powwow offers Native students the opportunity to engage with their community despite being far from home.
“Back home, it’s part of our everyday lives,” Spear said. “Coming here to the Americas and the continent, it can be really hard to adjust sometimes, especially when you’re so used to a certain way of living. But it’s super nice to have those events when we’re all gathered and can relate to one another and be the people we are back home.”
The NACC was founded in 1993.