Events Honor Native Culture

The purpose of the week's events, which are sponsored by the Carolina Indian Circle and other campus organizations, is to educate the University community about Native American culture and history, organizers said.

The Carolina Indian Circle, founded in 1974, is a support group for UNC's Native American students. The organization's goals are to increase awareness about Native American students and to recruit and retain more of them.

There will be one event each night this week, culminating in Saturday's powwow in Polk Place. The events include an exhibition of traditional Native American dress and dance, a forum on Native American women's issues and CIC's annual banquet Friday night.

The Native American Women's Issue Forum, sponsored by the multicultural sorority Theta Nu Xi, will take place at 6 p.m. Wednesday in 107A Dey Hall.

Alpha Pi Omega, a Native American sorority founded in 1994, will sponsor the dance exhibition at 7 p.m. Thursday in room 104 in the Center for Dramatic Art.

"Before the dances we'll explain the significance of the regalia and of the dances," said junior Tonia Jacobs, president of Alpha Pi Omega.

The powwow, sponsored by CIC, starts at noon Saturday at Polk Place and continues until 5 p.m. Junior Rachel Blue, the group's president, said the powwow has taken place at UNC for more than 10 years.

The powwow, Jacobs said, is "a time when Native Americans come together to dance and sing." A powwow is a Native American ceremony during which tribes gather to dance and socialize, wearing traditional dress.

Blue said Native Americans from across the state -- including students from UNC-Pembroke, N.C. State, Duke and East Carolina universities -- will participate. The dances and traditional dress represent many N.C. tribes including Lumbee, Cherokee, Coharie and Meherrin.

The public also will be included in Saturday's friendship dance.

There will be vendors selling traditional Native American crafts, jewelry and food on Saturday as well. All events are open to the public and, with the exception of Friday night's banquet, are free.

Blue said the group's cultural awareness week used to be an annual event, but it has not taken place in the last three years.

Although CIC traditionally sponsors events during Native American Heritage Month in November, Blue said this week's events are similarly important.

Blue said, "We wanted to have this cultural week so we'd have two times during the year to celebrate Native American culture and also to have events leading up to the powwow."

The University Editor can be reached at udesk@unc.edu.