DOWAGIAC — The Pokagon Band of Potawatomi is inviting the public to its 33rd Annual Kee-Boon-Mein-Kaa Pow Wow, the annual celebration of traditional singing, dancing and culture, Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 1 to 2.

The Pokagon Band’s pow wow arena is located on its Rodgers Lake campus at 58620 Sink Road, Dowagiac. Parking and admission are free.

Kee-boon-mein-kaa in the Potawatomi language refers to the end of the huckleberry harvest, a traditional time of celebration for the Potawatomi people. The pow wow draws dancers and drummers of all ages from the Great Lakes and beyond to compete for prize money in several categories, organizers said.

This year organizers have added several new dance contests to attract more contestants: All Around, where each dancer who competes must dance in all three styles of dance, and a Chicken Dance, a vibrant style that originates from the Plains. Vendors will be selling native artwork, jewelry, crafts and goods, as well as traditional food. The Pokagon Youth Council is sponsoring a youth dance on Saturday night from 9:30 p.m. to midnight.

To kick off the weekend, a group of Pokagon women have organized the 11th annual Women’s Water Walk on Friday, Aug. 31. Protecting the water is a traditional responsibility for women in Nishnabe culture. Following a sunrise ceremony, women and their supporters will walk 15 miles from one tribal lake to the tribal campus at Rodgers Lake. This ceremony and act of walking honors and prays for the waters of the Pokagon Band homelands and passes on these teachings to others.

The Grand Entries for the pow wow, which are the formal start of the dancing and songs, are at 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. Saturday and noon on Sunday. A Veterans Dance for all veterans will take place following the Grand Entries. On both mornings, the vendors and cultural presenters will set up before the dancing starts; the gates to the pow wow grounds open at 10 a.m. For more details, visit the pow wow’s website at pokagonpowwow.com. 

About the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians

The Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians’ sovereignty was reaffirmed under legislation signed into law by President Clinton in September of 1994. The Pokagon Band is dedicated to providing community development initiatives such as housing, education, family services, medical care and cultural preservation for its approximately 5,000 citizens. The Pokagon Band’s ten-county service area includes four counties in southwestern Michigan and six in northern Indiana. Its main administrative offices are located in Dowagiac, with a satellite office in South Bend. In 2007, it opened Four Winds Casino Resort in New Buffalo, followed by Four Winds Hartford in 2011 and Four Winds Dowagiac in 2013. Four Winds South Bend opened Jan. 16.  It owns and operates a variety of business via Mno-Bmadsen, the tribe’s non-gaming investment enterprise. More information is available at pokagonband-nsn.gov, fourwindscasino.com and mno-bmadsen.com.