American Indians currently make up less than one percent of the student population on campus.
“Being American Indian at UCLA means being one of the most underrepresented voices,” said Fairuz Dakam, first-year psychology student and member of UCLA’s American Indian Student Association.
Members of the group have organized the 24th Annual UCLA Pow Wow, which will take place on the UCLA North Athletic Field on Saturday and Sunday.
Dakam, who is a Lakota Indian from the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, regularly attends several pow wows each year.
It’s important to highlight the culture through various events, said Elizabeth Fasthorse, a third-year American Indian Studies student.
“The pow wow tradition emerged during the 1950s relocation era, when many members of native tribes found themselves displaced from their reservations and moved into more urban areas,” said Heather Torres, a second-year English and American Indian Studies student.
She said that tribal people persevered through the emerging “American Indian” identity, and today’s pow wows have become a catalyst for promoting Native identity and preserving American Indian culture.
The event is the second largest student-run pow wow in the state and is an event in which Native and non-Native American communities come together, she said.
“Our family has traveled from Washington, Montana, and Bishop, California, to participate in the UCLA pow wow, because it has great meaning for us,” said Valerie Taliman, director of communications for the Indian Law Resource Center, an Indian legal advocacy organization.
“The chance to eat native food, watch different dances and hear different songs is such an invaluable experience, and we’re truly fortunate to have it come to us at UCLA,” said Misha Tsukerman, fourth-year history student and director of the Asian Pacific Coalition.
“I’ve been to a pow wow before and it’s always a humbling and eye-opening experience,” he said.
Anna Tiger, a second-year psychology student from California State University at Fullerton, said she will attend the event to see her family and friends as well as enjoy performances from Midnite Express, a well-known American Indian drum group.
UCLA’s American Indian Student Association was founded in 1969 and started the American Indian Studies Program as well as a retention project.
Recently, the group held its 10th annual youth conference, bringing around 300 native youth from across the nation to UCLA, and later addressed the low enrollment numbers of American Indians at UCLA in a recent demonstration, Torres said.
The pow wow is another event in which the group can highlight and honor the existence of the American Indian culture on campus.
“It means representing American Indians in the past and the present who cannot speak for themselves, here and now,” Dakam said.