By: Sienna Escobar
For the last seven years, members of Native American cultures from across the nation have gathered to share dances, showcase their cultures and see old friends at the yearly Yellowhorse Powwow Celebration in Collegedale, Tennessee. This year, the event will be held for its last time at The Commons on April 4 and 5.
Visitors at the celebration can watch ceremonial dances performed by nearly 100 Native American dancers from many regions, including Tennessee-based representatives of the Aztec culture in Mexico. According to Tammera Hicks, president and founder of Native American Services of Tennessee (NAST) and organizer of the event, dances will include a ceremonial stomp dance, called a gatio, and powwow drummers. Visitors will be encouraged to participate in some intertribal dances and a candy dance for younger kids.
Across The Commons, approximately 25 Native American vendors will be displaying their handcrafts for sale, alongside food trucks offering food such as “Indian Tacos,” made from traditional fry bread. Alix Parks, a licensed animal rehabilitator who runs HapiNest Raptor Rescue in the Chattanooga area, told the Accent that her organization’s ambassador red-tailed hawk, Zena, will be present at one of the vendor booths. According to Hicks, visitors can also see an award-winning traditional Lakota teepee lodge.
Performers and vendors include representatives of Cherokee, Creek, Lakota, Chickasaw, Blackfoot, Haoma and other Native American cultures, from Tennessee and the surrounding area as well as states as far away as Arizona, Illinois, Florida and New York.
Hicks said that the powwow celebration focuses on educating the public about the history and culture of different Native American communities. The event is named after Hicks’ late husband, Jimmy Yellowhorse Webster, a Native American woodcarver, recording artist and flute player known as a “songkeeper.”
Hicks said she founded NAST in 2001 to help fill the need for preservation of Native American culture and history in the region. The organization works to provide resources for Native American communities as well as offer educational opportunities at schools. The Yellowhorse Powwow Celebration began in Chattanooga a few years after the organization started and moved to Collegedale in 2019. Hicks said that the event serves as a gathering place for Native American performers and craftspeople from across the country.
“They come because it means a lot to them,” Hicks said, “because they see friends that we’ve been knowing for years and years. …It’s like a homecoming.”
According to Hicks, anywhere from 3,000-4,000 people have attended the event in the past. The public can interact with vendors and dancers to learn about their traditions and handiwork. Hicks explained how cultural outfits carry specific religious and cultural significance, such as using feathers only from birds native to their regions.
Hicks said this year will be the last year of the Yellowhorse Powwow Celebration, due to the difficulty of organizing and putting together the event. She added that it seemed fitting that the event this year fell on Easter weekend, a holiday her husband loved, and hopes that as many people as possible will attend.
“I want everyone to go home feeling like they enjoyed themselves, met new people, got to see maybe some people they already knew and learned something they never knew about,” Hicks said.
Hicks explained the power of public powwows to educate people on Native American culture and change stereotypes.
“If we can teach someone one thing, or dispel one myth concerning Native people, we have met our purpose,” Hicks said.
The powwow celebration will be open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturday, April 4, and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday, April 5. Visitors can purchase full-day tickets to the events for $10 per adult, while children under 5 years old can enter for free. Tickets are available at www.naservices.org and a schedule of performances is available on NAST’s Facebook page.
