Thunderbird American Indian Dancers

The company’s Pow-Wows have been presented annually as a two-week event by TNC since 1976, with the box office donated to these funds. There will be dances, stories and traditional music from the Iroquois and Native Peoples of the Northwest Coast, the Southwest, the Plains, and the Arctic regions. Between 25 and 30 dancers will assemble for the event.

Highlights of this year’s celebration will include a Hoop Dance , a Caribou Dance (from the Inuit people of Alaska), a Butterfly Dance (a Hopi custom which gives thanks for the beauty of nature), a Grass Dance and Jingle Dress Dance (from the Northern Plains people), a Stomp Dance (from the Southeastern tribes), and a Shawl Dance (from the Oklahoma tribes)
. In the final section of the program, the audience is invited to join in the Round Dance, a friendship dance.

After matinees, the cast will remain in the theater to personally meet the children attending and be photographed with them. “Learning about different cultures is important to enlarging the kids’ perspective, particularly in light of what’s going on in the world. We’re in trouble today because we don’t understand different cultures.” The troupe’s appearances benefit college funds for needy Native American students.