MARQUETTE, Mich.—The 20th Annual "Learning to Walk Together" Traditional Pow Wow will be held at Northern Michigan University’s Vandament Arena Saturday and Sunday, March 17-18. Admission is $5 daily or $8 for a weekend button. NMU students are admitted free with an ID. Doors open at 11 a.m. both days. Grand entry times are noon and 6 p.m. Saturday and noon on Sunday.

A feast meal and hand drum contest will be held from 4-6 p.m. Saturday at the NMU Jacobetti Center. A weekend button is required for the feast.

April Lindala was one of the student organizers of the first “Learning to Walk Together” pow wow. She was a broadcasting major, but joined the only student group at the time representing her ethnic heritage, the former American Indian Science and Engineering Society. Some of the society’s members coordinated the inaugural pow wow in 1992.

 “It became a unifying effort of the student group and underlined the marriage between academics and culture,” said Lindala, who now directs the NMU Center for Native American Studies. “It also gave non-Native students an opportunity to be introduced to a living culture. The pow wow is a public, community event. It’s a celebration of life through song, dance and feasting. The drums represent the heartbeat of the people and the dances honor those who can no longer dance. For Native American students, the pow wow celebrates who they are on campus and Native alumni consider it their homecoming.”

The Native American Student Association now sponsors the annual event. For more information, visit www.nmu.edu/cnasor call 227-1397.