SPOKANE, Wash. – Expo ’74’s 50th Anniversary Celebration will include celebrations of Spokane’s Indigenous heritage.
“We’re going to have an amazing Pow-Wow right here at the Spokane Convention Center,” said Margo Hill.
Hill is a Spokane Tribal Citizen, professor at Eastern Washington University and the lead organizer of Expo 50’s “Tribal Pillar,” which will be comprised of a whole host of events across the summer-long celebration.
“We’re going to have cultural exhibits, teepees and we welcome all of our Spokane citizens and local neighbors to come down and see our traditional tribal culture,” Hill said.
It’s a culture that has gathered at the sacred grounds around the Spokane River for countless generations, which makes Expo’s environmental theme all the more important to tribes in the Inland Northwest.
“We live with nature, not on nature. we don’t own the land, we are part of nature, we work with the animals and the environment, protecting the ecosystems.”
Hill says Expo’s “Pow-Wow at the Falls” on May 25 and 26 will be one of the largest pow-wows in the area in a very long time, and will have award-winning drummers, tribal members wearing traditional regalia, tribal cuisine and cultural exhibits, in hopes of providing an immersive educational experience.
“We have our traditional songs and languages and ceremonies–the dances and songs of our ancestors–yet we are modern Native people who live here in the city. We are doctors, nurses, attorneys and transportation planning professionals,” Hill said.
Hill said the pow-wow gives non-Native people a chance to not only see tribal members for their traditions, but deepen their understanding of them as people.
“So when we have issues, such as missing and murdered Indigenous people, we are just like every other citizen, and not to be labeled as having addiction, or being less than, or marginalized,” she said.
Indigenous people are murdered or go missing upwards of ten times the national average, and Hill credits the mobilization of tribal leaders and activists for elevating Native issues across the board, and kickstarting statewide action.
A list on the Washington State Patrol’s website shows there are 136 missing Indigenous persons in Washington State as of March 22 of this year.
“Finally for our tribal communities, we can see this happening,” Hill said. “We have law enforcement and local folks on alert when our Indigenous women go missing, and it’s not blaming them–it’s understanding the issues.”
Organizers will be holding a rally in honor of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples Awareness day on Eastern Washington University’s campus in Cheney on Sunday May 5, starting at 11 a.m. For more information, click here.
For more information on the Pow-Wow at the Falls, click here.
For a full list of Expo ’74’s 50th Anniversary celebration’s events, click here.
