Community Outreach- 1st Annual Sacred Springs Powwow & Indian Market

1st Annual Sacred Springs Powwow & Indian Market

WHEN: Saturday, May 1, 2010 – 10:00 AM until 7:00 PM
WHERE: Aquarena Center, 921 Aquarena Springs Dr., San Marcos, Texas
WHO: Featuring Keetoowah Cherokee champion dancer David Hoskins as Head Man Dancer.
COST: FREE to the Public
HOST HOTEL: San Marcos River Inn, 1433 IH-35 North, San Marcos, TX, (512) 353-7770
CONTACT: For more information contact Maria Rocha, (512) 393-3310
ATM: Automatic Teller Machine services will be available onsite at the event.
PARKING & SHUTTLE: Visitor parking located across the street from Aquarena Center entrance in Texas State Lot #9 and Shuttle will be available from 10:00 AM until 4:00 PM. More details, click here.

Download Map & Directions to POWWOW (PDF)
Volunteer Application
Download Press Release (PDF)

San Marcos’ sacred springs reawaken when over one hundred Native American powwow dancers and participants arrive for the much anticipated 1st Annual Sacred Springs Powwow & Indian Market, held on Saturday, May 1, 2010, from 10:00 AM until 7:00 PM at Aquarena Center, 921 Aquarena Springs Drive, San Marcos, Texas. The event is sponsored by a local Native American nonprofit organization, Indigenous Cultures Institute, with support from Hays County, the City of San Marcos, San Marcos Arts Commission, Texas State University, and CenturyLink.

“The Sacred Springs area is one of the oldest inhabited sites in North America and Native people believe it’s one of three creation sites where we originated,” says Dr. Mario Garza, board chair of the institute. “Over the next several years, this event – held in honor of our ancestors – will bring together hundreds of Native people not only from the United States, but from all of the Americas.” Garza refers to the institute’s plans for a heritage festival to be added to the powwow slated for 2011.

Activities will begin at 10:00 AM with a blessing at the Sacred Springs. The powwow will feature Keetoowah Cherokee champion dancer David Hoskins as Head Man Dancer, Comanche renowned traditional singer Lance Tahchawwickah as Head Southern singer, and Texas-famed Eagle Point as the Northern Drum.

A major Indian Market will be held in conjunction with the powwow, offering the largest gathering of Native American arts, crafts, and food vendors ever assembled in San Marcos. Food booths will offer the ever popular Native fry bread tacos, healthy buffalo burgers, roasted corn, turkey legs, chicken shish kabobs, and a variety of sweets like kettle corn, funnel cake, and snow cones. Arts and crafts will include a large selection ranging from Southwest jewelry, pottery, moccasins, Native dolls, stone oil lamps, breast plates and other relic replicas, to fine art paintings, weavings, and sculptures.

At 5:00 PM, Dallas Aztec dance company Cuicani In Xochitl will make a special guest appearance in honor of this first powwow. Famous for their dynamic and physically demanding dance movements and their spectacular regalia, this dance group guarantees a dazzling finale to the indigenous festivities.

Indigenous Cultures Institute organized the local Native community to provide education and information about Native Americans, particularly from this area, southern Texas, and northern Mexico. Their first major event in San Marcos, “Songs of the Seven Directions,” was held at the Aquarena Center’s Earth Day Celebration in April 2009. They have since produced several Native functions including “Eagle and Condor” dance exhibition, “Hispanic’s Indigenous Identity” lecture series, “Tracing Indigenous Ancestry” genealogy workshop, and the “Seven Directions Art Exhibit – celebrating Native American culture.”