For 54 years, Stanford students have spearheaded a Mother’s Day weekend tradition unlike any other: the Stanford Powwow, the largest student-run powwow in the U.S. This year’s powwow brought hundreds to Eucalyptus Grove, including Stanford students, Native American community members and vendors from around the Bay Area and across the country.
The event, which ran from Friday to Sunday evening, opened with an Indian Art Market followed by a welcome address and land acknowledgement by Stanford American Indian Organization.
The annual 5k run/walk kicked off Saturday’s schedule of events, and a variety of dancing, drumming, singing competitions and performances followed throughout Saturday and Sunday.
According to Riley Zwetsloot ’26, an organizer for Stanford Powwow, planning for the powwow is an intensive process. Over ten different committees have unique functions, from organizing vendors to running the Powwow Fun Run.
Zwetsloot, who has been a member of the program committee for two years, said that her committee helped put together the program, which included vendor information, schedule, Native programs on campus and committee members, so that powwow visitors have access to all the information they might need.
The fruit of the planning effort came to a head when attending the powwow with her mom and family. “It’s always such an honor to help with the planning, then see all of our hard work come together the weekend of Mother’s Day,” Zwetsloot wrote to The Daily.
Though Zwetsloot found the process of helping plan powwow to be fun, she especially recognized the work put in by co-heads Nena Naat’aanii Dorame ’25 and Jane Lord-Kraus ’25.
“You can tell they put their hearts into being co-heads this year,” Zwetsloot wrote.
For many students, the powwow creates an entirely unique opportunity to explore and learn about Native American culture. “As an international student, this is a completely different aspect of the U.S. that I’m learning about, so it’s exciting,” said Emily Chen M.S. ’25, who attended the powwow Saturday night and watched some of the first round dancing competitions. “I was only exposed to the version of the U.S. shown in the Hollywood industry.”
Chen also said it was interesting to see Native American celebrations and traditions at the powwow, because many of them reminded her of the aboriginal culture of Taiwan, where she grew up. “I feel like it’s kind of a similar vibe, but it’s still different… I just think it’s really interesting,” Chen said.
It is not uncommon for domestic students to also have had little exposure to Indigenous culture prior to Stanford.
Denny Woong ’25, who is from Georgia, wrote to The Daily that he hadn’t been exposed to Indigenous culture at all growing up.
He wrote that he “loved the energy from the event stage and the people enjoying the cultural and community celebration, which is something I feel like I don’t experience enough during my time here.”
He found the powwow to be an “interesting, delightful, unique… [and] very accessible” experience, and recommended others to attend, too.
Though exploring Native culture was one draw, powwow attendees explored a variety of vendors, selling everything from bison frybread to animal pelts to funnel cake. The food was “fantastic,” wrote Woong, who was initially drawn to the event when he heard there would be funnel cake similar to some from his hometown.
“I enjoyed looking at the unique jewelry and offerings from all the different tribes, especially the vendor that was selling animal pelts, since I hadn’t seen or felt those before,” he added.