The university’s Council of Indian Students hosted it’s annual pow-wow Saturday—the largest student-run event on campus and a centerpiece of the council’s yearly plans. Organizers said nearly 500 dancers and 21 drums were there, plus a multitude of spectators.

One of the first into the fieldhouse was Teddie Redwing: former jingle dress dancer, Navy veteran, and commander of the Leech Lake Honor Guard, which brought in flags and a ceremonial eagle staff as the pow-wow got underway.

“The eagle is a prayer carrier to our gichi-manidoo, our god, our creator,” Redwing said as a handful of other guard members, who were themselves Army, Navy, or Air Force veterans, stood nearby in their dark blue finery. American Indians enlist in the military at a higher rate than other ethnicities, they said.

“A lot of times the eagle feathers are earned through good deeds, war deeds,” Redwing explained. The one at Saturday’s pow-wow came from a Vietnam veteran.

This year’s pow-wow is the 46th annual one organized by the council. The emcee was Brandon Bowstring and the host drum was Big Red.

The pow-wow started with the first of two grand entries on Saturday afternoon, after which dancers could strut their stuff within different categories organized by age, style of dance, and so on. Organizers served a supper of wild rice soup and sandwiches, and put together a competition to name a princess and brave at the pow-wow.

Johanna Jackson is a Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe member who said she put together her dark purple traditional-style dress the morning of the pow-wow. She and Briana Kingbird, a Red Lake band member who was sporting a multi-colored jingle dress of her own, said they’d been going to pow-wows like the one at BSU since they were little. Other pow-wows are organized like competitions, the pair explained, but the one on Saturday was just for fun.

“I find it fun, and I enjoy dancing,” Kingbird said matter-of-factly as drums echoed through the concrete fieldhouse.