BLACKBURN AND SWEETZER

Never been to a pow wow? Here’s your chance. Saturday, May 5th, and Sunday, May 6th from 9:00AM-9:00PM is UCLA’s 22nd Annual Pow Wow, held on North Athletic Field. It’s free, except for $8 to park. There will be drum groups, dance competition, tons of vendors of jewelry and art, and yummy food - fry bread, Indian tacos, and the like.

A couple tips to my non-Native friends:

- If you meet more than one person with the last name ‘Begay’, don’t assume they’re all related; they’re Navajo or married to a Navajo and ‘Begay’ is like ‘Smith’.

- Don’t try to ingratiate yourself by telling the first Native person you see that your great, great, grandmother was a Cherokee princess, as they’ve likely already heard it from a hundred other well-meaning people that same day. I promise you, even if said person smiles politely, it won’t go over well.

- Don’t haggle over prices with the vendors. The likelihood is you are getting a very, very good price since you’re usually buying directly from the artist. This is art, not trinkets. If you think it looks like a trinket, keep it to yourself and don’t insult the artist - you may or may not know any better.

- Don’t dress your kid up in his or her Indian Halloween costume. Would you dress your kid up as sambo and take them out in public? In fact, don’t ever buy your kid an Indian Halloween costume, even on Halloween.

- Follow these few simple rules and have fun!