Uncompahgre Powwow changes venue
GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. ( KREX ) — The Western Slope Native American Resource Center's inaugural Uncompahgre Powwow will happen on Saturday – but with a new venue due to concerns about the weather.
The powwow will now be held at the Centennial Middle School gym in Montrose, 1100 South Fifth Street, from 11 a.m. to dusk.
The event will feature traditional Native American dances and food like frybread. WSNARC's inaugural Grand Mesa Powwow was in April, and executive director Monique Terpstra tells WesternSlopeNow she wanted to hold one in Montrose because it's important to her to keep the Ute Mountain tribe's culture alive on their land.
"We want to bring culture back to the Western Slope. This was once all our land... It's still ours. Even though we're not here all the time and we don't have a reservation here, it's ours," Terpstra says.
The powwow is open to the public, and Ute Indian Museum Director CJ Brafford says she hopes the event is a learning experience for any non-Natives who choose to attend.
"Ute, understanding through education," Brafford said, referencing an acronym one of her colleagues at the museum came up with. "We're hoping to educate other people who come through the doors of the powwow to see the many colorful dancers, the songs we sing, the process that we have, to share about us and educate them."
