Marin will have its first annual Powwow at San Rafael’s Miller Creek Middle School on Sunday, March 19. Hosted by Marin American Indian Alliance on Coast Miwok land, the Native gathering is an intertribal celebration of culture through ceremonial song and dance and will showcase Native art and food, with participating tribes from Marin and Sonoma to Hawaii, Mexico and Wyoming. Mary Kitchens, a board member at MAIA, said that for Native people in Marin, coming together to celebrate culture has been difficult since Covid, when the isolation of shelter-in-place was compounded by the closing of Kule Loklo and the Museum of the American Indian in Novato and the passing of the nonprofit’s founder Sally Sherlock. “It totally jumpstarts the community,” said Ms. Kitchens. “It can be challenging for [Native] folks to stay in contact with their culture. This is a way to do that. We’re used to gathering every month through a drum or a potluck and sharing the tradition of our various cultures but Covid made it hard. The support for this has been wonderful and warm.” Marin’s Native community has been lacking a clear gathering place since Kule Loklo, a replica village built in 1976 and used as a grounds for education and celebration for decades, was shuttered nearly four years ago after the roof of its roundhouse collapsed. This month’s Powwow will commence with members of the Coast Miwok blessing the land followed by the grand entry: a Gourd Dance. The dance comes from Kiowa people, Native to the Great Plains, and is reserved for men. “In the olden times, these men would keep camp safe,” said Manny Lieras, the Powwow’s master of ceremonies. As the M.C., Mr. Lieras is the director of the Powwow and announces the various events set to take place. For him, the event is also an opportunity to address aspects of Native culture that are sometimes considered taboo in American society. Working to educate newcomers on the events and their origins allows him to break down stereotypes so visitors can learn from the event instead of observing it as spectacle. Because it’s intertribal, the Powwow allows Native people to come together and share the experience of indoctrination and colonization, said Mr. Lieras. Booths with traditional jewelry and crafts will be run by various tribes. Jason Deschler, a headman of the Coast Miwok Tribal Council of Marin, will run the Coast Miwok booth, boasting abalone jewelry. Ms. Kitchens said the feedback for this event has been so positive that MAIA had to change venues from the Fairfax Pavilion to the school in San Rafael, a spot with millennia of Indigenous history. The location was once home to Cotamkotca, a Marinwood Coast Miwok village with artifacts that date back to 1,500 B.C . When archeologists conducted an excavation in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, they uncovered over 150 artifacts, from abalone necklaces to wooden cutlery and stone tools. Burial remains were also uncovered and the site’s significance landed it on the National Register of Historic Places, spurring the creation of the Miwok Archeological Preserve of Marin. To learn more about the event, go to marinamericanindianalliance.org/