Petal - Southern Miss 2019 Powwow set for April 13-14 at Willie Hinton Park

Preservation of Native languages will be an integral part of programming for this year's Petal (Mississippi)-Southern Miss Powwow, to be hosted April 13-14 by The University of Southern Mississippi's (USM) Center for American Indian Research and Studies and Golden Eagles Intertribal Society. Admission is free.

The Powwow will be preceded by a Native Ways School Day April 11 with more than 100 area 4th grade students expected to attend. All Powwow-associated events will take place at Petal's Willie Hinton Park, located at South Main Street and West 8th Avenue.

Dr. Tammy Greer, associate professor of psychology at USM, director of the Center and coordinator of the Powwow, said the event gives USM and other area college students, as well as those in K-12, a chance to integrate arts, sciences, education, and health concepts into their academic experiences, while also engaging local communities in Native-focused arts, crafts and games, with a special emphasis this year on Southeastern Indigenous languages.

“We all know words are used to communicate, but they also frame the way we think about the world, so it's important for the continuation of our cultures to continue speaking, or relearn, our Native languages,” Dr. Greer said. “In order to support that at the Petal-Southern Miss Powwow, we'll have speakers of different Indigenous languages speak to us periodically. And to make it fun, we will have a scavenger hunt for kids where clues and directions are given in Choctaw.”

The Petal-Southern Miss Powwow schedule of events includes:

Saturday, April 13

*Gourd Dancing, 11 a.m. and 5 p.m.
*Grand Entry, 1 p.m. and 7 p.m.

Sunday, April 14

*Gourd Dancing, 11 a.m.
*Grand Entry, 1 p.m.

For more information about the 2019 Petal-Southern Miss Powwow, contact Dr. Greer at tammy.greerFREEMississippi.