City money helps revive powwow

This year’s powwow in Riverfront Park is back on track, thanks in part to a $10,000 grant from the city’s share of lodging tax revenue, among other donations.

But future funding for the annual Spokane Falls Northwest Indian Encampment and Pow Wow remains uncertain.

The event, which has drawn thousands of Native and non-Native visitors to downtown Spokane for the past 18 years, was in danger of being canceled this year for lack of funding, organizers said this spring.

Since then, business and city officials, encouraged by Mayor Mary Verner, have come to the aid of the Aug. 22-24 powwow.

“I’m overwhelmed and happy the community values the powwow that much,” said organizer Sharon Ortiz, Eastern Washington operations manager for the state Human Rights Commission.

Contributions are still coming in, and a tally has not been completed, but Ortiz said the funding will cover this year’s event.

In the past, the powwow was financed largely through the contributions of area tribes and urban Indian organizations. Last year’s powwow cost nearly $27,000, Ortiz said. This year, organizers feared those contributions alone would be inadequate amid rising costs.

After the powwow committee raised the alarm in late May, Verner called a meeting of public and private groups to see what could be done to help.

When a one-time distribution of an additional $125,000 in lodging tax grant money became available this summer, the powwow committee applied for $25,000 of it. However, the city had already requested $75,000 of the funds for the 2010 U.S. Figure Skating Championships.

The remaining portion was divided on the recommendation of the Lodging Tax Advisory Committee among eight groups, according to Spokane City Councilman Steve Corker, a committee member. The powwow received $10,000.

“It had strong support from all of the committee members,” Corker said, because of the event’s historical and cultural significance.

Verner said the allocation of lodging tax money to the powwow sets a good precedent that will help the committee compete for future grants, which are based largely on a project’s ability to generate hotel and motel stays.

The mayor also said she would like to see a permanent committee work year-round to secure powwow funding. It is important, she said, “because this city is built on the ancestral lands of the people who have lived here for thousands of years.”

The Riverfront Park powwow is attended by Native Americans from across the Northwest and Canada. Many of their ancestors once lined the shores of the Spokane River during annual salmon runs.

Among those individuals helping to raise awareness of and financial support for the powwow are former Mayor Sheri Barnard and Spokane businessman Don Barbieri, Ortiz said. Besides the tribes, major donors this year include Northern Quest Casino, the NATIVE Project, the state Human Rights Commission, Avista and the Spokane Regional Convention & Visitors Bureau.

Harry Sladich, president of the bureau, said Spokane must make the effort to keep the event.

“The history of an Indian encampment on the banks of the Spokane River is just too important to lose,” he said.