Three Fires Powwow Still Burning Strong

Levi Rickert, editor-in-chief in Native Currents. Discussion »

They came to celebrate their ancestors, heritage and culture.

GRAND RAPIDS – The 33rd Homecoming of the Three Fires Powwow met along the banks of the Grand River just north of downtown Grand Rapids over the weekend in Riverside Park. The name 'Three Fires' represents the three American Indian tribes, Ojibwe, Ottawa and Potawatomi, that lived in Michigan prior to Euro-American contact.

Today members of the Three Fires can still trace their ancestry back centuries and they came to celebrate their ancestors, heritage and culture in one of the region's largest powwows. It is estimated that over 30,000 people attend the powwow during the course of the weekend.

In conjunction with the powwow, one other event, the 17th Annual Sobriety Walk, was held on Saturday. The Sobriety Walk is a walk of more than two miles from Canal Park to Riverside Park.

Sobriety Walk participants support alcohol-free and drug-free lifestyles among the American Indian community.

“I have been clean and sober for 28 years and we pray for our people who struggle with the alcohol,”

stated John Bush, a former council member of the Gun Lake Tribe, during the invocation at Saturday afternoon's Grand Entry.

“We are thankful for those who walked this morning in the Sobriety Walk.”

posted June 11, 2012 8:30 am edt