Visit Milwaukee’s Indian Summer Festival Sept. 9-11

INDIAN SUMMER FESTIVAL appropriately celebrates this year's theme, “Gathering by the Waters,” Sept. 9-11 at Milwaukee's beautiful lakefront Henry Maier Festival Park.

Festgoers of all ages enjoy cultural demonstrators, five entertainment stages with a wide range of music, lacrosse games and demonstrations, fine arts area, marketplace, American Indian foods, herbal area and more. Families appreciate that festival areas where cultural activities occur are blessed and thus considered sacred, so alcoholic beverages are allowed only around contemporary music stages.

The centerpiece of the festival is the competition pow-wow. The pow-wow amazes with its glorious mix of sights and sounds. Grand Entries are dramatic processions into the arena, and are held 7 p.m. Friday, 1 and 7 p.m. Saturday, and 1 p.m. Sunday.

The festival’s entertainment stages present a vast range of music, including: Asani, three-person, all-women, drums and rattle; Keith Secola, folk; Brule, contemporary; Eagle and Hawk (Canada) rock; C-Weed, county & western; Litefoot, rap and Red Feather Woman, folk. Other entertainment includes a Pawnee stomp dance group; Winston Wuttunee, comedian; Aztec dancers; and an Aztec storyteller. Fireworks light up the skies Friday and Saturday nights.

This year, the awards presentations for the third Indian Summer Film and Video Image Awards and the second Indian Summer Music Awards are scheduled for 7 p.m. Saturday.

Friday, a fiddle and jig competition includes a new junior division. A hand drum contest, launched last year, continues this year. New this year is a “Gathering by the Waters Parade” through the grounds on Saturday at 3 p.m. Olympic-style, amateur boxing again is part of the festival action. Also featured for sports fans are lacrosse games and demonstrations.

A “Mission Welcome Home” area for veterans provides a meeting place and information for all veterans and service personnel and their families. Indian Summer Festival also promotes the first national fund drive for the Crazy Horse Memorial Foundation at a new booth this year.

Visitors to the festival can watch people from many different American Indian nations demonstrate traditional skills–quillwork, basket making, finger-weaving and basket weaving. There also is a hands-on area where visitors can fashion their own craft items. Indian Summer's villages, where traditional dwellings are recreated, bring to life time-honored traditions. Nearby, a rustic encampment captures the daily life of the traders and settlers that lived and worked with American Indians.

The Circle of Fine Art Exhibition displays fine art with American Indian themes. Many of the country's best-known American Indian artists display works for viewing and for purchase. Of course, traditional American Indian foods are available, such as Indian Tacos, Buffalo, Turkey, Wild Rice, Wojape (pudding), and Fry Bread. At the Indian Summer Marketplace, vendors offer a huge array of American Indian inspired goods.

On Sunday, there is a non-denominational Prayer Ceremony at 10 a.m. in the festival’s pow-wow arena. Those attending the ceremony are admitted to the festival free of charge. Admittance to the festival grounds for the ceremony begins at 9:30 a.m. No one will be admitted free after 10 a.m.

Regular festival hours are 4 p.m. to midnight Friday, noon to midnight Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday. Ticket prices are $9 (advance) $10 (gate) for adults, children 12 and under are free. For more information, phone (414) 604-1000 or visit the Web site at www.indiansummer.org                      

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