Today’s Pow-Wow…. is our link to the past that helps our people keep our Native Heritage alive. It is a time for our people to be together with other family members, friends and tribes. This is our time to be our own true selves—a time of sharing, laughter, tears, and caring, for all our people. At these times we honor yesterday, live today, and strengthen our future. As Indian people, we travel hundreds of miles across the country to attend various Pow-wows. The distance, time and expense it takes to reach a Pow-wow is not of great concern to the Indian family. For we go to retouch our past, strengthen our present, and teach our young people to be proud of who the Creator made them—an American Indian. We ask ourselves how one can put time or a price tag on the preservation of a people and culture that dates into antiquity. Today’s Pow-Wow—a time to keep our life circles strong. Elder Lillian Hopkins