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Indian Summer Festival
Makes a Splash in Milwaukee



This year’s Festival runs Sept. 8–10. Admission is $10 for adults in advance ($12 at the gate) and $7 at the gate for kids ages 7–12. Tickets can be purchased via phone with a credit card. Details at 414/604-1000 or www.indiansummer.org

Indian Summer Festival, held at Henry Maier Festival Park on Lake Michigan’s waterfront in Milwaukee, bills itself as “North America’s largest American Indian festival,” and there is no denying its impressive range of activities and large crowds. To pull off, the event requires a large, all-Native board of directors headed by James Warren (White Earth Chippewa) and the talents of executive director Judy Dordel (Oneida), but with the event’s 20th anniversary upcoming this fall, the team seems to have it down to a science.

“There are so many facets to the festival, and so much to see and do,” notes Dordel. “Reasons for our success range from our beautiful lakefront location to the great shopping, and of course the powwow, which offers another wonderful way to experience our traditions. But I’d have to say our thousands of hard-working volunteers are the single most important reason we are reaching our second decade.”

This year’s powwow, September 8–10, will dish out some $50,000 in prize monies in age categories spanning tots to seniors, and host grand entries at 7 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and 1 p.m. on Sunday. During intertribal dances, audience members will be invited to join in. Juried arts and crafts—from sculpture, pottery and jewelry to furniture, clothing and leatherwork—will be on sale by artists from both near and far, as well as books, CDs, blankets and many other goods in a large commercial market. The Natural Path area offers traditional herbal medicines and healing techniques.

Also on tap is the third annual Indian Summer Music Awards, being held Saturday evening. Awards will be presented in 13 categories to leading Native musicians and bands, with a terrific cross-section of performances. Live music will be also presented throughout the festival on five stages from bands including Eagle & Hawk, Brulé, Milwaukee’s own Wade Fernandez, Douglas Spotted Eagle, Martha Redbone and the Flying Feather Band. The Aztec Dancers, hoop dancers, storytellers, Native comedians and other performers will round out the entertainment.


Other components of the festival include a tribal village filled with traditional home structures, a buckskinner’s encampment, a lacrosse tournament and demonstrations, a parade across the grounds on Saturday at 3 p.m., a two-mile walk/run on Sunday morning, some 30 traditional and regular food vendors, a hands-on crafts area for youth and adults, a Native veterans photo exhibition, and cultural demonstrations such as beading, finger weaving and quillwork. Major fireworks shows on Friday and Saturday nights will be preceded by torch-lit canoe processions.