Native American celebration returns to Queens County Farm Museum

The Thunderbird American Indian Dancers are back at the Queens County Farm Museum for a weekend-long celebration of Native culture. Photo by MM Photography, courtesy of Thunderbird Dancers

By Rachel Vick

The Queens County Farm Museum is hosting the Thunderbird American Indian Dancers 42 Annual Grand Mid-Summer Pow Wow this weekend, inviting New Yorkers to learn and participate in traditions that predate the United States.

The three-day event kicks off Friday at 6 p.m. with inter-tribal Native American dances and more than 40 vendors selling indigenous food, crafts clothing and jewelry during the city’s largest Powwow.

“Thunderbirds powwow is, at the heart of it, a social gathering where people can get together and people who haven't seen each other for a long time can be family again, and this is representative of people from nations across America,” said spokesperson Solomon Mendelsohn. “You can be really transported into a whole different view of the universe.”

“For us it's very important that we’re finally able to get together again… to carry on with the Native American cultures which have been going on for thousands of years and present this to the wider community,” Mendelsohn, who is not indigenous, added.

The Hopi, Winnebago, Cherokee, Kiowa, Lakota, Navajo, Santo Domingo, Taino, Matinecock, Shinnecock, SanBlas Kuna, Rappahanock, Choctaw, Osage and Delaware Nations will be among those represented over the weekend.

Performances include hoop and gourd dances — traditionally used to welcome warriors back — and the first two nights will end with a sunset bonfire lighting. Attendees will also have the opportunity to participate in dances.

Dancers, including children seven and younger, will be able to compete for cash prizes across nine categories. Registration is free with attendance.

Mendelsohn said that because the event is open to the greater community, everything will be thoroughly explained to ensure the experience can be “educational, entertaining and spiritually uplifting.”

Brooklyn-born Louis Mofsie, whose father is Hopi from Arizona and whose mother is Winnebago from Nebraska, founded the Thunderbirds more than three decades ago to promote Native culture in schools across the tri-state area.

Advance ticket purchase is required and can be bought per day or as a weekend pass.

All proceeds will go towards the Thunderbird American Indian Dancers scholarship fund and the QCFM educational fund.