The Pokagon Band of Potawatomi invites the public to its eighth annual Oshke-Kno-Kewéwen Pow Wow, an annual celebration honoring Pokagon veterans and the community’s Eagle Staff.

The gathering of traditional singing, dancing and culture will be Saturday and Sunday, May 27 and 28, at the Pokagon Band’s pow wow arena, located at its Rodgers Lake campus, 58620 Sink Road, Dowagiac. Parking and admission are free.

Oshke-Kno-Kewéwen in the Potawatomi language refers to a new eagle staff, which is much like a national flag. The Pokagon Band veterans constructed two eagle staffs that hold dozens of eagle feathers, each representing a tribal family.

This pow wow honors the staffs and the hundreds of Pokagon veterans and past tribal leaders represented on it.

The grand entries for the pow wow, which are the formal start of the dancing and songs, are at 1 p.m. and 6 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. on Sunday. On both mornings the vendors will set up before the dancing starts; the gates to the pow wow grounds open at 10 a.m.

This event is considered a traditional pow wow. The band’s long-running Kee-Boon-Mein-Kaa Pow Wow during Labor Day is a contest pow wow, where dancers compete before judges in different categories.

A traditional pow wow is a lower-key event focused on bringing the community together. Part-family reunion, part-traditional ceremony, a pow wow is a time for native people to celebrate their identity and to visit and share with their friends in the greater community, and for traditional drum groups to sing their songs, for tribal dancers to perform their steps and for craftsmen and women to display their handiwork.