Many students, staff, and faculty from the Zuckerman College of Public Health joined the UArizona 2024 Spring Social Pow Wow, the first to be held in 10 years, to connect and celebrate Native American cultures and communities from around the university and across Arizona.

Many students, staff, and faculty from the Zuckerman College of Public Health, including representatives from our Office of Student Affairs, our IndigiWellbeing program, and our CoVHORT research study, joined the UArizona 2024 Spring Social Pow Wow. This Pow Wow was the first to be held in 10 years and was organized to connect and celebrate Native American cultures and communities from around the university and across Arizona.

Our college staff who attended were especially impressed by the number of Native alumni from our college who stopped by our tables to say hello and catch up. We want to thank all our Indigenous alumni for visiting us at the Pow Wow and for the work they do to build healthier communities in Arizona!

The 2024 Spring Social Pow Wow gathered local Native American and non-Native American community members together for a celebration of Native American cultural dancing, singing, artistry, health, wellness, and prayer. An important cultural event, the Pow Wow reinforces cultural traditions and highlights the many different backgrounds of the Native American students, faculty and staff at the university. There are approximately 150 different tribal communities represented on our campus, and over 570 federally recognized tribal communities in the United States. The Pow Wow was coordinated in collaboration with the Tucson Indian Center, a local social service and health agency that provides a variety of support services for thousands of urban Native American community members and the Center is an important community partner for the University of Arizona students, faculty, and staff.

The collaboration between the Tucson Indian Center and the University of Arizona in this endeavor is historical in that both entities have hosted their own individual Pow Wow in previous years. The last “University of Arizona Wildcat Pow Wow” was held 10 years ago. In its most prominent years, during the 1990’s, it was organized and run by student organizations on campus.

Sponsors of the 2024 Spring Social Pow Wow include the Tucson Indian Center, the Office of Native American Advancement and Tribal Engagement, Native American Student Affairs, the Agnese Nelms Haury Program in Environment and Social Justice, the Indigenous Resilience Center, Native American Initiatives, Native SOAR, and Indigi Wellbeing.