Henderson Indigenous American event celebrates, shares Native cultures

Ingrid Ivarsson walked the Water Street Plaza wearing an intricate black regalia.

Around her ankles, the rattling of ayoyotes — hard shells with beads inside — counted her every step. From her neck hung a bat-shaped pendant made with black and dark purple beads. And on her head was a copilli, a crown adorned with white, tan and royal purple feathers splayed like a peacock’s tail.

Ivarsson’s outfit was one of many Native American traditions displayed during Henderson’s annual Indigenous American Heritage Celebration on Sunday. She said the gathering was an opportunity to have a “multicultural, intercultural trade” among different Native populations.

“We’ve been here for 22,000 years. So after colonization, a lot of people lost their traditional ways,” Ivarsson, of a mixed Indigenous background, said. “They lost their language, their culture, their medicine — it was a complete different set of rules. Reclaiming and going back to your traditional medicine, your traditional ways, it’s a way to reconnect with our past and reconcile with our past.”

The event drew hundreds to browse hand-crafted goods sold by Indigenous retailers, eat from Mexican and Hawaiian food vendors and learn about Native cultures through music, dance and storytelling. The plaza’s grass field served as a stage for hoop dances and wooden flute performances, while sales booths circling it displayed arrays of clothing, art prints, badges and jewelry.

Ivarsson’s mother hosted a sales booth with handmade clay pots and whistles from Teotihuacan, an area northeast of Mexico City, as well as bags of copal, an aromatic tree resin burned for medicine in Aztec and Mayan cultures.

Some jewelry retailers at the celebration said their art served as a reflection of their cultural backgrounds.

Bonita Tsosie’s booth held countless rows of rings and earrings, with many containing turquoise, a mineral she said is worn in Navajo culture for protection. Tsosie said she values sharing her culture through events like Sunday’s celebration so it isn’t lost to history.

“We’re all different in our own ways, and what is valued to us should be shared with others,” Tsosie said. “If we share our culture and the values behind it, the storytelling behind it, then they have an understanding of it so they have that respect for us as Indigenous people.”

Another Navajo jeweler, Cheryl Diggins, said she grew up in a family of artisans, with parents and relatives skilled in silversmithing, sculpting and basket weaving. Diggins even recalled herding sheep on a reservation and spinning their wool so her great-great-grandmother could weave rugs out of it.

Now, Diggins is carrying on the artistic tradition through the beaded necklaces and earrings she has spent almost her entire life making.

“Our culture is beautiful, and it should be shared,” Diggins said.

Contact Spencer Levering at slevering@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0253.