The Black Hills Pow Wow brings in dancers and spectators from around the world. More than 100-thousand dollars are awarded during the three day competition. Now, organizers are trying to make it the largest pow wow in the Nation.
Stephen Yellowhawk is the Black Hills Pow Wow President. He says the pow wow is already one of the top five largest in the world.
“A lot of people just love coming to the Black Hills to participate in the pow wow. And that continues to grow every year as well.”
And an event that size is good for Rapid City’s economy. Last year the pow wow brought more than 2.8 million dollars to the community.
“You know people come here, they spend money to take care of their families. And some of them use this as their vacation. So they’re coming with this money they’ve saved all year to spend it here in the Black Hills.”
Yellowhawk says the pow wow has grown significantly in the past five years, largely due to community support.
“Every year it’s getting better and better making our jobs a lot easier and easier knowing that we have the prize money in place, the sponsorship in place to be able to afford the prizes.”
There’s more than one hundred thousand dollars in prizes and 36 dancing categories. Yellowhawk says that helps put the event the map as part of the pow wow trail.
“All the major pow wows throughout the year, the people that are in competition, that they travel to. This is one of the destinations.”
The Black Hills Pow Wow runs Friday through Sunday. The Rapid City area school district plans to bus about four thousand students to the event.