"The 27th annual UCLA powwow kicked off this spring as many powwows do: with a Gourd Dance. Half-a-dozen men circle a large drum, singing as they pound it with mallets. Next to them, in a circle of grass, four older men in dress shirts and pants, draped with blue and red blankets and crowned with fur caps, shake rattles and bounce to the rhythm. A couple dozen families and friends watch from beneath canopies rimming the arena.

Others mill about at food and craft booths. When the dance is done, one of them--actor Saginaw Grant--addresses the crowd.

"These songs are very old songs composed by different ones throughout the years," said Grand. "They’re for everyone around this arena, even our relatives who aren’t here today our loved ones these songs are for them. I feel I’m following in the steps of my elders. I’ve heard many times when they talk about this drum they say it’s the heartbeat of our people.""

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Even today, American Indian powwows bring tribes together (KPCC 5/31)