Since 2021, Clark County has designated the second Monday in October as Indigenous Peoples’ Day, and Palms Casino Resort is marking the day in style!  At 1 PM on Monday, October 12, a procession of drummers, singers, and dancers will wind its way across the Palms’ casino floor before taking the stage at the Pearl Theater at 1:30 for the second annual Pow Wow Exhibition.

In keeping with last year’s inaugural event, which attracted more than 500 guests, the exhibition, presented by the San Manuel Gaming & Hospitality Authority, will showcase bird singers, pow wow dancers, and drum groups, with Indigenous performers from across Southern Nevada and the greater Southwest.

If the National Indian Gaming Commission (NIGC) is to be believed, more than 70 percent of the federally recognized Tribes in the contiguous 48 states (roughly 250 of 349) own a casino.  But out of all those, only one is currently running a Las Vegas casino: the San Bernardino-based Yuhaaviatam of San Manuel Nation, which became the first Tribe to own and operate a casino in Southern Nevada when it purchased the Palms in 2021.

The Yuhaaviatam (or “People of the Pines”) are so known because, in their telling, when the Creator died, the mourners’ grief turned them into the pine trees that covered the lands near Big Bear Lake, where they lived.  Of course, colonialism cares nothing for history or tradition, let alone names, and following the establishment of their reservation in 1891, they were designated the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians (San Manuel from the Spanish name “Santos Manuel,” which was how their Kiika’—or leader—Paakuma was known outside of the Tribe; and Mission Indians referring to the 21 missions established by Spanish settlers in California between 1769 and 1823).  The name stuck for 134 years, until April 2025, when the Yuhaaviatam adopted a new constitution and reclaimed their name.

For the uninitiated, a pow wow is a gathering where people from many different Indigenous nations come to dance, sing, and honor their ancestors' traditions, with the drum organizing everything around it.  The dancers are not entertainers, and at big competition pow wows they compete for real money.  As you’ll see, both in the recap video from last year’s inaugural Pow Wow (below) and in person at the Pearl Theater, this is an exhibition, with everything explained for newcomers.

Lest you commit a faux pas: the dancers are wearing regalia, not costumes.  And much of that regalia is assembled by families over many years and handed down across generations; so don’t touch any of it without permission, and that goes for the drums and the feathers too.  These are ceremonial, and often sacred, objects.  As Buffalo’s Fire—the Indigenous Media Freedom Alliance’s digital news site—puts it, “The drum is more than an instrument.  It carries the heartbeat of the powwow and holds a presence that many describe as sacred.”

One more, and this one’s a biggie…  If a feather falls from someone’s regalia during a dance, under no circumstances should you pick it up or photograph it.  Rather, alert the MC or the host, who will have it recovered according to proper protocols.

As for me, I’m as excited for the bird songs as for the dancers.  They are native to the Tribes of California and the Southwest, and are not about birds at all, but take their name from the migratory patterns of birds, which paralleled those of the people moving across their territory.  The bird songs tell the creation story, the animals seen along the way, and the sacred places.  The time is kept on a gourd rattle filled with the seeds of California fan palms; and when sung in full (there are more than 300), they run three nights, dusk to dawn.

And don’t worry if you can’t make that afternoon’s procession and exhibition session, because they’ll be doing it all again that evening, with the procession at 5 PM and the session in the Pearl Theater at 5:30 PM.

Finally, I’d be remiss not to mention that admission is free.  What’s more, they don’t charge for parking at Palms (neither self nor valet).  So, this might well be the least expensive afternoon of entertainment you’re likely ever to experience ’round these parts.  Besides, I’ll take a regalia-clad procession over a parade, any day!

Second Annual Pow Wow Exhibition
Pearl Theater | Palms Casino Resort
Monday, October 12, 2026 | 1:30 PM and 5:30 PM
Click HERE for info

Get into it!
#PalmsLV