17 Beautiful Images from Oroville’s Jim Preston Memorial Pow Wow

Over the Memorial Day weekend, there were many pow wows held across Turtle Island. One pow wow we always look forward to hearing about is the one held in Oroville, California because we know photographer Paula Schultz will be on hand to take a ton of photos! This year was no exception and she has shared with us a beautiful recap of the day. Read more below from Paula!

This past Memorial Day weekend marked the 19th Annual Oroville Pow Wow. The Pow Wow was named the James Preston (2 Bulls) Memorial Pow Wow last year, to honor his passing. Preston, a long time member of the Pow Wow committee, was a member of California’s Pit River tribe.

This year’s Pow Wow was held on the beautiful lawn outside of Berry Creek Rancheria’s gymnasium, adjacent to Gold Country Casino. The 2-day event was hosted by the Gold Country Casino, and carried a variety of co-sponsors, including the Berry Creek Maidu Tribe, Mooretown Maidu Tribe, Sierra Pacific Management, AAA Insurance, and Paula’s Photo Art.

There was an exciting list of dances and special events, including Royalty coronations (4 categories), Aztec dancers, Tiny Tot dances and the Memorial Head Dress dance. The head dress dance has selected dancers (an Elder, an military Vet and a respected Father) that led the “Dance of Remembrance” to honor our departed family and tribal members. This dance has been a focal point of Oroville’s Memorial Day weekend for the past 15 years.

This year's head staff included Crystal Vigil Madril, Head woman (Jicarilla Apache) and Michael Singh, Head Man (Patwin/Wintu/Miwok/Chickasaw)

Familiar faces from California’s Pow Wow trail were seen enjoying the singing of the Host Drums, Blood River Singers from Porterville, and Southern Express Singers from Manteca, CA.

Thanks for sharing these gorgeous images with us Paula!

Paula Schultz is Oroville Pow Wow’s official photographer and has many more Pow Wow photos on her website: paulasphotoart.smugmug.com