Lawrence Ortiz, a Pomo dancer, with his respective tribe during the Native American Heritage Celebration at Mendocino College’s Pomo Plaza in Ukiah, Calif., on Nov. 15, 2023. (Tony Novelli via Bay City News)

Mendocino College’s California Indian Heritage Celebration will be held Thursday at the college’s soccer field in Ukiah. 

The California Indian Heritage Celebration is being held by Mendocino College’s Native American Student Success and Support Program and its events committee. The free event is open to the community and will feature local Native American dancers, live music and cultural workshops. Vendors will sell food, art, jewelry, and people can enter a raffle for prizes. 

The program’s manager Brian Williams said the celebration is important because it increases representation of tribal groups in the local community.  

“For our community, it’s great to see representation of our Native American population at the higher education level,” Williams noted. “For us to come together as one for a big event like this, is special for all of us.” 

Williams said it is unique to have such a large tribal celebration in a section of the county that is not a designated reservation but is ancestral Pomo land. 

(L-R) Shawmn Smith-Harjo and Sesilia Rios, Pomo dancers, with their respective tribes during the Native American Heritage Celebration at Mendocino College’s Pomo Plaza in Ukiah, Calif., on Nov. 15, 2023. (Tony Novelli/Bay City News)

“It’s nice to take space at a place like Mendocino College. They have opened the gates for us to have this event and cultural practices on what they have also acknowledged to be tribal land,” Williams said.  

The California Indian Heritage Celebration will be held Thursday from 5-9 p.m. at Mendocino College’s soccer field in Ukiah. For more information, people can contact nativeamerican@mendocino.edu.  

This story originally appeared in The Mendocino Voice.