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Ruben Martinez, a Lipan Apache from McAllen, is expected to be among Native Americans from North and South America — plus the Tainos of Puerto Rico, to gather for this weekend’s Sacred Springs Powwow on the shores of Spring Lake. Daily Record photo by Anita Miller

Celebrating the Native heritage many Texans share

Sacred Springs
Friday, November 16, 2018

Sometimes, things you were led to believe turn out to not be exactly true. 

Some people have traveled great distances to learn that simple fact; but in San Marcos we are lucky. A two-day lesson in real history — not the stuff in the textbooks — will unfold this weekend when Native American tribes from the North and South assemble on the shores of Spring Lake for the Sacred Springs Powwow.

It’s been well established that people have lived along the shores of the lake that now covers San Marcos Springs for more than 13,000 years. It’s also been established that the site has been continuously inhabited since then. Thus comes the challenge to “history.”

At the time Europeans discovered what they would later name the San Marcos River (in honor of St. Mark, on whose feast day explorers first saw the springs bursting forth from the land), some 200 or more Native American groups called Central and South Texas home. 

Generations of Texas schoolchildren were taught that these people “disappeared” in the face of European colonization — but in fact they did not. How they coped, who they became and what traditions they continued to observe are among the wisdom the Indigenous Cultures Institute (ICI) exists to impart to a new generation.

According to Maria Rocha, the institute’s executive director, many local Hispanic families are actually descendants of these tribes, known collectively as Coahuiltecans. Much of that history has been lost, she says, though the ICI hopes to remedy that, both through the Powwow, an Indigenous Arts Summer Encounter held each summer with free admission for local students, and other ongoing educational activities.

Gates open for the powwow at 10 a.m. both Saturday and Sunday, and each day’s activities begins with a river blessing. The origin story of the Coahuiltecan people says they emerged from the underworld through an opening — a spring — that is now at the bottom of the lake. Thus, the waters and springs are both sacred.

Saturday’s schedule also includes Gourd Dancers at 11 a.m., Tiny Tots at 12:30 and a Grand Entry with all tribes in full regalia at 1 p.m. Afternoon dancers include Aztecs at 2 p.m. Powwow dancers will be front and center at 3 p.m. with Gourd Dancers returning at 6:30 p.m., a second Grand Entry at 7 p.m. and more Powwow Dancers prior to the 9 p.m. closing prayer.

Sunday’s schedule is much the same, with Gourd Dancers at 11 a.m. followed by a Grand Entry at 11:30 and the Taino Dancers at noon. Powwow finals and Interbribal Dances become the focus at 12:30 followed by Aztec contests at 1 p.m. 

Dance contest winners will be announced at 4:30 p.m. in advance of the 5 p.m. closing prayer.

Parking for the event is available in the East and West parking lots of Bobcat Stadium.

Along with dancing are dozens of vendors selling food and Native American crafts. 

Sponsors include the San Marcos Arts Commission, the Tomblin Family Foundation, the Miakan-Garza band of Texas, the Texas Commission on the Arts, Precision Camera, Friends of the Powwow and Pedernales Electric Coop.

Admission is free for students in the San Marcos CISD and at Texas State University. For more information visit Indigenous Cultures Institute's website or call 512-393-3310.

San Marcos Record

(512) 392-2458
P.O. Box 1109, San Marcos, TX 78666