For decades, the Indian Summer Festival was an important staple for Milwaukee’s Native community and a time for others to learn about Indigenous cultures.
Traditionally held the weekend after Labor Day, it drew up to 45,000 visitors over three days for 32 years.
Then it ended in 2019.
Although a big success in its early years, it eventually became too much for the small nonprofit organization that ran it, from handling all the associated costs to recruiting and training the hundreds of volunteers needed every year.
But Indian Summer’s cancellation left a hole in the Native community, and in those who loved attending it.
“I’ve been running into so many people in the Milwaukee area asking me when is Indian Summer coming back,” said Butch Roberts, an Oneida who was the Indian Summer Festival director when it started in the late ‘80s.
So, Roberts and other Native organizers from the Milwaukee area recently formed Indian Summer Festival Inc. with the purpose of creating a new iteration of the festival celebrating Indigenous cultures.
The organization is starting with a Spring Pow Wow and Native Art Market at the Waukesha Expo Center, a new event to be held March 28 and 29.
Organizers said the expo center is likely going to be their home, at least for the foreseeable future. They don’t foresee moving back to the lakefront grounds, partly because of the higher costs of being on the lakefront, and partly because they’ve transitioned toward an alcohol-free, family-friendly focus. At the lakefront, alcohol stands would be around the pow wow grounds.
Lloyd Ninham, also Oneida, is the president of Indian Summer Festival Inc., and he said he’s looks forward to re-creating the experience of the festival for his young children, who don’t have memories of Indian Summer.
Some of his earliest memories were of getting out of school early to meet up with all the other Native kids in town as they gathered at the Summerfest grounds to support their relatives in the grand entry of the pow wow.
Roberts said the Spring Pow Wow doesn’t yet include contemporary Native music acts, such as Wade Fernandez, who were staples of the Indian Summer, but the group is looking to include them in the future.
Fernandez is a prominent, local Menominee music artist who has toured internationally and won multiple awards for his work, including best male artist of the year from the Native American Music Awards.
His performances became a staple at Indian Summer at the beginning of his career in the late ‘80s.
Fernandez would have jam sessions with Shawano-based Wolf River Band, late renowned Oneida comedian Charlie Hill, and crossover star Freddy Fender, who told him he should use part of his translated Menominee name of “Black Wolf” on stage.
In a Journal Sentinel interview, Fernandez said he remembers one year at Indian Summer after his set he was excited to see Redbone play there. The Native American rock band is best known for its hit “Come and Get Your Love.”
He said the band saw him with his guitar in the audience and invited him on stage for a jam session. Redbone members later invited Fernandez backstage and asked if he might want to join the band in the future. Soon after, Fernandez left to play a music tour in Germany and when he returned, his mother told him Redbone had called. It was a time before cellphones, and Fernandez said he missed his opportunity to join the band.
He said there were a lot of great memories from Indian Summer and he always saw it as a place and time to meet with family and friends from all over Indian Country.
“If it comes back, it could bring people back together again in person,” Fernandez said. “Nowadays, I just see everybody on Facebook. [Indian Summer] was a big part of my coming up as a music artist.”
The Native Art Market opens at 9 a.m., March 28 and 29, at the Waukesha Expo Center. The Powwow grand entry is at 1 p.m., both days, as well as 7 p.m., Saturday. Admission is $10; parking is free.
Frank Vaisvilas is a former Report for America corps member who covers Native American issues in Wisconsin based at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Contact him at fvaisvilas@usatodayco.com or 815-260-2262. Follow him on X at @vaisvilas_frank.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Indigenous group hopes to bring back feel of Indian Summer Festival
Reporting by Frank Vaisvilas, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
