Trek North powwow centers youth, culture and community in Bemidji

A student-planned powwow at Trek North made Indigenous culture visible inside the school day for a campus where about 60% of students are Indigenous. The third annual Honor the Youth powwow brought students, staff and community members to the Bemidji charter school at 2400 Pine Ridge Ave. NW on Tuesday, May 26, filling the afternoon with dancers, drumming, color guard, princesses, shared food and time for families to gather.

The event was more than a performance. The school’s student powwow committee spent five months planning it, and students said the goal was to bring youth into cultural spaces while keeping traditions present in school life. One committee member said people could expect a big community presence and a full powwow atmosphere. Another student dancer said events like this matter because they help keep Indigenous culture incorporated into school life, a difference that can shape whether Native students feel seen when they walk into class, join activities and move through the building each day.

That fit the school’s stated mission to “empower young people to be healthy, critical thinkers who engage meaningfully in their communities.” TrekNorth Junior & Senior High School opened in 2003 with 160 students in grades 9-12, added a middle school in 2006 and sixth grade in 2013, and now serves about 245 students in grades 6-12. Its program includes college readiness, service learning, outdoor programming and American Indian education, which helps explain why a powwow on campus carries institutional weight, not just symbolic value.

TrekNorth’s American Indian Education page says the school provides services for American Indian students and families. Its American Indian Parent Advisory Committee page says parent involvement is key to Native student success and ties that work to the Indian Education Act of 1972. The school also lists a Native American Youth Council among its clubs, showing that cultural programming at Trek North is not confined to one afternoon.

The powwow also built on an event that was already taking root in Bemidji. A second annual Honor the Youth powwow was listed at TrekNorth Green Space in 2025, with grand entry at 1 p.m., suggesting the school has been steadily turning the gathering into a recurring tradition. For families connected to Trek North, the message was clear: education, identity and community do not have to happen in separate places. At this school, they were happening in the same room, on the same day, in front of the same community.