An A-Z visitors guide to Milwaukee Wisconsin. Sponsored by Key Magazine Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/161205
Indian Summer Festival celebrates rich cultures - past and present WHAT DOES the first Native American saint, Olympic-style amateur boxing and the Great Lakes and Great Nations have in common? Find out at Indian Summer Festival, North America's largest cultural gathering of its kind, Sept. 6-8 at Henry Maier Festival Park along Milwaukee's lakefront. For the 27th year, the Summerfest grounds will be transformed into an indigenous setting, rich with traditional music, crafts, villages and dancing, plus new and contemporary features. On Sunday, Sept. 8, at 10 a.m., Archbishop Jerome Listecki presides over a special Mass to celebrate Saint Kateri. She was canonized by Pope Benedict XVI in October 2012, and a special exhibit hosted by Marquette University is planned all weekend. Also new this year is Olympic-style boxing. Native boxing legends Virgil Hill (Ojibwe tribe) and Marcus Oliveira (Menominee tribe), will greet crowds. Hill is a five-time world champion and recently inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame. Oliveira is a WBA Light Heavyweight Contender who is ranked #1 in his class. Both will be joined by "a reunion" of retired Native boxers from Wisconsin tribes who will also share boxing stories in and out 48 of the ring. Olympic contenders will spar for actual points towards their Olympic journeys. Festival favorites include: • 10th Annual Indian Summer Music Awards (ISMA), with a special program Saturday night. • Contest Pow Wow running all weekend long. • Spectacular fireworks display Saturday featuring a torch-lit canoe procession. Canoe rides are available during the day Saturday and Sunday. • Nationally known contemporary and traditional performers, including Brulé, Michael Jacobs, Cody Blackbird, the Indian Summer All Star Band, Aztec dancers and the immensely popular "Fiddle & Jig" competition. New this year: Native Pride Dancers and the Strawberry Moon Womens Singers (hand drum group). • Traditional villages showcase tribal diversity; a juried "Circle of Art" features Native artists who display and sell their works and a marketplace includes artisans who demonstrate and sell beadwork, fingerweaving, bows and arrows, corn husk dolls, pottery, baskets and more.