Showcase celebrates Native heritage through art, music and tradition

North Dakota’s Indigenous community shared its culture through art, stories, music and dance during the North Dakota Native Heritage Showcase at the state Capitol in Bismarck on Friday, according to the North Dakota Monitor.

The event, part of Native American Heritage Month, featured vendor tables with handmade jewelry, paintings, books and other items. Brad Hawk, executive director of the North Dakota Indian Affairs Commission, said the showcase highlights diverse Native cultures and local nonprofit groups. “It’s more than music. It’s more than regalia. We have different aspects of the culture in arts,” Hawk said.

United Tribes Technical College instructor Dakota Goodhouse played a traditional wooden flute and shared its history, while vendor Melanie Schwab of The Modern Sioux in Mandan displayed jewelry made from animal parts to honor ancestral practices.