Wearing colorful clothes and headdresses of eagle feathers and porcupine quills, American Indians once again held a powwow in Garden of the Gods on Saturday, a sacred gathering place held off-limits to such celebrations for 32 years.
“This feels like coming home again,” said Sebrena Forrest, a Mohawk.
For centuries the park’s iron-rich sandstone pillars and lush vegetation had been used as a sacred gathering place not only by the Utes, an indigenous tribe that called this area home, but at least a dozen other nomadic tribes that passed through the Pikes Peak region.
In the late 1970s, however, complaints of downed trees and trampled grass led to a ban of such celebrations.
American Indians in the region instead held powwows in the Norris-Penrose Events Center and basketball courts.
The discord between American Indians and the city grew deeper about 13 years ago following construction of the Garden of the Gods Visitor Center — a move viewed by tribal members as a desecration of the sacred grounds of the park.
But relations have eased.
