A free, two-day powwow is returning to Little 5 Points next month, bringing drummers, dancers, flute storytelling, and fry bread to 1136 Austin Ave. on November 21 and 22. The gathering, now in its fifth year, opens its gates at 10 am both days and is part of a week of festival programming.
The First Voices Festival was planned in 2022 by 7 Stages Theatre, Turtle Island Trading, and the Little 5 Points Historic Cultural District & Business Association, according to ArtsATL. Zintkala Zi PowWow presents the powwow. Local organizers launched the event so Native community members could directly shape and present their own cultural programming rather than have it filtered through outside institutions. As Secret Atlanta reports, this year's festival celebrates Indigenous culture, art, and activism across multiple neighborhood venues.
Saturday's powwow schedule opens at 10:30 am with flute and storytelling from William Harjo, a Muscogee (Creek) elder who has shared his stories, music, and fine flute-crafting techniques nationwide, per the same Secret Atlanta report. Danza Azteca Acitlalmichitli performs at 11:20 am and again at 2 pm, and Grand Entry — the powwow's ceremonial opening — happens at noon. Exhibition and intertribal dancing follow at 12:30 pm and 3 pm, with closing ceremonies and a raffle drawing at 4:45 pm ahead of the 5 pm end time.
A Festival Rooted in Muscogee Land
Atlanta and the Little 5 Points district sit on ancestral Muscogee (Creek) land, from which Muscogee populations were forcibly removed by federal and state governments in the 1820s and 1830s, the report notes. Muscogee people were forcibly relocated to Oklahoma. First Voices brings Indigenous-led cultural programming to the neighborhood, according to ArtsATL.
The festival's outdoor powwow programming is led by Buffalo, the powwow's creative director, through Zintkala Zi PowWow; Buffalo is the brother of Tatankala “Buffalo” Yellowbird, an Oglala Lakota citizen. One of the festival's founding partners, Turtle Island Trading Company, has deep roots in the neighborhood: the shop was established in 1988 as Coyote Trading and rebranded in 2021 after being purchased by Carmen Halagahu and Oglala Lakota artist Yellowbird, per ArtsATL. Food at the powwow comes courtesy of Apache chef Tina Reyes of Rez Juice, who will serve sweet and savory fry bread alongside rezberry juice made with Indigenous berries from across the Southeast.
Art of Activism Night Tackles Colonization and Faith
Ahead of the powwow, 7 Stages Theatre hosts a free Art of Activism program on November 20 in Little 5 Points. The evening includes storytelling and music from Harjo, joined by Mitch Walking Elk, a singer-songwriter of Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho heritage, for conversation and music-making. A pre-show reception offers a meal alongside conversations about the Doctrine of Discovery and Christianity's role in colonization, according to Secret Atlanta.
7 Stages Theatre, which hosts the program, was founded in 1979 in Little 5 Points as a nonprofit professional theater focused on social justice and politically engaged performance art. The venue has anchored the neighborhood's arts scene for more than four decades.
Documentary Screening Closes Out the Festival at the Plaza
The festival wraps on November 27 with a screening of *The Doctrine* at the Plaza Theatre, a film by Gwendolen Cates with an original soundtrack by Pura Fé. Tickets for the screening will be available soon, per Secret Atlanta. The Plaza Theatre itself opened in 1939 in Briarcliff Plaza and stands as Atlanta's oldest continuously operating independent movie house, a designated city landmark on Ponce de Leon Avenue.
*The Doctrine* follows Indigenous teenagers from Minneapolis–St. Paul who traveled to Rome to urge Vatican officials to repudiate the doctrine, and it features Indigenous activists in Aotearoa New Zealand, Guatemala, New Caledonia, and Puerto Rico. The film portrays the Doctrine of Discovery as targeting communities of color, originating the transatlantic slave trade, and enabling corporate forces driving the climate crisis, according to Secret Atlanta's coverage. Pairing live powwow arts with documentary screenings at the Plaza is a First Voices tradition — the festival previously presented *RUMBLE: The Indians Who Rocked The World* in 2023 and *Bad River* in 2024.
The Legal Doctrine Behind the Film
The Doctrine of Discovery refers to 15th-century Vatican decrees that authorized conquest and colonization; the term codified racism and slavery, became international law, and was enshrined in U.S. law in 1823, per Secret Atlanta. That legal framework entered U.S. property law through the Supreme Court's 1823 decision in *Johnson v. M'Intosh*, which established that European discovery conferred legal title on the U.S. government while diminishing Native rights to occupancy, according to Native Law Group.
In March 2023, two Vatican dicasteries issued a joint statement formally repudiating the political Doctrine of Discovery, stating that the 15th-century papal bulls used to justify colonial land seizures did not reflect Catholic faith teachings, as reported by Vatican News. The Vatican's statement acknowledged the historical suffering caused by expropriation and forced assimilation policies. The repudiation has called existing legal precedents into question and could open the door to challenges, according to Native Law Group.
Both the Art of Activism program and the First Voices Festival itself are free to attend, with the full powwow weekend running November 21-22 at 1136 Austin Ave. The festival's lineup includes music, storytelling, traditional food, and film across three Little 5 Points-area venues.
