Winner of the combined teen jingle dance, 13 year-old Jocelyn Phoenix of the Navajo/Tohono O’odham nations and from Rosemead, California, mid dance. | Credit: Elaine Sanders 
Combined teen jingle dance competitors in the dance circle on Saturday. Both Traditional (feather fans) and Contemporary (bandanas) jingle dance was allowed in the division, each having different movements and regalia. | Credit: Elaine Sanders 
Junior Grass Dancer in Saturday’s competition. The exact origins of the dance are contested, but it is widely agreed that the dance came from warrior traditions of the Northern Great Plains. | Credit: Elaine Sanders 
Junior Grass Dancer in Saturday’s competition. The exact origins of the dance are contested, but it is widely agreed that the dance came from warrior traditions of the Northern Great Plains. | Credit: Elaine Sanders 
Junior Grass Dancer in Saturday’s competition. The exact origins of the dance are contested, but it is widely agreed that the dance came from warrior traditions of the Northern Great Plains. | Credit: Elaine Sanders 
Junior Grass dancer in Saturday’s competition. The exact origins of the dance are contested, but it is widely agreed that the dance came from warrior traditions of the Northern Great Plains. | Credit: Elaine Sanders 
Grass dance competition on Saturday. | Credit: Elaine Sanders 
Girls in the Teen Jingle Dance competition mid-dance. Both were dancing Traditional or Old Style Jingle dance, holding a bandana rather than a feather fan. | Credit: Elaine Sanders 
Drum teams lined the dance circle, creating the beat with their instrument and singing for each of the dance competitions. They themselves were also competing for a chance to win the grand prize of $17,000. | Credit: Elaine Sanders 
Dancer in the Junior Fancy Dance competition. The style of dance, also known as the Fancy War dance, originated in Ponca Tribe in Oklahoma in the early 1900s. | Credit: Elaine Sanders 
Native artisans and sold their wares under canopies surrounding the dance circle over the weekend. | Credit: Elaine Sanders 
Fancy shawl dancer competing on Saturday. | Credit: Elaine Sanders 
Fancy shawl dancer competing on Saturday. Fancy shawl is the newest style competitive dance, created in the 1950s, and it is seen as the counterpart of the men’s fancy dance. | Credit: Elaine Sanders 
Fancy shawl dancer competing on Saturday. Movements in this high-energy, fast-paced dance mimic those of a soaring bird or butterfly. | Credit: Elaine Sanders 
Fancy shawl dancer competing on Saturday. Movements in this high energy, fast-paced dance mimic those of a soaring bird or butterfly. | Credit: Elaine Sanders 
Dancers lining up for judging after completing their dance in the Junior Boys’ Southern Straight dance division. | Credit: Elaine Sanders 
Drum teams lined the dance circle, creating the beat with their instrument and singing for each of the dance competitions. They themselves were also competing for a chance to win the grand prize of $17,000. | Credit: Elaine Sanders 
Fancy shawl dance rose in popularity in the 1950s and 60s, along side the Women’s Liberation Movement. Traditionally, women were only allowed to dance slowly with restrained movements on the edge of the dance circle, while men danced energetically in the center. Fancy shawl turned this notion on its head, and women today glide across powwow dance circles just as quickly as the men. | Credit: Elaine Sanders 
Fancy shawl dancers compete in the Golden Age Women’s division for dancers older than 60 on Saturday. | Credit: Elaine Sanders 
Fancy shawl dancer competes in the Golden Age Women’s divisions for dancers older than 60 on Saturday. | Credit: Elaine Sanders 
Dozens of spectators filled the bleachers on Saturday afternoon despite temperatures reaching 100 degrees. | Credit: Elaine Sanders 
“Tiny Tots,” children under 6 years old, grace the dance circle dressed in regalia. After their dance, kids received gift bags courtesy of the Romero family. | Credit: Elaine Sanders 
Although powwows are not customary in Chumash traditions, the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians has been hosting an annual powwow for more than 60 years. Chumash children, dressed in regalia adorned in abalone and cowrie shells joined the dance circle during youth dances and Grand Entry. | Credit: Elaine Sanders
[Updated: Thu., Oct. 8, 2026, 1:20pm]
Indigenous dancers and drummers from nations across North America competed for prize money at the annual Chumash Intertribal Powwow in Santa Ynez over the weekend. The two-day event drew hundreds of spectators, despite the temperatures hitting triple digits.
Although powwows are not customary in Chumash traditions, the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians joined the powwow trail in 1965 to raise funds to bring running water to the reservation. It became an annual tradition for the tribe, and a way to celebrate the broader native community through cultural song and dance.
Surrounding the dance circle was a pop up marketplace selling native wares and food including fry bread and indian tacos. Over the course of the weekend, more than $167,000 in money and prizes was awarded to dancers competing in age divisions from “Tiny Tot” to “Golden Age” and to the drummers setting the tempo.
