Seas of beaded fringe and long, braided hair twirled through the air in the Cal Poly Humboldt’s Forbes Complex West Gym on Saturday.
The performers — from elders to newborns swaddled in their arms — spun around the front of the room, bouncing rhythmically to the beat of the drum circle. The smell of sage, frybread and coffee infused the air. Rows of tables lined the perimeter of the gym covered with ribbon skirts, jewelry made with abalone and beads, jam, children’s books and clothing.
This year marked the 16th annual California Big Time & Social Gathering, hosted by the campus Indian Tribal & Educational Personnel Program (ITEPP), which drew in hundreds of people throughout the day.
ITEPP Coordinator Sasheen Raymond has been helping organize Big Time since she was a student at then Humboldt State University in 2008. Big Time was first introduced in 2008, after a four-year hiatus of Indigenous cultural gatherings on campus. Before Big Time, HSU hosted an annual powwow, but the tradition ended in 2004.
Students, staff, faculty and community members expressed their desire to bring back a similar gathering. However, powwows are not traditionally held in California, according to Raymond, and they wanted the event to accurately reflect and honor the traditions of California Natives.
“To honor the culture of California Natives, we decided to host a Big Time because that’s what California Natives do,” Raymond said. “We see this as a cultural sharing and an opportunity to really honor the first peoples of California.”
The gathering started with a welcome by CPH President Richard Carvajal and Big Time Master of Ceremonies Ernie Albers Jr. Throughout the day, attendees could catch performances by groups such as Round Valley Feather Dancers, Red Cedar Drum, XA-Batin Feather Dancers and Tuolumne Band of Mewuk Dance Group.
“It’s good practice for the youth to be able to dance and showcase their beliefs, their ideals, the way they pray, and be vulnerable,” Albers said. “Practicing being vulnerable is hard. I’ll tell people that, ‘I want you to practice so much that when you’re getting to dance for real, that you’re not thinking about what you’re doing. You’re feeling it and that’s your prayer.’”
More than 50 vendors attended Big Time, many of them selling handcrafted Indigenous goods. Other vendors included organizations that empower local Indigenous people, such as Two Feathers Native American Family Services and the Cal Poly Humboldt Rou Dalagurr Food Sovereignty Lab.
Danielle Frank, who is Hupa and Yurok and enrolled in the Hoopa Valley Tribe, co-owns Nungxosting Designs with her cousin Julianna Pol. This year was Frank and Pol’s third time tabling at the gathering but they’ve been attending Big Time since they were little kids.
“We look forward to it every year, like just getting to get together with people in a good way,” Frank said. “Especially at a college, because I feel like institutions have been, in the past, pretty harmful to our people, but throughout the years Cal Poly has grown a lot into a safe space for Native students and brown people in general.”
Outside the gym, attendees formed drum circles, children played with chalk and food trucks lined the parking lot, with Living the Dream Ice Cream, Los Guiles Taqueria, Manzanilla Kitchen and Native-owned Frybread Love forming a makeshift food court.
Bree Guijosa, a senior wildlife major, explained why she decided to attend Big Time and support local Indigenous vendors.
“I think it’s very important for us to remember that people existed before western farming practices, before western colonization,” Guijosa said. “Remembering that and knowing that there’s communities that exist here that depend on the land and depend on the healthy environmental practices — it’s a big reason why I got into environmental studies.”
After the gathering ended, many attendees stayed to socialize and tell stories. Douglas Duncan, a member of the Round Valley Feather Dancers, was one of several performers who hung back after the Closing Prayer. Duncan reflected on why having cultural gatherings like Big Time is so important for the younger generations.
“Today I told the people out here, ‘Don’t be embarrassed. You know, I’m still doing it. Come out and show your pride,’” Duncan said. “And that’s what it’s all about. It gives to the children. It gives them something to grow up and see and appreciate. The ones that are here, that are running around and playing and stuff, they’re going to remember this.”
Mia Costales is a senior journalism major at Cal Poly Humboldt. She is the news editor at El Leñador, the student-run bilingual newspaper. Reach her at costalesmia@gmail.com.
This article appears in Taco Week 2026.