To celebrate its own 50th anniversary by giving back to the community, Spokane-based Innovia Foundation is supporting the Tribal Culture pillar of the Expo '74 50th anniversary celebrations.

The Tribal Culture pillar is one of five categories that mirror the original key pillars from the World’s Fair in 1974. The largest of the tribal pillar events will be the Pow-Wow at the Falls, which will take place May 25-26 at the Spokane Convention Center and is expected to draw thousands of attendees.

“That’s donor generosity at all levels coming together to put on three months of community celebrations to celebrate Expo,” says Shelly O’Quinn, CEO of Innovia, the community foundation that serves Eastern Washington and North Idaho.

Innovia has created a fund for the powwow, and has raised over $250,000 so far through donations from tribes, the city of Spokane, and businesses, including Washington Trust Bank, STCU, and Avista Corp.

“With this powwow, I think there’s a bigger vision of having an annual powwow,” says Molly Sanchez, chief community investment officer at Innovia. “Creating that long-term legacy is a big part of what we do.”

The new annual powwow will be in addition to similar events in the area, including the annual Spokane Tribe of Indians Labor Day Powwow & Celebration.

The fund for the powwow has been created in coordination with tribes in the area and with the help of Margo Hill, a member of the Spokane Tribe and Eastern Washington University professor who is serving as the chair of the tribal pillar for the Expo '74 anniversary celebrations.

“It’s a huge opportunity for our tribal people to share their culture, to educate our neighbors, and just reclaim our traditional homelands,” says Hill, who also serves on the Innovia board. “It’s a fun and exciting time.”

Hill says the powwow will include the top tribal drum group in the nation.

As chair of the tribal pillar, Hill communicates with tribes and Expo '74 anniversary organizers, sets up meetings, and does background work to ensure the various events happen, she says.

“It’s so important that we are able to come back and really have all of our events, songs, music, and culture in the city of Spokane,” Hill says. “I was only six years old, but I remember Expo '74.”

The Spokane Falls was a gathering place for tribal communities in the area prior to Expo '74, O’Quinn says.

“This year, it’s just an opportunity to recognize that this has been a traditional meeting place,” she says. “It just felt really powerful to be able to honor and recognize the communities that have been here long before Expo was even here.”

Innovia will continue raising money for the powwow fund for future years, O’Quinn says.

                                                                                                                                                                              -Dylan Harris
Innovia Foundation CEO Shelly O'Quinn says there are six tribal communities in the 20-county region Innovia supports. 

“Whatever is not spent on the powwow this year will get put into the fund to be spent to support future powwows,” says O’Quinn.

As part of the partnership with the region’s tribes, Innovia also helped buy billboard space to promote the powwow, Hill says.

The relationships that Innovia has within the Spokane-area community helps to maximize tribal participation in the Expo '74 anniversary celebrations, Hill says.

Sanchez adds, “We can’t celebrate community in an authentic way without recognizing and celebrating the Native American culture and roots in this region. That’s really important to us.”

Other upcoming Tribal Culture pillar events include a fashion show and music festival, a Native American theater performance, an environmental legislative conference, canoe races, a salmon feed, various history tours, a Native film festival, and multiple spoken word events.

“This Expo 50th celebration is an opportunity for our artists,” Hill says. “We are authors. We are poets. We are filmmakers. We are drummers and dancers, and we have a beautiful culture.”

Innovia has worked with tribes in the area in the past through grant funding and other programs, says Sanchez.

“We fund not only nonprofit organizations, but also federally recognized tribes,” she says. “We’ve had an opportunity to do some pretty significant grant funding for tribes.”

O’Quinn says there are six tribal communities in the 20-county region that Innovia supports.

“That’s just such an important piece of our culture, of our history,” says O’Quinn. “It’s an area that we invest in and want to make sure that we are recognizing and celebrating, especially in this important year for us as we’re celebrating community.”

Innovia was created in 1974 by women from the Junior League of Spokane. It started out as a $15,000 fund and has since grown to over $200 million in assets.

Speaking of the foundation's founders, O'Quinn says, “They were inspired by the work being done with Expo, but wanted to make sure that those investments weren’t just happening for a time and place in '74 but were actually investments that could be made into community forever."

In addition to supporting the tribal pillar events, Innovia is celebrating its anniversary with a host of community-inspired events throughout the year.