Photo: Fawn Douglas, Southern Paiute Dancer at Summerlin Spring Festival, 2025
On May 3rd, Downtown Summerlin (The Lawn) was graced with the presence of true indigenous culture from all around the Southwest for the Second Annual Paiute Spring Festival. The event was in collaboration with Nu Wu Art owner Fawn Douglas and Howard Hughes, the developer of the Summerlin master planned community. Bird songs filled the air as it blessed the transition from fall to spring. It was somewhat disappointing not to smell the scent of fresh fry bread. But on the other hand, Indian Voices caught up with our Southwest Paiute comic book hero Captain Paiute. This is a hard hero to keep track of and catch up with, so we truly found ourselves to be lucky during the event.
There were several craft vendors, dancers, bird singers, family, and community members enjoying the festival. Through sacred song and dance Mother Earth was blessed as she welcomes new life through spring. When attending the event, the weather was mild with a cool breeze keeping everybody comfortable.
As the last dance, also known as the round dance or inter-tribal, where everyone was welcomed to join, was to be danced, the wind fiercely picked up, and it began to rain. It rained in Las Vegas that week for the next three days. It was more rain than we’d seen in the last six months. The spring festival has seemed to do exactly what it set out to do, which was offer song, dance, and prayer to the original Paiute ancestral lands and everyone on them. Thank you for our spring blessing to start fresh and make a difference in our community.
