Programs & Events

Metropolitan Community College's annual International Fair features diverse stage entertainment, cultural displays and opportunities to learn from distinguished artists. The spacious sunlit South Omaha Campus Connector Commons is an ideal location to highlight the cultural and artistic diversity that continues to weave the fabric of South Omaha. A U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services naturalization ceremony welcomes new U.S. citizens at the beginning of the International Fair annually. This event is family friendly and free and open to the public.

Cinco de Mayo, or the fifth of May, is a holiday that celebrates the date of the Mexican army’s 1862 victory over France at the Battle of Puebla during the Franco-Mexican War. The day is also known as Battle of Puebla Day. While it is a relatively minor holiday in Mexico, in the United States, Cinco de Mayo has evolved into a commemoration of Mexican culture and heritage, particularly in areas with large Mexican-American populations.

In 1978, a joint congressional resolution established Asian/Pacific American Heritage Week. The first 10 days of May were chosen to coincide with two important milestones in Asian/Pacific American history: the arrival in the United States of the first Japanese immigrants (May 7, 1843) and contributions of Chinese workers to the building of the transcontinental railroad, completed May 10, 1869.

In 1992, Congress expanded the observance to a month-long celebration that is now known as Asian-American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Per a 1997 U.S. Office of Management and Budget directive, the Asian or Pacific Islander racial category was separated into two categories: one being Asian and the other Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander.

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) Pride Month is currently celebrated each year in the month of June to honor the 1969 Stonewall Uprising in Manhattan. The Stonewall Uprising was a tipping point for the Gay Liberation Movement in the United States. In the United States the last Sunday in June was initially celebrated as “Gay Pride Day,” but the actual day was flexible. In major cities across the nation the “day” soon grew to encompass a month-long series of events. Today, celebrations include pride parades, picnics, parties, workshops, symposia and concerts, and LGBTQ Pride Month events attract millions of participants around the world. Memorials are held during this month for those members of the community who have been lost to hate crimes or HIV/AIDS. The purpose of the commemorative month is to recognize the impact that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals have had on history locally, nationally, and internationally.

The Student Alliance for Everyone (SAFE)

SAFE is the MCC student organization for LGBTQ+ and Allies. The primary mission of SAFE is to provide a sense of community and a safe space by fostering a social network where all identities are respected and by organizing events to facilitate connections and friendships among queer students and with others. SAFE is free to join, and you can participate to the extent your schedule permits. Being a member can even remain anonymous, if you prefer.

Juneteenth (short for “June Nineteenth”) marks the day when federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas in 1865 to take control of the state and ensure that all enslaved people be freed. The troops’ arrival came a full two and a half years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. Juneteenth honors the end to slavery in the United States and is considered the longest-running African American holiday.

Confederate General Robert E. Lee had surrendered at Appomattox Court House two months earlier in Virginia, but slavery had remained relatively unaffected in Texas—until U.S. General Gordon Granger stood on Texas soil and read General Orders No. 3: “The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free.”

The Fort Omaha Intertribal Powwow highlights Native American dance, music, regalia, oral history and arts. With its rich ties to Native American history, where Ponca Chief Standing Bear and his people were detained pending the 1879 landmark civil rights case granting Native Americans the right of Habeas corpus, the Fort Omaha Campus continues to offer an ideal location for this outdoor community event uniting people of diverse cultures, races, socioeconomic backgrounds and ages. This event is family-friendly and free and open to the public.

Celebrating Native American cultures, the powwow honors the traditional dance, music, artistry, oral history and foods of various tribes across Nebraska and the surrounding region including Omaha, Ponca, Santee Sioux and Winnebago.

34th Annual Fort Omaha Intertribal Powwow Head Staff

Emcee: Samuel J. Grant, Umónhon
Arena Director: Gabriel Barea, Umónhon
Head Man Dancer: Todd Ike, Umónhon
Head Lady Dancer: Kari Hinman, Ponca
Host Northern Drum: Oyate Eyuskinpi, Sicangu Lakota
Host Southern Drum: Southern Tunez
Reigning Princess: Zaida Teboe, Ponca/Winnebago
Head Princess Judge: Kylesse Walker, Umónhon- Jr. Miss USD Tiospaye

Vendor registration information at mccneb.edu/powwow/vendors

Free and open to the public
Questions? Contact interculturaled@mccneb.edu, (531) 622-2253 or (531) 622-2662

34th Annual Fort Omaha Intertribal Powwow Sponsors

Watch previous Intertribal Powwow videos:

• 32nd Annual (2023)
• 31st Annual (2022)
• 30th Annual (2021)
• 29th Annual (2020)
• Powwow Committee

The Fort Omaha Intertribal Powwow committee is a gathering of MCC students, personnel and community members who work year-round to develop, implement and evaluate the powwow and all related aspects of the celebration. Membership is open throughout the year.

During National Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15 to October 15) we recognize the contributions made and the important presence of Hispanic and Latino Americans to the United States and celebrate their heritage and culture.

Hispanics have had a profound and positive influence on our country through their strong commitment to family, faith, hard work, and service. They have enhanced and shaped our national character with centuries-old traditions that reflect the multi-ethnic and multicultural customs of their community.

Hispanic Heritage Month, whose roots go back to 1968, begins each year on September 15, the anniversary of independence of five Latin American countries: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. Mexico, Chile and Belize also celebrate their independence days during this period and Columbus Day (Día de la Raza) is October 12.

The term Hispanic or Latino, refers to Puerto Rican, South or Central American, or other Spanish culture or origin regardless of race.

International Education Week is typically held the third week of November, is an opportunity to celebrate the benefits of international education and exchange worldwide. This joint initiative of the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Department of Education is part of efforts to promote programs that prepare Americans for a global environment and attract future leaders from abroad to study, learn, and exchange experiences. Individuals and institutions interested in international education and exchange activities are encouraged to participate in International Education Week by holding related events in their local communities.

Since 2014, MCC has commemorated International Education Week with an evening event called Global Voices & Perspectives featuring a keynote message, cultural entertainment, an international photo contest and food. Since the end of Fall Quarter falls in November, this event is held in October in anticipation of International Education Week.

What started at the turn of the century as an effort to gain a day of recognition for the significant contributions the first Americans made to the establishment and growth of the U.S., has resulted in a whole month being designated for that purpose. Native American Heritage Month is currently celebrated in November.

One of the very proponents of an American Indian Day was Dr. Arthur C. Parker, a Seneca Indian, who was the director of the Museum of Arts and Science in Rochester, N.Y. He persuaded the Boy Scouts of America to set aside a day for the “First Americans” and for three years they adopted such a day. In 1915, the annual Congress of the American Indian Association meeting in Lawrence, Kans., formally approved a plan concerning American Indian Day. It directed its president, Rev. Sherman Coolidge, an Arapahoe, to call upon the country to observe such a day. Coolidge issued a proclamation on Sept. 28, 1915, which declared the second Saturday of each May as an American Indian Day and contained the first formal appeal for recognition of Indians as citizens.

The year before this proclamation was issued, Red Fox James, a Blackfoot Indian, rode horseback from state to state seeking approval for a day to honor Indians. On December 14, 1915, he presented the endorsements of 24 state governments at the White House. There is no record, however, of such a national day being proclaimed.

The first American Indian Day in a state was declared on the second Saturday in May 1916 by the governor of New York. Several states celebrate the fourth Friday in September. In Illinois, for example, legislators enacted such a day in 1919. Presently, several states have designated Columbus Day as Native American Day, but it continues to be a day we observe without any recognition as a national legal holiday.

In 1990 President George H. W. Bush approved a joint resolution designating November 1990 “National American Indian Heritage Month.” Similar proclamations, under variants on the name (including “Native American Heritage Month” and “National American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month”) have been issued each year since 1994.