For participating Native Americans, the American Indian Pow Wow Association's annual pow wow this weekend is an opportunity for inter-tribal bonding.

"We get together with local and some Mainland tribal groups to dance, share our culture and exhibit artifacts," said Daniel Yanagihara, a pow wow organizer for about 29 years. Yanagihara is not Native American, but his wife is, with Kansas roots.

"There will be a Native-American-style wedding," Yanagihara said of the ceremony that the public can witness today, and a "giveaway" is set for tomorrow. A "giveaway" is an expression of gratitude — not a prize — and grass dancer Mike Running Wind Villanueva, a U.S. Marine Corps sergeant, will share prayer and thoughts of good will (hence a "giveaway") before giving gifts to family, friends and the community for their support during his recent tour of duty in Afghanistan.

Yanagihara became enmeshed in Native American ways when he attended Oklahoma State University. "I started collecting artifacts, including spearpoints and arrowheads, when I lived among the tribe people while in school," he said.

For White Crow, a beader who creates decorative loom necklaces suitable for wall hanging, the pow wow is a means to perpetuate his culture and roots.

"For the native people, the gathering is very important, an inter-tribal thing, when we see people from other tribes — not just one," said White Crow, 70.

Of his beads handicraft, White Crow, a member of the Onondaga tribe (part of the Iriquois confederation, which included five nations from the Hudson Valley to the Ohio Valley), said he's had to modernize.

"Loom beadwork might be called art; my people originally used wampum beads (an ancient form of exchange)," he said. "Now I use Czechoslovakian glass beads, because wampum beads, originally in white or purple, are not readily available."

He is one of about 30 vendors at the pow wow; other items include pottery, kachinas, dreamcatchers and flutes.

Reach Wayne Harada at wharada@honoluluadvertiser.com.