Amid the wail of song, the clinking of cowbells and the thump-thump of drums, it was easy for people to remember that they were part of something bigger, a tapestry stretching far back.

That was part of the point of this weekend's annual Seafair Indian Days Pow Wow: to provide a chance for the area's approximately 45,000 indigenous peoples to recall and share their heritage with others of Native and non-Native backgrounds.

"It's like sharing our culture of the south with people from the north," said San Francisco's Ricardo Peņa, an artist of Aztec background whose display tables featured Navajo and Huichol crafts.

But under the afternoon sun pounding the crowded grassy meadow behind Discovery Park's Daybreak Indian Star Cultural Center yesterday, it wasn't hard to look forward, either, and hope that vendors didn't run out of fry bread by the time you got to the front of the line.

Ten thousand visitors were expected to attend the 20th-annual event, coordinated by the United Indians of All Tribes Foundation (UIATF)

and featuring 500 dancers and drummers from around the region. The pow wow continues today with more dancing, a salmon bake and the crowning of this year's Seafair Indian Days Princess.

Dozens of arts and crafts vendors ringed the dance circle, along with booths representing everyone from the Northwest Native American Basketry Association to the U.S. Department of the Interior's Office of the Special Trustee for American Indians.

Jody Hawzipta of Federal Way loved the feeling she got just by being around so many others of Native heritage, a sensation she described as almost spiritual.

"You can feel it in the air," said Hawzipta, who traces her background to Oklahoma's Kiowa people. "All that music — it touches you. You think of the old days, when people were banded together."

For Khia Grinnell, of Sequim, a 19-year-old of Jamestown S'Klallam and Lummi background, the pow wow was a chance to continue the basket-weaving tradition of her grandmother, Elaine. "It's remembering where you came from," she said.

And it was a chance to recall those who had gone before — such as activist Bernie Whitebear, who led a Native American takeover of Fort Lawton in the early 1970s, which in turn led to the cultural center's creation.

Whitebear, who died of colon cancer in 2000, was memorialized by UIATF interim director Phil Lane Jr. in an address to the crowd.

"These dancers dance, but they do not dance alone," Lane said.

A history scarred by conquest was nevertheless one of pride, he said, in never having surrendered ancestral values, or the power to forgive. "We're only here for a short time, but we continue forever."

Marc Ramirez: 206-464-8102 or mramirez@seattletimes.com