About Rendezvous Days & Pow Wow

Rendezvous Days as viewed from Grand Portage Bay

NPS Photo

Rendezvous Days is Free and Open to the Public

Held on Friday and Saturday this year, August 11-12, 2023, this event is one you do not want to miss! Music, dancing, craft demonstrations, and hands-on workshops ensure an exciting visit to Grand Portage National Monument. This year's theme is The North West Company Looks West.

Admission is free. Visitors are not required to wear period clothing. Come as you are!

View the National Park Service Centennial 2016 Rendezvous Days photo gallery.

 

Fort Union Rendezvous Demonstrator building a bull boat from willow and a buffalo hide.

NPS Photo

Rendezous Days 2023 Looks West

Historically, the North West Company and Grand Portage Trail opened the West for exploration and profit. This year, several events and workshops focus on those discoveries and the differences reflected by the new landscapes encountered in the journey across the continent. In their travels, NWC explorers see different types of headwear and clothing, different foods, even different trade goods. A highlight of the weekend will be the building and launching of a traditional bull boat made from a bison hide. At the time, birchbark canoes were the transportation of choice to navigate the riverways. In areas lacking birch trees, hide boats replaced canoes.

 

The Pow Wow at Grand Portage

In conjunction with Rendezvous Days, the annual Grand Portage Pow Wow, sponsored by the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa/Ojibwe (Anishinaabe), is an American Indian cultural gathering focused on dance, song and family celebration. Midday Grand Entry Saturday and Sunday are particularly inspirational and colorful as U.S. and Canadian flags are raised to honor military veterans from Grand Portage. Staff bearers lead dancers, dressed in traditional regalia, into the Pow Wow ring. Through the Pow Wow, all people have the chance to experience Native American culture in a wonderful way.