With a booming thud, the drum group begins playing traditional Native American dance music. The group’s singers belt out Lakota (Sioux) lyrics as a woman dressed in regalia begins performing a jingle dance. The bells and metal on her dress create a melodic rhythm, sending energy to spirits as she moves in a circle.

This isn't a traditional powwow. Instead, it's a dance exhibit at Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha. The drummers and dancers are part of a group of young Native Americans who have embraced their roots.

With more than 80 Indigenous nations and tribes represented across Omaha, Bluebird Cultural Initiative works with urban Native Americans to reconnect them with their tribal cultures, traditions, and history.

"We're giving our young people opportunities to understand why they feel so proud," said Nicole Benegas, Bluebird's executive director. "They all feel proud about saying they're Native, regardless of the level of cultural connection that they may come to us with.” We are giving them a way to voice how important it is to them, sharing what they know in the community.

"People don't realize how big the Native community is, not just in the Omaha area, but in Nebraska, and so they feel invisible."

More than half of the nation’s Native Americans live in urban environments since the passage of the Indian Relocation Act of 1956. The federal legislation “encouraged” Native Americans to leave reservations for jobs and better housing in large cities. Both of which often didn’t happen for those leaving the safety net of reservation life. 

Relocation - along with the Indian Termination Act of 1953, which removed hundreds of tribes from federal recognition – led to a disconnect from tribal culture and traditions.

Bluebird seeks to fill that gap.

"We're really focused on revitalizing cultural practices, traditions, just the history and teaching the other kind of narrative that hasn't been taught in the schools and community-at-large," Benegas said. "We're giving them a good basis for who they are and their self-identity, increasing their own empowerment and self-worth. And knowing that they have a space to call home."

Bluebird is the creation of artist Steve Tamayo, a citizen of the Sicangu Lakota Nation in South Dakota. Tamayo realized the need to work with urban Natives after spending time on the Standing Rock (South Dakota) reservation in 2016, while protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline project, said Benegas, who is Tamayo's daughter. He created education programs for young people participating in the protests.

Bluebird is a nonprofit organization whose primary focus is providing support services to Native American youth and their families, Benegas said. She said the organization offers youth programming, including after-school and summer programs.

"Young people can feel like this is a space for them to be uniquely themselves, that they're welcomed the way they are," Benegas said. "They have a variety of understanding of cultural background."

Urban Native American youths are often raised without a sense of tribal identity or connection, she said. A majority of Omaha’s Native families seem to be multiracial and carry many identities, she said.

Several Native Americans are in non-traditional situations, such as single-parent homes where that parent is not Native, Benegas said. Some Native American children may have been adopted into non-Native families, she said.

Organizations such as Bluebird, Urban Indian Health Coalition, and others offer opportunities Native Americans don't find in society, she said. With about six dedicated organizations in Omaha, each tends to specialize in areas such as domestic violence, substance abuse, and healthcare, Benegas said.

Culture is vital for Native American survival, so adults and elder tribal members fill roles of support for young people, bringing the connection to culture or traditional knowledge, Benegas said.

"Including cultural programming, or anything that is a cultural kind of spirituality, increases the protective factors for the community," Benegas said. "It provides them a sense of belonging and increasing their self-awareness and identity. So that's really what we focus on. We do a lot of traditional arts, whether that's regalia, or beading.”

"We do help a lot with ceremony, pieces of different things that are going on. So, while we support the families, we're also supporting maybe some of the health care and other Native organizations that are wanting to provide services."

About 50 people participate in weekly youth programs including support groups for girls and boys, as well as drum, dance, and fitness classes, she said.

Bluebird offers classes for toddlers learning to walk,  Benegas said. It's common to see young children dressed in regalia dancing with the older children during powwows.

The organization also honors tribal elders by providing space and support for those wanting to meet socially, she said.

Seeking to help the “whole person,” Bluebird refers people with substance abuse issues to organizations that may be able to offer the help and support the person needs, including Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous, Benegas said.

While Bluebird Cultural Initiative focuses on serving Native American youth, the organization also offers professional development for area businesses, colleges, and healthcare institutions, Benegas said. 

“A lot of it is just cultural humility and not completely focused on Natives, but just understanding how to best work with minority populations,” she said. “Some of the barriers or reasons behind things, giving them some history as to why you may see a disconnect between some of the minority communities with the community-at-large.”

Partnerships with community organizations are key to Bluebird’s survival, Benegas said. The University of Nebraska Medical Center helps with research material and programs, she said. Metropolitan Community College, the University of Nebraska system, and Methodist Hospital have also contributed services.

“We do a lot of work with Boys Town because we have a lot of young Native people who reside there,” Benegas said. “They've been very open to providing extra services to those young people who come from out of the area, with transportation and for family to be able to come and visit them.”

Whether it’s beadwork, dancing, or just learning about their tribe’s history, young Native Americans know they have a place where they can be comfortable among others who are like them.

“If somebody teaches us something, we should be sharing that with the next one next to us, so that we can continue a tradition and a way of life that so many people have fought for, for us to be able to do now,” Benegas said. “It was only in the last 50 years that we've had the ability to practice our traditions, to be open as Native people in embracing our culture, our values. We have come a long way in those 50 years, but there's a lot of things that we still have to continue to address that happened before that.” 

Tim Trudell is a freelance writer and online content creator. His work has appeared in Flatwater Free Press, Next Avenue, Indian Country Today, Nebraska Life, Nebraska Magazine, Council Bluffs Daily Non-Pareil and Douglas County Post Gazette, among others. He is a citizen of the Santee Dakota Nation.