On Wednesday evenings, laughter and conversations echo through an old elementary school where people bead bracelets, swap stories and sew dresses for an upcoming powwow. Outside, kids race across the grass, practicing archery and playing stickball — games passed down through generations of Native American families.
It’s all part of Austin’s Native American Cultural Center, which opened this fall in the former Brooke Elementary School campus that closed in 2020. The new East Austin center offers a place to gather, connect and celebrate culture, said Nan Blassingame, the center’s creative director and a member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes.
“It was unreal, so unreal, that we’re here,” Blassingame said. “Ten years of ideas rolling out like waves. They’re coming at us fast this year. Everything I’ve ever dreamed up in the past 10 years for this organization is coming this year so quickly.”…