Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation Presents the Orme Dam Victory Days

The Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation invites the public to join them as they present the 37th Anniversary of the Orme Dam Victory Days Celebration at the Fort McDowell Rodeo Grounds on November 16, 17 & 18. This 3-day event has become an annual tradition for the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation as they share its historic significance in our country’s history.

This year’s celebration features an All-Indian Rodeo, Intertribal Powwow, a Yavapai Village showcase of cultural performances from different tribes of the Southwest, basketball, softball and golf tournaments, authentic native food vendors, a Tribal Parade, Arts and Crafts vendors and Live Music Entertainment.

This historic event celebrates the tribe’s victory over the federal government during their battle over the proposed Orme Dam that would have flooded a majority of the Fort McDowell Indian Reservation located 35 miles northwest of Phoenix. The proposed dam would have resulted in relocation, loss to crops, livestock, burial grounds, and historic sites just to name a few.

The Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation is a 950 Native American tribe that call Central Arizona’s upper Sonoran Desert home. Located to the northwest of Phoenix within Maricopa County, Arizona, the 40 square mile reservation is a small part of the ancestral territory of the one nomadic Yavapai people, who hunted and gathered food in a vast area of Arizona’s desert lowland and mountainous Mogollon Rim country.

For questions about the Orme Dam Victory Days Celebration, call 480.789.7106 or visit www.fmyn.org. The Fort McDowell Rodeo Grounds are located at 9500 S. Rodeo Drive in Fort McDowell, AZ 85264. Hours are Friday, November 16, 4 p.m. to midnight, Saturday, November 17, 7 a.m. to midnight and Sunday, November 18, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Event is free. Parking is $10.