The spring equinox is a time of new beginnings, indicating the end of hibernation and a return to growth. In Iowa City this year, it marked the transition of a former industrial site into a future community garden and gathering space.
The Great Plains Action Society’s Spring Equinox celebration on March 21 brought people together on the site of their new community space on Maiden Lane for performances by the Buffalo Eagle Singers and Ioway Dancers, prayers, reflections, a free First Foods meal and a discussion of plans for the new Indigenous-led “resilience hub” taking shape on the property.
“It wasn’t necessarily a grand opening,” the group’s founder Sikowis Nobiss said. “It was the beginning of us in our space starting in a good way.”
The event was centered around a land blessing. Physically, the plan is to develop the space into classrooms, a gathering area, a teaching kitchen, gardens and a healing house. There are also plans for a mutual aid café and resources for small businesses to get started. But what they’re building isn’t just a place, it’s meant to be something bigger.
Nobiss said the hub is intentionally urban and community-focused. Although it is open to everyone, the main focus is creating a welcome place for people who have historically been pushed to the margins: Indigenous communities, people of color, women, LGBTQ and two-spirit people, disabled people and migrants.
“We’re building a micro-community,” Nobiss said. She imagines it expanding naturally, “Like a Petri dish growing until we fill the entire area… until we fill the entire world.”
A large part of Great Plains Action Society’s focus is on the land itself — showing respect for the countless generations that cared for it before colonization, and nurturing it to best serve the community.
Part of what makes the project significant is where it’s happening. Rather than building in a rural setting, the hub is located in an urban area, meeting folks where they are. Nobiss pointed out that most Indigenous people today live in cities, not on reservations. At the same time, access to land remains limited.
“In rural areas … most of the land is owned by white folks,” she said.
The goal is not just to occupy the land, but to reshape it. “This land has been harmed,” Nobiss said. “And we’re going to continue to heal the land, and with it, heal ourselves.”
“Land is the only thing that is real,” Nobiss continued. Systems, structures, and economies can change. Land remains, and how it is treated shapes what comes next. Plans for the land south of downtown Iowa City include expanding into an urban farm, creating a land trust and building a system that sustains itself, and teaches locals to do the same.
“We build power through community,” Nobiss said. “And community is what was taken from us.”
Members of the Buffalo Eagle Singers wear traditional-style regalia during the Great Plains Action Society’s Spring Equinox celebration in Iowa City. Saturday, March 21, 2026. — M.T. Bostic/Little Village 
Community members gather and perform during the Spring Equinox celebration in Iowa City at the future site of the GPAS Resilience HUB and mutual aid garden. Saturday, March 21, 2026. — M.T. Bostic/Little Village 
Nate Scates sings and plays the drum during the Great Plains Action Society’s Spring Equinox celebration in Iowa City. Saturday, March 21, 2026. — M.T. Bostic/Little Village 
A sign reading “We Are on Native Land” is displayed at the Great Plains Action Society’s Spring Equinox celebration in Iowa City. Saturday, March 21, 2026. — M.T. Bostic/Little Village 
A anti-ICE sign reading “Get a warrant” is displayed on the front of the main building at the site of the Va future Indigenous-led resilience hub in Iowa City. Saturday, March 21, 2026. — M.T. Bostic/Little Village
That connection between land and community is central to what many indigenous groups call “rematriation.” The idea goes beyond simply reclaiming land. It focuses on restoring balance by creating systems that prioritize care, sustainability and shared responsibility.
“The matriarchy makes sure that everybody at the table is fed,” Nobiss said. “It makes sure that everybody is taken care of.”
That nurturing mindset showed up throughout the event itself. There was food for everyone, made from ingredients and recipes that predate European colonization, i.e. First Foods. Space was made for elders. Kids moved freely through the area. People weren’t just attending, they were participating.
Some of the most personal reflections came from those taking part in the ceremony. Ukeegray (English name Nate Scates) is one of the Buffalo Eagle Singers, and he spoke about the role and of the drum and singing in his life.
“You can’t just sit down and hit the drum,” he said. “You gotta be respectful of that drum.”
For Scates, that relationship became a way to survive. After struggling with alcohol, he said it was his art and connection to culture that helped him stay sober. “The only thing that carried me was the drum.”
Nearby, dancer Christina Wedner wore a jingle dress she made herself, each piece placed with intention.
“This is a medicine dress,” she said. “I prayed as I put every cone on.”
Her dress also carried meaning tied to missing and murdered Indigenous women. As she led the attendees in a traditional round dance, she explained the communal nature of the act.
“There’s no competition in the circle,” she said. “That dance is for everyone.”
By the end of the day, the structure of the event gave way to something more informal: people eating, talking and staying a while.
The equinox marks a shift, a movement from one season into another. In Iowa City, spring equinox 2026 also marked a space being transformed — the early stages of something that the Great Plains Action Society hopes will grow far beyond a single piece of land.
