Round Dance

The Round Dance is a nighttime social and ceremonial gathering rooted in Plains traditions and embraced by San Francisco’s intertribal Native community. Singers and hand drummers lead songs while participants join hands and move together in a circle for hours, creating space for healing, love, and connection.

The American Indian Cultural Center’s annual Round Dance is a nighttime social and ceremonial gathering rooted in Plains traditions, adapted for the Bay Area’s intertribal community. Singers and hand drummers form the heart of the circle, leading round dance songs while attendees—Native and non-Native—join hands and move together in a slow, side-stepping circle for hours, often framed as a “Sweetheart Night” to honor love, kinship, and community care. The event usually runs into the late evening, with food, visiting, and laughter between songs, offering space for healing, remembrance, and joy for an urban Native community that is often dispersed across the region.