The pow wow featurea Native American dancing, drumming, singing, storytelling, arts and crafts, a silent auction and food.

In conjunction with the pow wow, there will be a school outreach program from 9:30 a.m. today through 12:30 p.m. at Lydgate Park Pavilion, located on Nalu Road in Wailua.

Fifth graders will be introduced to various dance styles and the Native American drum. There will be a table where children can explore and touch the materials used to make traditional dance regalia, including deer hide, furs, feathers and bone hairpipe.

Wild Horse Drum from Southern California will be on hand to answer questions and sing songs.

The gates to the pow wow grounds at Kapa'a Beach Park will open at 4 p.m. today. Dr. Jane Ely (Cherokee/Mi`kmaq) and Steve Wolf (Cherokee) will be leading a Stomp Dance, starting about 7 p.m. and going until 8:30 p.m. On Saturday, gates open at 9 a.m., with Grand Entry starting at 10 a.m., and a full day of pow wow until 6 p.m.

Sunday, Grand Entry will again be at 10 a.m. with an earlier Retreat at 4 p.m.

The theme of this year's pow wow is "Honoring Our Veterans." On a per capita basis, Native Americans provide more members to the Armed Forces than any other ethnic group.

Although the best known Code Talkers today are the 400 Navajo Marines who served in the Pacific during World War II, Choctaw Indians provided similar services during World War I and Comanche Code Talkers helped defeat Hitler in Europe during World War II. Native American Code Talkers transmitted information on tactics, troop movements, orders and other vital battlefield information via telegraphs and radios in their native languages.

A major advantage of these native codes was the speed with which messages could be transmitted.