The Department of Native American Studies has canceled this year's UC Davis Pow Wow, an annual event in April that draws Native American contestants from throughout the United States and Canada.

Instead, the campus will spend the coming year on refocusing its energies restructuring the pow wow for spring 2007, said UC Davis Professor Hulleah J. Tsinhnahjinnie.

A campus committee will be studying structural needs of the program and will explore ideas for other alternatives.

"We want to return to the roots of traditional pow wows, the foundation being non-competitive with a local community orientation," said Tsinhnahjinnie, a professor of Native American studies. "We also want to capitalize on our academic strength as one of the three Native American studies departments in North America."

In lieu of the pow wow this year, the Native American studies department collaborated with the C. N. Gorman Museum's International Indigenous Photo Conference and Native American Cultural Days Program.

The annual UC Davis event grew in size and complexity over three decades so that it eventually overwhelmed its organizers, a small staff and group of students in Native American studies.