Returning The Gift

Description

In 1992, nearly 400 Native writers and storytellers gathered at the University of Oklahoma (OU) for what would prove to be watershed event for Native literature. Titled, "Returning the Gift: A Festival of Native North American Writers," this historic event- held 500 years after the arrival of Columbus- birthed two sister organizations: Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers (WC) and Native Writers Circle of the Americas (NWCA). Collectively, these organizations offered the only awards given by Indigenous writers to Indigenous writers. Twenty-four years later, while organizers began to create the 25 th anniversary conference, the two organizations reincorporated into an umbrella nonprofit organization, Returning the Gift, Inc. (RTG).