The Rainier District Pow Wow began in the midst of the Great Depression as a day-long community picnic at Seward Park. Between 1934 and 1992, when it ended, pow wow events paralleled what was going on in the rest of the country, celebrating neighborhood commerce in the 1930s, patriotism during World War II, the Baby Boom of the late 1940s to mid-1950s, and so on. Eventually, the pow wow became part of Seattle’s Seafair.

Here, in August 1949, Mildred Seastrom wins the 16th Annual Husband-Calling Contest with a long, loud “D-a-a-a-v-i-d!” Next to her, holding his ears, is John L. O’Brien (1911-2007), a state legislator from the Rainier Valley. O’Brien was then in his tenth consecutive year as Pow Wow Chairman. In all, O’Brien chaired the Pow Wow for 52 years, raising funds, recruiting volunteers, and promoting the event.

Caption information source: "O'Brien, John L. (1911-2007)," by Michael Hood, HistoryLink.org Essay 9675.
Caption information also derived from captions written by Post-Intelligencer staff and attached to the back of the photograph.