Four Winds was born in 1995, upon our realization of the human tragedy suffered by America's First Nations and of our ignorance about their cultures. It was important for the founding members of Four Winds to break the distorted Hollywood stereotype and to allow the Natives to come to Switzerland and let their voices be heard.

During the first three years we built the basic organization of Four Winds,defined its goals and decided on the kind of actions to be carried out.

This big work led to the first cultural meeting, called "Pow-Wow 1998".

The event was held during three days at Bellerive beach in Lausanne. To our great surprise, it attracted 5000 visitors. The different invited Nations thus had the possibility to present their cultures through lectures, concerts, dances and story-telling.

When our guests left after one week in Switzerland, their hearts were full of the surprisingly positive and enriching contacts they had made. Some even talked about a healing of the relationship with the white man. This first pow-wow was an important experience which allowed us to better understand the expectations of the public and thus better organize the next festivals. It was followed by pow-wows in 1999, 2000 and 2003.

In 2001, an "Indian Summer in Lausanne" was organized indoors, whereas the pow-wows had been held outdoors and under tents. Once again, the organization was excellent, and both guests and public had a lot of pleasure. But we realized that the pow-wow option was the one that best fit the expectations of both public and guests.

Since 1998, Four Winds also organizes throughout the year lectures, direct support, workshops and meetings which allow the members of the association to better know eachother and share their passion for Native American cultures.