RIVERSIDE >> Nearly 30 high school students and their families traveled to UC Riverside on Sunday from as far as New Mexico to partake in the longest-running program of its kind in Southern California for Native American youth — the Gathering of the Tribes.

It allows Native American students to experience life at the university level, program director Josh Gonzales said.

Parents drop off their students for the weeklong event.

Students will attend classes in video production and creative writing, participate in various exercise and recreation activities, and hear from motivational speakers, career counselors and advisers on how to apply for admission to college and financial aid.

They’ll also practice writing personal essays based on requirements of the UC application, Gonzales said.

“This year we are taking the students on an overnight trip to the Cahuilla reservation near Anza, about 35 miles southwest of Palm Springs,” Gonzales said. “They’ll learn traditional Cahuilla songs, language and games.”

One of the days they’ll learn basket weaving and another they may learn about their own tribal history, he added.

Even though most of the students are from Southern California, their tribal affiliations represent nations from local tribes and across several states, including Yaqui, Tejon, Pima, Apache, Lummi, Navajo, Oglala Lakota and Chemehuevi.

Nearly all of the students who have come through the program since its inception in 2005 have gone on to some form of college, which is one of the program’s objectives, Gonzales said.

“UC Riverside has a special obligation,” said Cliff Trafzer, director of the California Center for Native Nations at the university, “to teach the next generation of leaders among our Native Nations, which in turn will help preserve and protect tribal sovereignty.

“Gathering of the Tribes is one way we introduce American Indian students to university life and the joy of learning.”