[Scmusenet] Selugadu: A Native American Celebration Saturday November 17 at the Hagood Mill

[Allen Coleman]

Selugadu: A Native American Celebration

Saturday November 17 at the Hagood Mill


     In observance of Native American Heritage Month, the Pickens County Cultural Commission invites you to join the friends of the Pickens County Museum for a special, and free, day of milling, memories and a Native American Celebration at the Hagood Mill Historic Site & Folklife Center. The Mill will be operating, rain or shine, on Saturday, November 17 from 10:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. This 1845 gristmill, with its' 20 ft. overshot wooden waterwheel, is one of the oldest mills still producing grain products in South Carolina.


     "Selugadu" (Cherokee for cornbread) celebrates our Native American influences. A number of groups will be represented, including individuals born and raised here as well as those who have made South Carolina their home. 

 

     Hosting the event for the third consecutive year is "Reedy River InterTribal," an organization dedicated to promoting and creating awareness of Cherokee and other Native culture in South Carolina. Members include Cherokee, Catawba, Lakota Sioux, Mohawk, Oneida, Navaho and others. The group has a Traditional Long House and Trading Post near Grey Court, SC. Group leader, Pat Langley, states that the group counts about 90 members. Many of the members will participate in the festivities of the day which will include: traditional drumming, singing, dancing, Native American flute playing, storytelling, Cherokee hymns in the Cherokee language and many traditional crafts. Demonstrations will be going on all day throughout the Mill Site and will include traditional Cherokee blow-gun making and shooting, traditional Cherokee pottery making, beadwork, basket making, flint-knapping, finger-weaving, and bow and arrow shooting. Many of the participants will have traditional handmade crafts for sale, as well. Reedy River member Robert Chastain will act as master of ceremonies for the day.

 

     Dr. Will Goins, Chief Executive Officer of the Eastern Cherokee, Southern Iroquois and United Tribes of South Carolina will be appearing courtesy of the Humanities Council of South Carolina and will talk with visitors about the Cherokee and other Native American history, culture and tradition.


     Demonstrations of food-way traditions such as stone grinding of cornmeal, cooking fry-bead on a stick over an open fire, roasting corn, country stew with cornbread and stone-baked bread will take place throughout the day. Roasted corn will be available for sale. 

 

     The Crawford Collection of local prehistoric stone points, blades and tools will be on display for the day. As part of the celebration, the Foothills Chapter of the SC Archaeological Society will be present for free artifact identification and with weapons demonstrations by group member, Roger Lindsay. The mill site's regular flintknapper, Steve Compton, will be showing how stone tools and weapons were made. 

 

     There will be a special "children's corner," where visitors can make a beaded necklace, have their face painted and learn Cherokee songs and dances. For a special treat, the Dan  Buckheister family (and friends) will have on site their Spanish Colonial horses that are actually descended from the first horses brought to the continent by the Spanish. Also on site will be a timber wolf, a rehabilitated animal that cannot be released to the wild, courtesy of the Eastern Band of the Cherokee and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Department.

 

     The South Carolina Arts Commission has recently awarded master basket maker (and Hagood Mill regular) Gale McKinley, a Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Initiative Grant to teach her nephew, Gary Fisher, the art of split-oak basket making. S.C. Community Scholar, Norma Hughes Smith, will serve as project manager for this year long endeavor. Gary will be present demonstrating this art and will have some of his baskets on display.

 

     All this, combined with the mill's regular volunteer demonstrations of milling, blacksmithing, moonshining, spinning, weaving, quilting, woodcarving and more, should make it a day not to miss. Bring your lawn chairs, enjoy a plate of barbeque, a hot dog or some Native fry bread or roasted corn and experience a day at the Mill and a great time at this wonderful celebration of American Indian culture. Show your support for the Mill and the Pickens County Museum by joining them at this monthly Third Saturday event. The Hagood Mill operates, rain or shine, the third Saturday of every month and is located just 3 miles north of Pickens or 5 ½ miles south of Cherokee Foothills Scenic Hwy 11 off SC Hwy 178 at 138 Hagood Mill Road. Hagood Mill is open Wednesday through Saturday from 10:00 until 4:00, to tour the buildings and grounds and to visit the Mill Site Gift Shop.

 

Part of "Music in the Mountains 2007", Selugadu: A Native American Celebration is sponsored by a private benefactor. The Pickens County Museum of Art & History is funded in part by Pickens County, members and friends of the museum and a grant from the South Carolina Arts Commission, which receives support from the National Endowment for the Arts.

 

For additional information please contact the Hagood Mill Historic Site & Folklife Center at (864) 898-2936 or the Pickens County Museum at (864) 898-5963.

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://southcarolinamuseums.org/pipermail/scmusenet_southcarolinamuseums.org/attachments/20071112/77702231/attachment.html