On Tuesday, May 5, Anna Mullican, the Cultural and Resource Specialist at the Oakville Indian Mounds Museum and Education Center, was hard at work putting up signs, cleaning life jackets, and treating fire ant hills as she got the ancient mound complex ready for its busiest weekend of the year-the 37th annual Native American History and Heritage Festival.
“This year, one of the things that’s different is we’re partnering with the Tennessee River Line. They’re bringing their kayak fleet to us, and we have our fleet of canoes here. In years past we would charge $5 a person, and this year we’re allowing everyone to canoe and kayak for free as long as they wear their jackets,” Mullican said. “We’re also partnering with the Muscle Shoals National Heritage Area and they’re coming out with information booths and they’re partnering with us to pay for part of our living history demonstrations and drum groups.”
According to Mullican, this year’s Oakville Festival will feature several new living history displays including a man portraying a War of 1812 soldier, a woman doing Cherokee storytelling, a native foods display, and two Cherokee from Tahlequah, Oklahoma, doing flintknapping, blow dart making, and basketry.
Flintknapping is the ancient art of shaping brittle stones like flint into sharp tools and weapons by breaking them in a controlled manner.
This year’s Festival will also showcase the White Pine Drum Group and Mystic Winds Dancers made up of Choctaw from Mississippi.
“One of my favorite things that we do because the kids love it so much is a live Ladybug release both days to teach about good bugs and bad bugs. We have some Blue Grass players coming in along with our Raptor bird education show; we’ve had them for several years but they’re always a huge hit. He has an owl, a hawk, and a little kestrel,” Mullican said. “So we’re going to have lots of different things for people to see and do.”
On Saturday there will be two special events inside the Oakville museum itself-one about wild foraging and another about art and nature journaling.
“Having a free educational event that connects history and heritage is important because this area of Alabama is rich in culture where many people not only have Native American heritage themselves but can appreciate the history of where we all live. We hope to inspire people to take better care of cultural resources like the Indian mounds,” Mullican said about why the museum hosts the festival every year. “Here we love teaching about the two Indian mounds that we have but should actually have had five since three were destroyed through agricultural practices. Anything we can do to teach about history and landmarks-and how we can preserve these resources for future generations-is something we’re passionate about.”
The 37th annual Oakville Indian Mounds Festival will be open to registered school groups on Friday May 8th. It will open to everyone else from 10 a. m. to 4 p. m. on Saturday. Parking on Saturday will require a $5 donation per carload.
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