Kultural Kinnikinnick --- American Indian Heritage Reflected in Southern West Virginian Cultural
Saturday, November 25, 2007, 10:00 am - 5:00 pm
Contact: David Caldwell
Phone Number: (304) 466-0417
To celebrate Native American Month, New River Gorge National River together with Trails Inc., Mountain R C & D Council, and the West Virginia Humanities Council present Kultural Kinnikinnick, a series of programs highlighting the American Indian Heritage of Southern West Virginia.
The free-of-charge program series is on Saturday, Novermber 25th, at Tamarack. For more information, contact the Equal Opportunity Program at Park Headquarters via telephone (304) 465-0508 or eMail at www.nps.gov/neri or Sandstone Visitor Center at (304) 466-0417.
Kinnikinnick is a word originating from the Algonkian language family that translates roughly as "mixture." This word was used to describe a mixture of dried plants used for smoking, a practice of all Eastern Woodland Indian cultures. This concept of the mixing of various parts to form a more pleasant and effective whole is aptly suited to this program series. It is designed to show how the American Indian cultures of Appalachia contributed to the blended culture we now experience in southern West Virginia as "Southern Appalachian Culture."
Many historians have written about the 18th & 19th century wars and American Indian removals as if they ended the influence of Eastern Woodland Indian cultures. This is particulary untrue in the southern Appalachian region where the various cultures of American Indians, African Americans, and European Americans were blended. Kultural Kinninnick traces traditions and cultural traits from their Eastern Woodland Indian roots to our current Appalachian culture, particularly in the New River Gorge area.
10:00am - 5:00pm Life skills demonstrations throughout the day
Flint knapping, skin trade, fiber arts, and prehistoric artifacts and historic paraphernalia.
Dianne Anestis, Mike Little, Sue Little, and Doug Wood
11:00am - 12:00noon Traditional women's roles: Gathering and gardening
A heritage of wild plant uses, American Indian-style gardening, and landscape manipulation.
Dianne Anestis and Sue Little
2:00pm - 2:45pm Man Killer Ostenaco Cherokee war captain.
A History Alive! Presentation by Doug Wood
3:00pm - 4:00pm Traditional men's roles: hunting traditions, the skin trade, and warfare.
American Indian influences on subsistence economy in the Appalachian region, and 18th century frontier warfare as a key influence on the Southern Appalachian warrior spirit.
Doud Wood & Mike Little
4:00pm - 4:30pm Sharing our heritage: native trails and native tongues
Western Virginia's 18th century American Indian landscape and language as the basis for frontier settlement and patterns and place names of European/African American cultures.
Doug Wood and Mike Little.
Meeting Update
Monday, October 1, 2007 - 6:30 p.m .
Craik-Patton House
2809 Kanawha Boulevard, East (Beside Daniel Boone Park)
Morgan's Kitchen Fall Festival
Saturday, October 7, from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
The 3rd Annual Morgan's Kitchen Fall Festival, sponsored by the St. Albans Historical Society, will be at Morgan's Kitchen along MacCorkle Ave. Activities will include apple butter making, corn grinding, cabin tours, Native American displays, the Ft. Lee Scouts, Little Wind and her displays, the Coal River Group, historical displays, and music by Joe Dobbs. Apple butter will be sold for $5.00 a quart. There is no charge for this event and plenty of parking is available, along with refreshments and crafts.