“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.
Hosted by “Reedy River Intertribal,” this fourth annual event will begin with a “Presentation of the Colors,” honoring America’s veterans, and will continue throughout the day with a great program of drumming, dancing, singing, storytelling, demonstrations and games. Reedy River’s “Sachem” (head-man), Pat Langley, will be present to interpret Native American culture, along with Dr. Will Goins, Chief Executive Officer of the Eastern Cherokee, Southern Iroquois and United Tribes of South Carolina. Storyteller (and kudzu basket maker), Nancy Basket will also be featured.
Native American dancing will be a big part of the celebration. Reedy River Intertribal has invited several other Native groups across the State to participate. For those who get caught up in the spirit of the day, the dancing will include audience participation dances and a “candy dance” for the youngsters. A highlight of the dancing will be 14-year-old Austin “Redbird” Sweat, an Eastern Shawnee, who has won numerous awards for his champion straight dances. Native American flute music (of different styles and tribes) will be presented along with songs in Cherokee performed by the Reedy River Intertribal Singers.
Native jewelry and crafts will be demonstrated and available for sale, including Sachem Langley’s award winning beadwork and Reedy River member, Gale McKinley’s river-cane basket making.
Activities for youngsters will include face-painting with Native designs and participation in (and learning about) drumming on a “kid’s drum” the group will bring.
Another delight for children, as well as the young at heart, will be the presence of the Foothills Indian Horse Club with their Colonial Spanish horses. These horses are descended from the first horses brought to the New World by the Spanish and are similar to the wild horses that roam the West. The club is affiliated nationally with the American Indian Horsed Registry and the Horses of the Americas Registry. Children will be allowed to “paint” the horses with their hand prints in the style of the Plains Indians.
Experimental archaeologist, Roger Lindsay, will be present with his “river-cane” technology exhibit and will be demonstrating the lance, atl-atl, blowgun and bow & arrow. Mill Site regulars include bow-maker, Bruce Chrysler, and flint-knapper, Steve Compton who should both be in fine form for this special day.
The Foothills Chapter of the SC Archaeology Society will be present with a table of information and to do free artifact identification of any stone tools visitors wish to bring. The Society and Lindsay will also be available to tell visitors about the mill site’s “petroglyph” rock with its more than 40 carvings including seventeen human stick-men, carved by Native Americans more than a thousand years ago. This remarkable piece of Native American archeological heritage will soon be the site of the South Carolina Rock Art Center.
Join in the fun from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. for this free day of Native American celebration and demonstrations along with the regular monthly feature of “milling, music and memories.” The Hagood Mill hosts a variety of folklife and traditional arts demonstrations each month, including blacksmithing, bowl-digging, cotton-ginning, flintknapping, moonshining, leather-working, quilting, spinning, woodcarving and more! Be sure to welcome new site demonstrators, Chris and Jan Norris and their daughter, Ariel, who will demonstrate pioneer toys and games.
All this should make for a day surely 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 until 4, to tour the buildings and grounds and to visit the Mill Site Gift Shop.
“Music in the Mountains 2010” and Selugadu IV: A Native American Celebration is sponsored by a private benefactor. The Pickens County Museum of Art & History, along with the historic Hagood Mill, 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 contact the Hagood Mill Historic Site and Folklife Center at (864) 898-2936 or the Pickens County Museum at (864) 898-5963.
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