Native American celebration set for
Saturday November 17

PICKENS — In observance of Native American Heritage Month, the Pickens County Cultural Commission invites the public 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, Nov. 17, from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m.

“Selugadu” (Cherokee for cornbread) celebrates the area’s 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 sixth 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.

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. By special invitation, from the Carolina Lowcountry, the “Keepers of the Word” Drum Circle will return again this year. Champion pow-wow dancer Austin Sweat (Eastern Shawnee) will perform. 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. Native American flute music (of different styles and tribes) will be presented by Roger Whitmire, 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, Reedy River member Gale McKinley’s split white oak basket making and John and Jeanne Fry of Conscious Art Studio with an array of Native American art, music, flutes, drums and more. 

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.

The Crawford Collection of local stone tools and artifacts will be on display with Barry and Billy Crawford available to tell about the collection. 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. Chapter member Roger Lindsay will have his “river-cane” technology exhibit of atl-atls, blowguns and arrows. 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 free day of Native American celebration and demonstrations will go 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, basket-making and more. 

All this should make for a day surely not to miss. The Pickens High School R.O.T.C. will be on site, helping with traffic control and parking, so bring your lawn chairs, enjoy a plate of barbeque or something fresh off the grill of the Gatehouse Restaurant folks 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 5.5 miles south of Cherokee Foothills Scenic Hwy 11 off SC 178 at 138 Hagood Mill Road. Hagood Mill is open Wednesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m., to tour the buildings and grounds and to visit the Mill Site Gift Shop.

“Music in the Mountains 2012” and Selugadu VI: 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 please contact the Hagood Mill Historic Site & Folklife Center at (864) 898-2936 or the Pickens County Museum at (864) 898-5963.