Walter Gowen is affiliated with the Muscogee tribe, and has been demonstrating at the festival for many years, though he guesses that it has been around forty.

In response to the question ‘what does Moundville mean to you?’ Walter Gowen explained that Moundville was “significant to all Native people, as it was a spiritual center to the Native people in the past. While it was abandoned before the Europeans came, there is still an ancient Native culture that is preserved here, and it’s because of this that many modern Indians feel attached to Moundville. It still has large spiritual significance to many people today.”

  The Moundville Native American Festival was a culturally rich experience that showcased the mounds and shed light on many different Native cultures. By Participating in the festival it allowed me to get a closer look at some of the Native American cultures that we have been learning about in class. After reading Blitz’s Moundville, I had a better understanding of the society that had lived there in the past, and because of it, I was able to appreciate the mounds at the site. Through Blitz’s book, I learned that Moundville was eventually used as a spiritual ground, and through talking with some of the demonstrators at the festival, I learned that many still view it as a place of spirituality. Despite the fact that the Indians at Moundville were no longer around by the time other nations stumbled upon it, some of the Native Americans whom I talked to at the festival still felt spiritually attached to the mounds, and the land in general.

While volunteering, I worked at the children’s station, which involved helping kids with activities so that they could become interested with different aspects of Native American culture. while volunteering, I learned a few things about Indian crafts that I had not known before, such as the fact that intestines were used in making jewelry, which was why the strings selected to make necklaces had a waxy residue. The face paints selected for the children were also chosen for a reason, which consisted of earthy tones, or reds which the Native Americans could have made using things around nature, such as berries.

Attending the Native American history class has helped clear up some misconception I used to have about Native Americans, though attending the festival gave me a clearer picture on how some Native American people lived, as well as a more in depth view of their culture. By watching the demonstrators, I was able to get a visual idea of how southeastern Native Americans lived, and what certain tribes cultures were like—what they did day to day, or what they ate. I gained a more concrete idea of Native American life, and I was able to see how they may have dressed, as well as other small details that could not be properly conveyed through the texts or documents from class, which gave me a more well rounded viewpoint.

The festival provided a good opportunity to experience different tribes’ cultures, and see how Moundville became, and still is, such an important piece of land and spiritual ground for people. By volunteering, I was able to see that there are a large number of people interested in learning about Moundville, as well as Native American life. The children whom I worked with seemed excited to be able to learn about the Native peoples, which shows that Moundville has different levels of importance to a variety of people. While not everyone may experience the spiritual connection to Moundville as did some of the Native American people who came to the festival, it can be used for educational purposes for people who may not know as much as someone who studies Native American history, and may give people a push to learn more about America’s past, which include more than just the myths of Indian culture and instead—how they truly lived and thrived in North America.

The experience volunteering the festival helped to bolster the knowledge that I had learned about Moundville, and about Native American history. Speaking to people who were Native American, or who had ties to certain Native tribes was incredibly insightful—and this helped me to get a clearer picture on what some Native Americans experiences were, as well as their stories, experiences, or feelings toward Moundville itself.

I interviewed Rosa Newman Hall, a demonstrator at the Moundville annual festival. In the interview, Newman states her involvement in Native American history and what Moundville means to her.

Interview

Interviewer: Lauren Morris

Demonstrator: Rosa Newman Hall

Q: What is your name and tribal affiliation, if any, and how many years have you been a demonstrator at the festival?

A: “My name is Rosa Newman Hall. I do not know my exact tribal affiliation. I am still trying to figure out which tribe I belong to through DNA testing. I am a representative of the Creek tribe and I travel to schools discussing the Creek life and culture. I preserve the Creek history through my work. I have been a demonstrator for twenty years at the festival doing different demonstrations.”

Q: What does Moundville mean to you?

A: “I came to Moundville for the first time when I was ten years old. When we arrived, a certain pull and feeling just grasped me and I still feel it today. I feel like there is something that just gives me a feeling. It’s a weird feeling. I also get this feeling in cemeteries, but there is just something about this place. It feels like home. It is such a beautiful site. In the morning when the mist is on the mounds, it is almost like they are floating in the air just like the Indians thought the world floated. At night this place is a beauty. When the moonlight and the stars shine on the mounds, it is just beautiful and majestic. I guess you could say Moundville inspired my career. There is just something about Moundville.”

Moundville is a historical and archeological preserved Native American site in Moundville, Alabama. Many tribes associate with the amazing site. The Mississippian society inhabited this location years before European contact in America. Every October for the past twenty-five years, the Moundville festival has been a huge success. For four days, demonstrators, volunteers, and attendees flood the archeological site to see what Native American life is really like. The booths also teach the attendees the historical facts of Native American life like weapon trade and making, jewelry making and even the cooking techniques. Most people, however, do not realize the real significance to the mounds, not the historical significance but the real meaning.

To southeastern Indian peoples, Moundville holds a significant meaning and purpose unique to each tribal association. Most southeastern tribes hold a claim to Moundville. Tribes can either link their ancestors to living at Moundville, trading there, or having religious significance to the site. The demonstrators at the festival teach the attendees their connection to Moundville, their tribal history and importance of site. In the children’s area of festival, hands on activities get the children involved in aspects of Native American lives. One booth allowed children to grind down shells to make jewelry and teach them the importance of shells as monetary value. One booth allowed the children to get their faces painted like war paint or ceremonial paint. It also gave the children a chance to learn what was used to make the paints.

Questions from attendees gave an insight into the stereotypes Americans and Europeans have placed on Native Americans. Working in the children’s area, questions and statements like “is this what the Indians wore when hunting buffalo?” or “My war paint makes me look scary like an Indian” were heard. One little girl remarked, “I want to have feathers in my hair like the Indians used to wear all the time and I want to look like Pocahontas.” Although children have yet to develop the knowledge about Native Americans not corresponding to the average Thanksgiving Day lecture, the common stereotypes tend to make an impression on children that they may keep for their whole lives.

Reading the book Moundville by John H. Blitz gave insight and prior useful knowledge on the site for the festival. When children or parents ask questions regarding the mounds and lives of the Native Americans living at Moundville, Blitz’s book was a useful body of knowledge to remember. While working at a necklace making booth, children were able to grind down pointy tips of shells in order to make a hole in the shell to put on their necklace. Many children wondered why the Native Americans did this and why shells were important. Also, many children wondered how long ago Indians lived in Moundville and why they were no longer living on the site. Blitz’s book addressed many points that anyone attending Moundville would like to know about the site. The books gives a vast amount of knowledge and facts useful to helping the attendees learn more about Native American culture and lives on the mounds.

Working the festival and interacting with the attendees brought to reality the peoples interest in the historical site and in Native American tribes. In school, history classes teach the bare minimum on Indian life. Most lessons are on Thanksgiving, Indian removal and wars between the Indians and colonists. History classes typically do not go into detail on the culture and amazing lives of Indians. The attendees really had an interest for wanting to gain knowledge on the lives of the Indians who use to inhabit the mounds. Serotypes of Indian life were very clear in the attendees and their knowledge of the Native Americans. It is amazing how unsympathetic most Americans are towards the Native Americans. Removal, disease and war devastated Indian life but most Americans today feel no sympathy for the culture and livelihood torn apart decades ago when European colonist arrived. It is also amazing how many people believe Indians do not exist anymore. People’s knowledge on Native Americans is lacking and it is a great injustice for the Native American peoples and their legacies to be forgotten.

I arrived at the volunteer headquarters early Saturday morning, enthusiastic to begin the day. I was assigned to Mound B or “The Chief’s Mound,” and I knew I was in for an exceptional experience that would allow me to engage with the attendees by answering questions, explaining the mound’s significance, and the process of archaeological investigation and analysis that allowed this information to come to light. Throughout the day I interacted with excited children who were awestruck by the sheer size and impressiveness of the mound. Then some kids would rattle off all the facts they knew about Native Americans, and ask me questions about how the mounds were constructed and why, and what I thought life might have been like. I met individuals who had been coming to Moundville for years, and getting to hear their stories of their times here as children, how Moundville used to look, what the park added or took away over the years emphasized to me the enduring nature of not only Moundville, but also the significance of Native Americans in our culture and history. Even though Moundville is no longer populated by its original inhabitants it has caught the attention of modern day peoples, native and non-native alike, and Moundville changes as new information emerges and even as ancient and modern clash.[1] As an aspiring school teacher, the experience as part of a festival that prizes education so highly, takes educational engagement outside of the classroom, and makes ideas and a people that I and others only had experience with through words in a textbook made them all the more real. I came away knowing for sure that education is a path of reintegration of native perspectives back into our whitewashed histories.

Towards the middle of the day, a group of three Choctaw boys from Mississippi paid the mound a visit and were generous enough to explain to me the wooden sticks they were holding and the game they are used for. They told me about Stick Ball, an ancient Choctaw tradition that was played for fun but also to settle disputes in a non-violent way. They went into great detail about how their wooden sticks, or kopocha in Choctaw, are made. All three boys make their own sticks, and their pride is noticeable. They told me about going out and felling a tree either of hickory or white oak, a preference that depended on the player since the woods weigh differently and handle differently during the game. Then, they shave the wood with wither a two-handed wood shaver or a machete into the basic stick. They split an approximately five-inch portion at the top to make the cup, and then string through a rawhide or leather string to create the net that holds the ball. Each player in Stick Ball has two sticks, one is longer and used to throw the small ball, and one is shorter used for grabbing the ball from other players. The gentleman consented to a picture, and invited me to come watch their game at two that afternoon. Sadly, I was unable to attend the formal game, but as I walked through the festival later on in the afternoon, I was able to watch an informal game of Stick Ball that started in the field near Mound B. It was amazing to see these young kids playing an ancient sport, and to be once again reminded of the vitality of Native American culture. Despite the hardships and displacements of Native Americans, their traditions have endured and are enjoyed and altered by modern day Native Americans. I was reminded that though we have a tendency to describe Native Americans as a “lost people” and all their objects as artifacts, they are living, breathing individuals who are still creating and utilizing these traditions, which forced me to once again ask the question, must all ancient items be artifacts or can they be fine art? And do those belong in museums or with the people whose ancestors created them? And who should decide what the meaning and importance of these artifacts are archaeologists or the Indians? Or both?

[1] One of my favorite moments is actually when the train whistle breaks the otherwise silent air, the duality of a modern phenomenon and the sheer ancientness of the site. Not only that but the importance of the trans-continental railroad in the colonization of the western United States, and the further destruction of western Natives is fascinating and evokes a visceral response that I am not entirely capable of describing. It makes the fear and anger that those tribes must have felt as their buffalo were hunted to near extinction to make way for pasture and cattle seem all the more real and palpable.

The man I chose to interview is a young man who worked in the Living History Camp part of the Festival. A squirrely teenager no older than fifteen it looked to me. I chose this boy because he reminded me of when my mother would take me to all sorts of places that I didn’t want to be at but would be forced to either way. Wondering if he was uncaring like I was or proud to take part of something so culturally based was a huge interest to me.

*I walk up to the teenager boy with pen and paper in hand.*
Me: Hello. My name is Payne Irby. Would you mind if I were to ask you a few questions about the festival?
Teenager: Uh, I guess it wouldn’t hurt anyone.
Me: Brilliant. Could I have your name, per chance? I’m doing an interview for my Native American History class for the University of Alabama.
Teenager: I’d rather not have my name be put in any papers, thank you. But I’ll take some time to talk.
Me: Fair enough. What tribe are you a part of?
Teenager: Oh, I’m from the Cherokee Nation. You know of them, yea?
Me: I’ve definitely heard of them before. Was your father and father’s father also part of the Cherokee Nation?
Teenager: That’d be right. Never heard of someone of my family not being part of the tribe. But we don’t usually openly call ourselves a tribe. It’s all just really family.
Me: My next question had to do with the same subject. I’ve heard from other participants that the festival is like a large family gathering. How do you feel about that?
Teenager: *pauses* I wouldn’t necessarily say that we are completely family, but I can see where some might think that way. It is refreshing, encouraging even to see so many other Native Americans but it’s not really as tightly knit as a family.
Me: Last question then I’ll let you get back to working. What does it mean to you to be a Native American?
Teenager: Well, I can’t really tell you that. I’ve never been anything but a Native American so it is just a normal life to me.
Me: Yea, I see where you’re coming from. Thank you again for your time. Have a wonderful rest of the day.

When children are first taught about the Native Americans that may have lived in the area they are raised in, there is never an adequate amount of information being told about the noble folk. Despite where you may come from, history has shown that it was almost a universal rule that the Natives of America are to receive the short end of the stick. The encroaching European and later American influences constantly push Native Americans farther into the center of North America with less than peaceful tactics. Some tribes avoided useless violence by melding into the culture of whichever nation may be threatening them. Others would resist in whatever ways they could manage without resorting to bloody insurrection. However, there were dangerous warlike tribes that gladly would attack foreign settlements and its citizens if it meant protecting the tribes’ home.

But such basic information like this is most usually written in the bias of a white historian. The schools that taught each of us unknowingly forced a one sided view what and how the Native Americans would react. Museums, while still opinionated, help to offer a portal into the past in an effort to learn more about the Native American tribes from their artifacts. A brilliant step forward but to learn of a culture, one should ask members of that culture directly. This is why festivals, such as the Moundville Archeological Park Festival, are so important to the furthering of knowledge. Not only is the Festival a fun place to take the family to watch craftsmen show their life’s practice, buy quaint gifts for friends and ponder about what used to be. Most importantly are the people who come to share way of life with whoever has the will to ask about it. These are the people a historian should speak to if they wish to understand what it means to be a Native American.
While volunteering at the Moundville Archeological Park Festival, I was stationed atop a tall mound. I was to tell passersby what an archeologist may find at a dig site. Dozens of shards of broken pottery were sprawled out in front of me as children and adults alike would try to piece them together again. It was an enjoyable time and I was more than happy to answer any questions to the best of my ability. Unfortunately though, my post was only had me holding it down and hardly any staff were able to come up to the distant mound I was atop. But despite the lack of attendant interaction, many visitors were of Native American blood. A particular man in specific stopped and had a long conversation with me about what he thought it meant to be part of a nation of tribes. He told me that coming to festivals across the country was like coming home to a family reunion. Quick to show the kindness of his kind, the man brought a little girl and a young man, his children. While the young man was not yet accepted into the tribe, he and the little girl showed compassion and genuine bliss when they started to talk about driving to festivals, near and far.
My time spent at the Moundville Archeological Park festival showed me a great time in a crowd of people I had never met before. Not to mention surrounded by the people of a culture I’m not practiced in. Both proud and happy about my time volunteering, I was more than glad to learn from the compassionate people who were willing to tell their tale and what it was like to be a Native American in this day and age.