Southeastern Indians Heritage Program
Saturday, November 9, 2013
11:00 AM – 4:00 PM
Spend a day exploring history, culture, and family fun as you discover Southeastern Native American heritage and culture through a variety of craft demonstrations, performances, and discussions led by Native American artists and experts. Featured activities include storytelling, demonstrations, and discussions about tool making, commerce and trade, hide tanning, fire making, games, and traditional crafts, such as pottery.
Smith Family Farm:
Ongoing demonstrations, 11:00 am – 4:00 pm
Jim Sawgrass, Southeastern Native American History
Sawgrass is a member of the Muskogee Creek Indian Tribe and has been sharing his knowledge of Southeastern Native American tribes for over twenty-five years. Visit with Sawgrass and other Native American experts and understand Southeastern Indian culture from the primitive era to the trade era through artifacts and demonstrations.
Pottery Stamping
Pottery was used in many different ways by Native Americans. Come and make your own piece of pottery using the decorating method of paddle stamping, common among Southeastern Indians.
Native American Skills and Games
Try your hand at Toli (a Native American Stickball game), atlatl, and the game of chunkey stone.
Atlanta History Museum:
Kid Friendly Trail of Tears Simulation
Metropolitan Frontiers exhibition 11:15 am, 12:30 pm, 1:45 pm, and 3:15 pm – the outdoor tour lasts one hour
Be transported to the year 1838 as the Cherokee were forced to leave their homeland in Georgia to walk the Trail of Tears. During this immersive experience, visitors assume the character identity of actual Cherokee Indians who travelled this life-changing journey, and gain empathy and appreciation for the hardships Native Americans endured, as well as learn about the rapid cultural changes that occurred at the same time.
Sequoyah Performance
Native Lands: Indians and Georgia exhibition
12:00 pm, 1:00 pm, 2:00 pm, and 3:00 pm
Sequoyah was a Cherokee silversmith, who in 1821 completed his creation of a Cherokee syllabary, or set of written symbols, that made it possible to read and write the Cherokee language. The story of Sequoyah’s invention of the syllabary comes to life in an engaging dramatic performance that entertains as much as it educates.
Cherokee Syllabary Activity
Native Lands: Indians and Georgia exhibition
Ongoing demonstrations, 11:00 am – 4:00 pm
Using Sequoyah’s syllabary, you can learn the basics of the language and translate your name into Cherokee. Cherokee is an Iroquoian language and is the only Southern Iroquoian language that remains spoken, including ten thousand Cherokee in Oklahoma and one thousand in North Carolina. Cherokee is also taught as a second language, including classes at Emory University.
Culture Clash
Garden Overlook
Ongoing demonstrations, 11:00 am – 4:00 pm
Learn how Cherokee culture changed after European contact by touching and handling real objects that show these adaptations.
This program is free to members; included in the cost of general admission for nonmembers.
For more information about this program or to purchase admission tickets, please call 404.814.4000.
Support: Funding for this program is provided by the Fulton County Board of Commissioners under the guidance of Fulton County Arts Council.
