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ANNUAL FESTIVAL OF NATIVE PEOPLES
Featuring the Finest Indian Art Market in Western North Carolina
This year the annual gathering of tribes from throughout the Americas takes its rightful place as the finest showcase of non-competitive, native dance, art, song, and culture in the southeast. On July 17–19, tribes from across the country will descend on Cherokee, NC, for the celebratory Festival of Native Peoples. The event honors the collected history, culture, tradition, and wisdom of the indigenous people of the Americas. Varied participants from around the country include Navajo, Native Alaskan, Hopi, Dakota Sioux, Totonac and Cherokee tribes among others. New performers to this year’s event includes the Kaua’i hula group from Hawaii demonstrating ancient hula and drum dances that were once the mainstay of Hawaii’s archaic temples.
The 4th annual Festival of Native Peoples will be at the Cherokee Indian Fair Grounds in Cherokee, NC, July 17–19, including dances, prayers, and songs that praise the earth and heavens and celebrate the spirit of nature — with a touch of daring and unusual thrown in. Aztec pole dancers will thrill visitors as they fly through the air in a spectacle of swirling color. Dancers tie their ankles to ropes wound around a pole and then jump off, “flying” gracefully around the pole as the ropes unwind until they reach the ground. The ritual has been practiced by the Totonac Indians for over 2,000 years as a way of giving thanks to the sun.
The festival will also play host to one of the southeast’s largest Native American art markets. The Cherokee Art Market will feature over fifty nationally recognized, juried craftspeople and artisans from around the country displaying and selling their handmade traditional and contemporary works of art ranging in price from $10 to tens of thousands of dollars. Artists will also demonstrate techniques passed down from generation to generation. Entertainment throughout the day will include a replica of an Apache dwelling with audience participation, hoop dancing, flute music, and Cherokee storytellers. Other performers include the Hopi Senom Dance Group, Phoenix, Arizona - Ambassador's of the State of Arizona and the Yellow Bird Apache champion dancers who have been performing for presidents and heads of state for 22 years.
Arts and crafts on display include traditional Cherokee white oak and river cane baskets, black and traditional pottery, wood and stone carvings, paintings, silver and turquoise jewelry, and much more. The market will present the work of such esteemed artists as Darrin Bark, John Grant, Jeanean Hornbuckle, Mary James, Nikki Nations, Joel Queen, Bud Smith, and Mattie Welch Wildcat, Shan Goshorn, Ramona Lossie, Lori Reed, Lucille Lossiah, Betty Maney and Lois Goings, to name just a few.
Gates open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily with performances throughout the day. Art market opens at 9 a.m. Adult admission $10; children six and under are free. For Discount Ticket Packages or more information, call 800.438.1601 or visit www.cherokee-nc.com. The Cherokee Indian Fair Grounds is at 745 Tsali Blvd., off U.S. 441 in Cherokee. Sponsored by the Cherokee Preservation Foundation 1008 and Food Lion. Present your Food Lion MVP card and get $2 off.
"BUY ONE, GET ONE FREE"
Present your ticket stub from Festival of Native Peoples to the box office and get two adult tickets for the price of one to Unto These Hills outdoor drama or the Oconaluftee Indian Village. Expires 7.20.08. Cherokee, NC, is the 2006 Travel Attraction of the Year as named by the Southeast Tourism Society. Cherokee’s cultural attractions include the Museum of the Cherokee Indian, interpreting the tribe’s history in the Southern Appalachian Mountains; “Unto These Hills” Outdoor Drama, the story of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians staged each summer in the open-air Mountainside Theatre; Oconaluftee Indian Village, a living representation of a 1700s Cherokee village; and the Qualla Arts and Crafts Mutual, showcasing traditional and contemporary crafts and fine art by Eastern Band members. For more information about Cherokee, visit www.cherokee-nc.com or call 800. 438.1601.
