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Natchez Powwow March 29-30 at Grand Village
Traditional Native American dancing, singing, and fun come to the Grand Village of the Natchez Indians for the twenty-sixth annual Natchez Powwow on March 29 and 30. Last year more than 3,500 people attended the event.
“The Grand Village offers a truly unique setting for a powwow,” said Jim Barnett, director of the Grand Village. “We are proud to play a role
in honoring the state’s Native American heritage.”
There will be gourd dancing, grand entry, and intertribal dancing both days. Tribes represented include the Choctaw, Commanche, Natchez, Osage, and Tonka. Dance groups include Gulf Coast Tiapiah (Texas), White Star (Indiana), and Wounded Warrior (Louisiana).
Steve Kinder of Gladstone, Missouri, will serve as mas-
ter of ceremonies, and Darsh DeSilva of Round Rock, Texas, will be arena director. Head Singer Kevin Dawes from Baxter Springs, Kansas, will handle the Southern Drum. Pete Littlecook of Ponca City Oklahoma will be Head Gourd Dancer, and Tara Bryant from Goode, Virginia will be Head Lady Dancer.
Craft and food booths will open at 10 a.m. on March 29
and 11 a.m. on March 30.
Bring your lawn chairs. Powwow participants are allowed to camp on the grounds. Tickets are $5 for adults, S3 for ages twelve and under. The Grand Village is located at 400 Jefferson Davis Boulevard, Natchez. For more information call 601-446-6502, or contact Powwow committee chairman Chuck Borum at 601 -442-0200 or cborum@hotmail.com.
AmeriCorps Team Works at Manship House
AmeriCorps Delta 5 team with the new garden beds and walkways at the Manship House.
Thanks to the efforts of AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC) team members, the grounds of the Manship House Museum are looking good. The house is currently closed for repairs and foundation work had prevented all but the most necessary grounds maintenance.
“Vicksburg is home to one of only five AmeriCorps NCCC campuses in the United States,” said Elizabeth Coleman, MDAH volunteer services director. “There is serious competition for their services, and we were fortunate to get the Delta 5 Team. They operated like a well-oiled machine and were able to accomplish meaningful preservation work while at the Manship House Museum.”
The seven members of the NCCC Delta 5 team spent November 15 through December 4 scraping and painting more than seventy-five feet of picket fencing, removing invasive vegetation, pruning trees, digging garden beds, assisting with an archaeological investigation, and organizing artifacts found during the excavation.
Part of Manship House Museum director Marilynn Jones’s work during the closure of the house has been to further research the grounds for future interpretation. Jones’s discovery of an oral history interview revealing there was a vegetable garden on the property as recently as the 1920s has led to plans for a historical garden exhibit. The AmeriCorps team, with the help of garden specialist Michael Gentry and MDAH volunteers, prepared the walkways and beds for the garden that will feature heirloom varieties of vegetables commonly grown in nineteenth century kitchen gardens, like those the Manship
family may have grown.
“I discovered an article in the November 24, 1875, Weekly Clarion newspaper that reported all the prize winners at the Mississippi State Fair, including Adaline Manship for dried peaches,” said Jones. “The garden will provide a unique opportunity for us to demonstrate nineteenth-century gardening practices and healthy eating choices.”
The Delta 5 team also worked with MDAH archaeologists David Abbott and Patty Miller-Beech assisting with excavations in the garden area and side yard and cleaning and organizing the found artifacts.
Team members included Tyler Monroe, Brandi Monnett, Alia Holle, Nick Bowlby, Francis McDyer, Cal Howick, and Tom Dorman.
AmeriCorps NCCC is a full-time, residential, national service program for men and women age 18 to 24. During their 10-month term, teams of eight to twelve
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people work on projects that address critical needs related to natural and other disasters, infrastructure improvement, environmental stewardship and conservation, energy conservation, and urban and rural development. All NCCC members receive leadership training, work skills, and a $5,550 education award.