This text was obtained via automated optical character recognition.
It has not been edited and may therefore contain several errors.

---

theSunHeraij)
Coast Living
GOT AN IDEA?
FEATURES EDITOR BETTY ATTAWAY 896-2312_______________
bettya@sunherald.infi.net
E
COURTESY ALICE O'KEEFE SEBASIAN
iov. Hugh White, the big guy in a suit, stands next to Iberville, portrayed y A.P. Moran, in the first Ocean Springs pageant portraying the landing f the French Canadians. The year was 1939.
COURTESY ALICE O'KEEFE SEBASIAN
Iberville lands in Ocean Springs in 1939, one of about 34 landings he has made since the city began celebrating its heritage. This image was made into a popular post card.
y KAT BERGERON
[IE SUN HERALD
In a miraculous twist of history, lerville has landed on the Ocean prings Waterfront at least 34 times nee 1699.
He’s repeating the feat next Sun-
iy-
The Coast’s founding father steps shore each time in his finest bro-ides, colorful feathers flying from is upturned hat. The friendly Indian atives greet the band of French anadians with a calumet, or peace ipe, and the smoke rises.
Don’t look too closely. You might Dy a brave or two wearing sneakers, r wonder about that polka dotted ledicine man.
The 1699 Historical Committee’s mual pageant is a curious scene ith its mixture of history and histor-al interpretation peppered with lagination.	./if.
3cean Springs is prou4p£ etation of the arrival of the "first rench colonials. Residents of this ty »•' 16,500 have turned their
Ocean Springs set for Iberville festivities
birthday into a three-day fete.
They begin Friday with a citywide family picnic at Marshall Park, and continue through the weekend with a street fair, a parade with 1699 doubloon throws and a colonial fancy dress ball.
The Sunday landing pageant was first staged in 1939 as their statement that "Iberville landed here first.” But with later record translations, they now know that’s not true. Neighboring Biloxi felt Iberville’s first foot steps.
Undaunted by a few corrected facts, the pageant organizers have other historical truth to tout.
“In the beginning, we had to work really hard to hold this to our city — there was another city wanting t<i claim our history,” said Betty Milst-ed, the first 1699 president.
“We’re not saying that he didn’t
Clarence amilton, alias berville, passes the peace pipe to Glenn Love, the tribal chief, during le 1992 anding ageant.
walk in Biloxi — or Gulfport or Pass Christian, for that matter — but d’Iberville did put his first capital here in Ocean Springs. And that’s what we’re celebrating.”
In the past decade, the pageant has changed little. That comforts the core of the committee that has kept alive the so-named “299th Anniversary Celebration of the Landing of d’Iberville in 1699 at Ocean Springs.” The lack of change, however, irks some who believe historical accuracy needs a stronger role.
“The pageant is super important to this community, and it should go on strong,” said Ray Bellande, a Biloxi-born historian who now calls Ocean Springs home. “I just wish they’d give up some pageantry for historical accuracy in costuming and scripts.
“This is a celebration of our French heritage, a renaissance of our soul.”
Well-studied colonial re-enactors like Bellande believe the word “reenactment” should not be used to describe the Ocean Springs pageant.
Coastal Indians, for example, tended to live in huts, not teepees or structures made of chicken wire and burlap. Also, after traveling aboard ship so long and first exploring the Coast to the west, Iberville likely did not step onto shore wearing feathers, brocades and bows on his shoes.
His soldiers did not carry pop guns, and Indians were not given Mardi Gras beads.
Historians from other parts of the Coast won’t go on record to criticize, for fear of appearing to steal Ocean Spring’s thunder. But the 1699 Committee, which says it has done(it£% own extensive research, is aware. ‘
“I try not to listen to controversy,’’; says John Vallor, an Ocean Springs" businessman who portrayed the 1997 Iberville and is one of the committee’s stalwarts.
“I enjoy representing our history, :.'
Please see Landing, E-5
DAVID PURDY/THE SUN HERALD
U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran, as Iberville, third from left, watches as the medicine man dances in the 1990 landing pageant in Ocean Springs.
If you go
What: Ocean Springs celebrates 299th anniversary of first French capital.
Date: Friday, Saturday, April 26.
On Friday
■	All day: Downtown Merchants Day, merchants encouraged to dress in colonial attire; judging colonial art at schools; Chamber has reasonably priced costumes on sale .
■	4-7 p.m.: “Celebrating ississippi in Ocean prings” a potluck picnic
fVvith music, colonial re-enac-, WLOX live broadcasts a visit by Iberville; Marshall Park in downtown jOcean Springs; sponsored by -the Ocean -Springs Chamber of Commerce.	«.y ■
On Saturday
■	9 a.m.-5 p.m.: Street Fair, 100 arts & crafts booths, 15 food booths.
■	8 p.m.: Historic Ball & Pageant; Ocean Springs Civic Center on U.S. 90; tickets are $15; tableau, music and heavy hors d’oeuvres; 872-2819 or 872-2766 for information; sponsored by 1699 Historical Committee.
On April 26
■	10:30 a.m.: Mass at Fort Maurepas.
■	2:30-3:15 p.m.: The Landing Pageant, on Front Beach at the foot of Washington Avenue; sponsored by 1699 Historical Committee.
■	3:30 p.m.: Parade from the landing site, up Washington Avenue north to Government Street, east on Government, ends at high school parking lot; at least 60 units, including bands, floats, marching units.
Information: The O.S. Chamber, 875-4424.