4 posts tagged “cartersville”

I only found out a few weeks ago about this festival that's been going on right here in my hometown for the last five or six years, so I'm telling everybody about it so they'll turn out next year and keep the festival alive for many years to come.

First of all, let me just say that the Etowah Valley can be right beautiful when it wanst to, and especially in fall. The grass is tall, the leaves are just starting to turn, and the wind has a faint promise of a cold winter upon it. The air was crisp and clean for the weekend, and the deep blue sky was dappled with numerous grey clumps of stratocumuli

But if you're not getting the picture..here's a picture...including a tipi and array of native-american trapping and hunting tools and pelts.

One of the best things about native-american festivals is the dancing. People come from all over the northern and central continent to dance in their various regalias and styles to represent their particular culture. It was truly a photographers' paradise.  Here's a few photos of dancers, some dressed very traditoinal and others in contemporary traditional style.

There are different general styles of dances that are done at events like this one and at competitions which take place all across the country at pow-wows. The lady to the right is doing a jingle dance, which is said to heal the sick.  Her dress is decorated with scores of little tin horns which were traditionally made of things such as snuff can lids. Her footwork reminds me very much of irish dancing, in that her feet move quickly while her upper body tends to remain almost still.

Below you'll see one of the tloke nahuake dancers representing the Mexica or Aztec people. She and the rest of the Salinas family travelled all the way from Mexico City to dance and educate the spectators. In the picture below, she is asking for the blessing of Sun (or Fire) before she begins her dancing. At the end of her presentation, she invited all spectators to join her in the dance ring for a friendship dance. It was quite a lot of fun and she was a wonderful dance instructor.

My personal favourite dancer was a lady named Georgina Heywahey, who danced what is called Northern Shawl. This is a style that comes from the natives who live up around the Canadian border, and is a bit more kinetic than the traditional womens' style. There is a closer-up portrait of her in the group of four dancer pictures above.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can't have dancing without music, and there was plenty of music to be heard, both traditional and contemporary. There were two groups of traditional drummers, one called Red Boyz, who presented a style called Southern Drum, which is a slower beat with moderate pitched singing, and the other called A-Wo-Ha-Li, who presented Northern Drum, which is a faster beat and high almost falsetta singing.

There was also a traditional wooden flute player Sunday morning, but I cannot find his name in the event program. When I do, I'll provide a link for you (hopefully)

 

 

AND also included in the insanely low price of admission was a presentation by Ray Pena "Raptorman" and his birds of prey. He brought out his sparrow hawks and falcons and showed how he has trained them to hunt. It was a real novel experience for me to have the chance to photograph so many birds up close.

I love this pic to the right.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh...did I mention I got to meet Pocahontas?

Irene Bedard is not only a talented actress and singer, but a genuinely nice person to chat with. She has been in dozens of flims, but her most famous role might be as the voice and body model for Disney's animated Pocahontas.

 

 

 

 

 

 

AND I got to touch a baby buffalo :D

Below is "Tank", who came down along with his daddy "Thunder". Both belong to Chipa Wolf, who helped make the festival possible.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But of all the pictures I took (and believe me, I took boatloads), the one below was the absolute best of the batch. This little girl was so adorable, and quite the little dancer too.

Ironically, in two weeks, there's going to be a cowboys festival at the Booth Western Art Museum here in town..and yeah, I'll be there..with Rosie.  (I still owe you all the story behind Rosie's name too..and it's coming, I promise)

Okay..so these are a day later than promised..but here are some pics of my Saturday night at the Etowah Indian Mounds  They have (at least) one event each year after-hours, and believe me when I say that, much like Six Flags, it's a different park after dark.

Here's a volunteer craftsman showing how arrowheads were made. Although chert was the usual material for arrowheads, he was working with obsidian. The piece he is working on in this photo would have been a larger ceremonial arrowhead, but as he was working on it later in the evening, it broke, as sometimes happens.

This is one of my favourite pictures from the event. He had been working for about five hours on that little section, but seemed to be having a great time. The mat he's making will eventually be used as a floor covering for the wattle-and-daub hut. For the occasion of this event, the park rangers built a fire in the hut's fire ring, so it was pretty cozy in there even without a complete roof. Those mud walls really keep the heat in (or out, in summer)

I wish these had turned out better, but really it's only the second time I've done night shooting, and the ambient light was tricky, what with the sky, the torches, and all that smoke. The first one is a view of Mound C (the burial mound) from atop Mound A (the chieftain's residence). Behind Mound C is the Etowah River, where visitors could see a man burning out a log for a dugout canoe and watch a lady making pottery. I wish the pottery and canoe pics had been better, but again, I was having to work with fire-light and focus through much smoke, so those pics came out rather blurry and/or red-saturated.  The second picture is of the stairway leading up Mound A.

Pooky and I are going to go back to the mounds tomorrow and sign up to volunteer. They still need help finishing the hut, and they also have other volunteer jobs around the park.  I'm hoping they might find a use for a local photographer who is trying to get her name established too. :D

 

I promise you I could not have paid cash-money for a lovelier day to do some outdoor photography.

The Etowah Indian Mounds has always been a place which fascinated us both, and it seems every year right about the start of autumn, Pooky gets a renewed interest in Native American culture and antrhopology. Timing could not have been better, since I've been itching to try out my new camera on something besides cats, my garden, and Pooky.

Here's two of the larger mounds, as one might see if one arrived by canoe on the banks of the Etowah river.

In spite of what people often assume, not all mounds are burial mounds. Archeological evidence indicates that the largest mound was built to occupy the houses the most important members of the village such as the chieftain and his family.

This wattle and daub hut is a modern replica of a typical village dwelling of the Etowah settlement of the time of the mound-builders. The plastic tarpaulin is not typical of the moundbuilder culture.

Here is the frame for the thatched roof. Note the center is left open for smoke to rise. In the middle of the hut's floor there is a hard-baked clay area for a fire pit.

This coming Saturday there is to be a night-time tour of the mounds, and so torches line the paths around the site and the staircases to the tops of the mounds. Sorry for not taking any photos from the tops of any of the mounds, but Pooky was having a bad-knees day and did not want to blow his legs completely out before Saturday night. I PROMISE plenty of interesting pics of that event... barring rain, of course...as IF!

Oh.... and at the Etowah Mounds site, there is a botanical display of flora native to the area at the time of the mound builders. 

I have no idea what the one on the right is, but the bee seems to enjoy it. The one on the left is columbine I think. Amazingly, both specimens still look good in spite of the drought. There is also progress underway to restore the grass and trees to purely native specimens.In the past two years or so, all the trees were removed from the mounds and immediate vicinity.

I am totally excited about Saturday now. Two years ago we went to the night-tour and got to watch a real dugout canoe being made as well as hear some wonderfully haunting tales about the mound builders' burial customs.

So..check back then ..if not sooner. :D

The following are all made in my hometown of Cartersville, Georgia in what is called 'the square'. I will not bore any of you with details here, but if you are curious, I have included good descriptions of each picture in the gallery, so all you need to do is click the pic.

The above were made in Friendship Park, which is the middle of the square. The Friendship monument (left) is the centrepiece of the park. The monument, which was made just before the Civil War, was moved from its original location to the park, which is only around fifteen years old. The amphitheatre (middle left) hosts several local music festivals. The large map (middle right) depicts Bartow County's various communities, rivers and railways. The two tired feet (right) belong to your intrepid guide and photographer.

These four above pictures are of buildings which surround the square. The rail station (left) has been converted into the Cartersville visitors' center. The Grand Theatre (middle left) was built in 1929, but has recently been renovated and restored. The northern shops of the square (middle right) are said to be 'under the bridge' though the bridge really only covers the street. The 'future home of' the Bartow History Center is also under the bridge, and was once part of the old jail complex.

I hope you all have enjoyed my little tour. It isn't exactly the ruins of Rome or the rues of Paris..but it's home.