A Trophy and A PowWow

Busy weekend for us!! Friday evening, we joined the rest of the One Goal soccer league for a celebration and recognition of the players. Here is a shot with our neighbors, Kennedy and Zion, and Cullen's cousin, Justin, showing off their trophies afterward. Cullen has learned a bit about the game this season, though he'll tell you he is not a professional. Any sport that allows you to run back and forth and back and forth has a lot going for it from the get-go!

Saturday, after an early soccer match, Cullen, big sister, Taylor, who is home for the summer, Dad and I went to a the Cherokee Mother's Day Festival and PowWow not far from our home. The weather was perfect, and the event was spectacular! We saw dancing and regalia from several tribal traditions, listened to drums and music (actually, we could feel the drums!) and had a chance to touch and examine crafts and artifacts of every sort.

Cullen was really fascinated with one of the presenters/re-enacters of Cherokee history. He knows we have a little of this tribe in our family line, but I think the real draw was the fact that the man made fire with no matches! He actually did a great presentation, demonstrating how the early people made fire, then how this changed after the tribes began trading with the Europeans and acquired steel to strike against flint. He talked about other changes that came about through this trade, including firearms. I was amazed that our little fireball of a five-year old stayed so intently focused and still for so long! The highlight of the day for Cullen was the firing of an old musket.



Over the past week, we've begun to learn about Native Americans a little, and we'll continue to learn more over the next week or two. Only now we have tangible understanding of so much that might not be so easy to glean from a book or a cardboard craft. We have seen a tipi of the plains tribes; we know exactly what a lean-to shelter looks like that might have been built by the Southeastern tribes; we have seen and smelled a buffalo; we have tied a leather and bone bead choker around our own necks; we have run our fingers into the fur of a fox pelt and touched the tip of a bone knife; we have heard the plaintive call of a wooden flute; we have actually danced in the grass to the pounding drum and wailing song.

As Cullen sat with his Dad to watch the dancers late in the afternoon, (while big sister shopped the jewelry booths!) he looked up, and with just a little bit of surprise in his voice, he said, "You know... I'm really enjoying myself!"

Learning new things can be incredibly fun!