Louis Campbell: The Gathering
With no marketing budget, the Sanctuary on the Trail™ depended mainly on word of mouth and flyers printed on personal computers and printers. But then the caliber of commitment of these few implementers was the size of a very large city. The gourd festival portion of The Gathering offered 42 gourd classes for students excited about learning new gourd crafting skills. “What we heard the most was, ‘We had no idea you could make so many things with gourds and to see it tied in with Native American Indian culture,’” said Janice Kiehl president of the Virginia Lovers Gourd Society. “We’re only limited by our imagination when it comes to creating gourd art.” Events like The Gathering shed light on innovative ways to bring families from cities to the countryside and to sell and buy local. New relationships formed. Truckloads of donated corn, straw and pumpkins rolled in from nearby Wayside Pumpkin Maze Farm, Audley Farm and Nalls Farm Market.
Yet, The Gathering revealed generations of passed down trauma still evident in Indian people. “I’d like to continue educating the public on our culture through our dances and songs. To show people that we are still here,” remarked Pamunkey and Cherokee Indian Andrew T. Tyler master of ceremony for The Gathering kidz harvest fest. Virginia’s Pamunkey Indians are Pocahontas’ Tribe; the first federally recognized tribe in Virginia. In blocking recognition until 2015, the U.S. Federal Government denied the very existence of Pocahontas’ Pamunkey people like Tyler and The Gathering’s head female dancer.
“I enter the dance arena to pray for those who have faith that I will represent them well. With each step, I hope to do just that,” said Pamunkey Indian Debora Littlewing Moore A few other Indian people participating in The Gathering doubted using the word “experiment.” They argued that Indian people are tired of being experimented on. Tired of being rental Indians. Tired of being a museum piece; a fixture beside the dinosaurs in museums. ‘We are still here.’ The gathering was not an experiment on people but an experiment in Humanity within an individual. So late in the school year and little time to plan, it was impossible to arrange busloads of school students. But teachers, parents and students showed up anyway, in awe, selling out of 500 wrist bands within hours on day one.
