Join Historic St. Mary’s City (HSMC) for Indigenous Heritage Day. The Annual event will be filled with ongoing demonstrations at the Woodland Indian Hamlet that highlight traditional methods in hide tanning, pottery, and cooking.

1:00 p.m.
Performance by Mark Tayac and the Piscataway Nation Singers and Dancers. From Tayac Territory (Port Tobacco, MD), Mark Tayac travels with the Piscataway Nation Singers and Dancers presenting a colorful, educational and entertaining pow wow-style event featuring American Indian Dance, Drum and Song that tells of American Indian history, culture, and traditions.

Ongoing demonstrations throughout the day:

Pottery
Meet with members of HSMC staff as they demonstrate Late-Woodland Indian pottery techniques.

Nature’s Bounty
HSMC staff demonstrate the many plants, native and invasive, throughout the landscape that can be used by humans.

Clothing
HSMC staff show how to preserve animal skins and how those skins can be made into clothing. (Visitor discretion advised, not for the squeamish.)

Canoe Burning
HSMC staff will use fire as a power tool and demonstrate burning a dugout canoe.

Archaeology
HSMC curators from our research department will display and expound upon the Native American artifacts that have been found on HSMC property.

Drew Shuptar-Rayvis: Eight Coats, Seven Shirts, Fifteen Fathom Wampum: Early Colonial Settlement and the First Deeds.
Drew Shuptar-Rayvis, an algonkian living historian of the 17th and 18th century of the mid Atlantic, will be at the event with his program Eight Coats, Seven Shirts, Fifteen Fathom Wampum: Early Colonial Settlement and the First Deeds. This program is meant for ages eight through adult. Drew Shuptar-Rayvis will be onsite from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m., with demonstrations and discussions taking place throughout the day. His program will include topics such as:  the interconnected relationships between the Dutch, Swedes, English, and Algonkian peoples in their respective regions/colonies; the adaptation of Native American life to European settlement and trade goods, including the importance and use of wampum through this critical period along the Atlantic and mid-Atlantic regions (south-western CT to MD);  the magnitude of the earliest American culture clashes through customs of war, adoption, captivity, alliance,  friendships and marriages between Natives, Europeans, and Africans; the discrepancies in the concepts of land ownership and usage; and the overshadowed early colonial conflicts: the Peach War, Kieft’s War, King Phillip’s War, and King William’s War.

Date: September 9, 2023

Location:

Historic St. Mary's City
18751 Hogaboom Lane
Saint Marys City, MD 20686

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