Post by Moon Seeker on Jun 1, 2009 12:03:46 GMT -5
Annual powwow gives American Indian chance to showcase his way of life
By Scott Richardson | Monday, June 1, 2009 - 7:37 am
By Scott Richardson
srichardson@pantagraph.com
LeROY — The Grand Village of the Kickapoo Intertribal Powwow next weekend is more than a good time for Glenn Barnhill of Bloomington. It’s a chance to preserve his way of life.
Barnhill, who works at State Farm Insurance Cos., is an American Indian with roots in the Lakota and Apache tribes. His wife, Beverly, is Pottawattamie. Their three children, Ashley, 16, Mark, 15, and Joe, 12, are learning the native languages. Ashley is learning to stitch with beads. The boys are learning to drum and sing native songs. The Barnhill family spends nearly every weekend each summer attending a powwow or other ceremony somewhere in the Midwest.
“Keeping this way of life alive is difficult in this day and age,” said Barnhill, 35, who is president of the board of the Grand Village of the Kickapoo Park. “The young people coming up, so many things can sidetrack them. To keep the traditional ways and to live in the modern world, it’s difficult some days.”
Barnhill recalled once speaking to a class of second graders. One of the boys wondered aloud when he would climb into a time machine and travel back to his true place in history.
“He only saw us in movies and books. He didn’t think we existed in this time period,” said Barnhill.
The powwow, which attracts more than 4,000 visitors annually, features American Indian dancers, drummers and singers who perform during grand entries. The grounds feature several vendors who sell American Indian crafts, food and drinks.
Barnhill, whose native name is Red Knife, became involved with the Grand Village more than 10 years ago at the request of Doris Emmett, his former teacher at Tri-Valley High School. She approached him at another powwow and asked him to help start a similar event at the former site of a large Kickapoo village near LeRoy. Emmett, who is now deceased, and her husband, Bill, a retired Bloomington police lieutenant and former member of the McLean County Board, had purchased the land where the village was located without knowing its history. They discovered its importance while they successfully fought a proposed hog farm planned on part of the site.
At one time, the Kickapoo controlled most of what is now the state of Illinois. No one knows exactly how long the village existed. A French explorer/soldier wrote home in the 1750s with news he’d seen a large Indian settlement and fort at the site.
In 1818, the year Illinois became a state, mapmakers named the site the Grand Village of the Kickapoo. Six years later, a surveyor counted 2,000 to 3,000 Kickapoo tribal members living there. More than 5,000 graves were evidence they’d been there for a while. The village disbanded less than 20 years later and moved west after the Black Hawk War increased tensions in Illinois.
After organizing the inaugural Grand Village powwow, the Emmetts dedicated a portion of the site for a park. After his wife died, Bill Emmett moved to Texas and sold the property to Bill and Misty Vermaat of Mokena, who’ve been strong supporters of the park ever since.
Misty Vermaat is a descendant of Simeon H. West, a spiritualist who arrived in McLean County in the early 1850s. He erected a statue of a Kickapoo chief in LeRoy after West said he saw the chief in a vision. West also donated 20 acres of land to McLean County for West Park located near the Kickapoo Village site.
Barnhill leads a group of about 70 volunteers who keep the park groomed and help care for a small herd of buffalo that roam there — behind fences. This year, volunteers constructed a traditional longhouse similar to the summer dwellings of the Kickapoo and many other tribes originally from the northeast.
Made of a frame work of saplings and small trees and covered with reed and grass mats, the longhouse is not an exact replica but is representative of a Woodlands longhouse. It is about 50 feet by 20 feet in size and would have been shared by two or three related families.
Though Barnhill’s ancestors lived in New Mexico on one side and the Dakotas and western Minnesota on the other, he senses an urgency to preserve native sites in Illinois and to encourage gatherings like the Grand Village of the Kickapoo Powwow. They give all people, American Indian and non-Indian alike, a chance to experience the history of the region and authentic American Indian history, he said.
“Movies and books have sometimes given us a pretty bad rap,” Barnhill said. “They (visitors to the powwow) get to understand a way of life most people would never know about unless it was from reading a history book. You hear a lot about the pioneers, but before that, there was a native people here. To bring that alive, that brings us all together. That’s important.”
——————————————————————————–
11th Intertribal Powwow
When: 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Saturday; 10 a.m.-5 p.m. June 7
Where: Grand Village of the Kickapoo Park north of LeRoy
Features: American Indian dancing, singing and drums; crafts; refreshments (no alcohol allowed).
Grand entries: Dancing begins at 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. June 7.
Cost: Adults $5; elderly and kids 6-12, $3; kids under 6, free
What to bring: Lawn chairs
Camping: Tents and tipis allowed
Directions: Take Interstate 74 to LeRoy, drive north through town to School Street, turn right, go about five miles to County Road 3100. Continue to stop sign, then follow signs to the park.
More information: Contact Linda (309) 376-3400 or (309) 275-6105, e-mail grand_village@yahoo.com or visit www.grandvillage.org
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Posted in: Scott Richardson |
www.pantagraph.com/blogs/main/?p=3916
By Scott Richardson | Monday, June 1, 2009 - 7:37 am
By Scott Richardson
srichardson@pantagraph.com
LeROY — The Grand Village of the Kickapoo Intertribal Powwow next weekend is more than a good time for Glenn Barnhill of Bloomington. It’s a chance to preserve his way of life.
Barnhill, who works at State Farm Insurance Cos., is an American Indian with roots in the Lakota and Apache tribes. His wife, Beverly, is Pottawattamie. Their three children, Ashley, 16, Mark, 15, and Joe, 12, are learning the native languages. Ashley is learning to stitch with beads. The boys are learning to drum and sing native songs. The Barnhill family spends nearly every weekend each summer attending a powwow or other ceremony somewhere in the Midwest.
“Keeping this way of life alive is difficult in this day and age,” said Barnhill, 35, who is president of the board of the Grand Village of the Kickapoo Park. “The young people coming up, so many things can sidetrack them. To keep the traditional ways and to live in the modern world, it’s difficult some days.”
Barnhill recalled once speaking to a class of second graders. One of the boys wondered aloud when he would climb into a time machine and travel back to his true place in history.
“He only saw us in movies and books. He didn’t think we existed in this time period,” said Barnhill.
The powwow, which attracts more than 4,000 visitors annually, features American Indian dancers, drummers and singers who perform during grand entries. The grounds feature several vendors who sell American Indian crafts, food and drinks.
Barnhill, whose native name is Red Knife, became involved with the Grand Village more than 10 years ago at the request of Doris Emmett, his former teacher at Tri-Valley High School. She approached him at another powwow and asked him to help start a similar event at the former site of a large Kickapoo village near LeRoy. Emmett, who is now deceased, and her husband, Bill, a retired Bloomington police lieutenant and former member of the McLean County Board, had purchased the land where the village was located without knowing its history. They discovered its importance while they successfully fought a proposed hog farm planned on part of the site.
At one time, the Kickapoo controlled most of what is now the state of Illinois. No one knows exactly how long the village existed. A French explorer/soldier wrote home in the 1750s with news he’d seen a large Indian settlement and fort at the site.
In 1818, the year Illinois became a state, mapmakers named the site the Grand Village of the Kickapoo. Six years later, a surveyor counted 2,000 to 3,000 Kickapoo tribal members living there. More than 5,000 graves were evidence they’d been there for a while. The village disbanded less than 20 years later and moved west after the Black Hawk War increased tensions in Illinois.
After organizing the inaugural Grand Village powwow, the Emmetts dedicated a portion of the site for a park. After his wife died, Bill Emmett moved to Texas and sold the property to Bill and Misty Vermaat of Mokena, who’ve been strong supporters of the park ever since.
Misty Vermaat is a descendant of Simeon H. West, a spiritualist who arrived in McLean County in the early 1850s. He erected a statue of a Kickapoo chief in LeRoy after West said he saw the chief in a vision. West also donated 20 acres of land to McLean County for West Park located near the Kickapoo Village site.
Barnhill leads a group of about 70 volunteers who keep the park groomed and help care for a small herd of buffalo that roam there — behind fences. This year, volunteers constructed a traditional longhouse similar to the summer dwellings of the Kickapoo and many other tribes originally from the northeast.
Made of a frame work of saplings and small trees and covered with reed and grass mats, the longhouse is not an exact replica but is representative of a Woodlands longhouse. It is about 50 feet by 20 feet in size and would have been shared by two or three related families.
Though Barnhill’s ancestors lived in New Mexico on one side and the Dakotas and western Minnesota on the other, he senses an urgency to preserve native sites in Illinois and to encourage gatherings like the Grand Village of the Kickapoo Powwow. They give all people, American Indian and non-Indian alike, a chance to experience the history of the region and authentic American Indian history, he said.
“Movies and books have sometimes given us a pretty bad rap,” Barnhill said. “They (visitors to the powwow) get to understand a way of life most people would never know about unless it was from reading a history book. You hear a lot about the pioneers, but before that, there was a native people here. To bring that alive, that brings us all together. That’s important.”
——————————————————————————–
11th Intertribal Powwow
When: 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Saturday; 10 a.m.-5 p.m. June 7
Where: Grand Village of the Kickapoo Park north of LeRoy
Features: American Indian dancing, singing and drums; crafts; refreshments (no alcohol allowed).
Grand entries: Dancing begins at 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. June 7.
Cost: Adults $5; elderly and kids 6-12, $3; kids under 6, free
What to bring: Lawn chairs
Camping: Tents and tipis allowed
Directions: Take Interstate 74 to LeRoy, drive north through town to School Street, turn right, go about five miles to County Road 3100. Continue to stop sign, then follow signs to the park.
More information: Contact Linda (309) 376-3400 or (309) 275-6105, e-mail grand_village@yahoo.com or visit www.grandvillage.org
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Posted in: Scott Richardson |
www.pantagraph.com/blogs/main/?p=3916