The Damariscotta River Association showed off its recreated Wabanaki village at Blackstone Point Saturday as nearly 50 visitors walked down their grassy meadows to marvel at wigwams, and learn food preservation techniques.
Then, under the direction of Gal Frey, a Passamaquoddy educator from Indian Township in Princeton, the group celebrated by holding hands and dancing in a circle, snaking around a pair of drummers thumping on handmade drums.
The celebration was topped off with a chance to sample a pioneer era soup and a tasty wilderness treat made with wild rice, celery, carrots, onions, a bit of vegetable stock, and almond milk.
Shirley McAfee of Appleton said the treat tasted “old.”
“It is almost a potato-carrot combination and seems to be a bit bland,” she said.
As she rolled the mixture around in her mouth, she smiled.
“It wants to dance in your mouth,” she said.
Visitors also marveled at Frey’s exquisite handmade basket fashioned from strips of ash and decorated with rows of tiny points.
The event, held Saturday at the DRA headquarters on Belvedere Road, was the final event in the group’s annual Wabanaki Living Skills and Culture Program.
More than 450 students from Lincoln County schools participated in the program learning how to build grass wigwams and huts, weave with ash strips, and scrape hides.
Sarah Gladu, the education coordinator for the DRA, taught students, and Saturday’s visitors, about techniques used to build the grass wigwams, how Native Americans smoked meat and fish as a way to preserve food, and other aspects of early communal life on the shores of the Great Salt Bay.
“We can’t be all encompassing, telling the whole story of the native peoples, but we can give visitors a taste of their life,” she said.
This year, like always, the program includes a Native American expert, like Frey, to instruct visitors.
“It is important to make sure the program is authentic, not just us telling the story,” Gladu said.
At the recreated village, Kyle Winchenbach, 10, immediately dropped to his knees and crawled into the largest wigwam exploring it and marveling how the bundles of tied grass draped over a wooden frame could cut the chilling wind blowing off the Great Salt Bay.
After the group looked at the displays, Frey showed visitors handmade traditional rattles and a pair of hand held drums played in unison, by volunteers using their bare knuckles, not drum sticks.
Then she led the group in a round circle dance.
Winchenbach, a 5th grader at Waldoboro’s Miller School, jumped at the chance to play one of the drums. But he found it was a bit of a chore to get the rhythm. With help from Frey and others, he finally got the hang of it.
“Cool,” Winchenbach said of his experience.
