Native American speakers, performers and artists from across the country celebrated and shared their culture and traditions at the Moundville Native American Festival over the weekend.
The festival, hosted at the University’s Moundville Archaeological Park, gave students and other festival-goers an opportunity to learn about traditional and contemporary Native American culture.
“Moundville is a very special place for a lot of people, even beyond the local community, but also to our extended Native communities all over the U.S.,” said Jessica Dees, the festival director and education outreach coordinator.
The University of Alabama’s Moundville Archaeological Park was at one time, “America’s largest city north of Mexico,” where Native groups came and created 29 flat-topped mounds. Today, the park features trails, picnic areas and a campground.
Speakers and artists came to the festival from tribes around the country, including states such as Texas and Oklahoma. Most of these tribes, however, have their roots in the Southeast, chiefly Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi.
Dees said that it is important to her and to the festival to speak to the Native performers and collaborators in order to get feedback on what they enjoyed most and what can be incorporated further into the event.
“The museum is here, open year round, and the park is here, but the festival is a great place for people to return,” Dees said. She also said that people coming back every year creates a “cultural continuity.”
Lyndon Alec, a citizen of the Alabama-Coushatta tribe of Texas and traditional hoop dancer, has been attending the festival for 33 years to teach others about his life and culture.
His performances throughout the weekend were watched and applauded by the crowds at the festival. Aside from dancing, Alec is also a teacher. He said the festival is about bringing people together to bond over a shared culture among the Native community and to teach about Native history and traditions.
“We’re here to educate the kids, to let them know how we used to live before many, many years ago, how we grew on vegetation to keep ourselves alive in the wilderness,” Alec said.
Jeremy Delle, another artist and performer at the festival, is a bassist, recording artist, instructor and luthier, or instrument repair person, from New Orleans. He spoke about the Native American influence on the music that he plays alongside his longtime friend and fellow musician Grayhawk in The Grayhawk Band.
“There’s a whole lot of influence from the Native side that goes into funk and that New Orleans solid music,” Delle said.
The music performed at the festival by The Grayhawk Band pulled influence from numerous genres including blues, rock, jazz and funk, accompanied by Grayhawk’s lyrics in Mobilian Jargon, a Native American pidgin that was spoken in the Southeast until the 1950s.
“There’s some kind of energy that’s here that I feel every time. It feels like an energy that will push you away if you’re not meant to be here, but very inviting,” Delle said. “I couldn’t imagine this place being in my backyard. Shame on anybody that lives here that doesn’t fully support this place.”
