Audio
“An Enduring Past,” Highway 64 Exhibit Shelter, Milepost 370, Panel C
Transcript
This exhibit, titled “An Enduring Past,” contains an illustration that features a woman from a southeastern tribe sharing the history of her people through storytelling. [Text]
Lands along the Natchez Trace Parkway remain the historic homelands of the Natchez, Choctaw, and Chickasaw people. This is the birthplace of their cultural lives. Among some of the most significant sites are monumental earthworks — mounds — created by their ancestors. Tribal storytellers remember this homeland. Children listen to elders, entranced by the achievements of the mound builders. Deeply troubled by their ancestors’ forced removal from their homelands, listeners are sustained by stories of resilience and hope, as their nations reestablished political and cultural traditions in Indian Territory (modern-day Oklahoma). Each year, many will return here to celebrate and honor the enduring legacies bestowed by this ancient homeland. In the illustration, a storyteller, an American Indian woman, kneels on the ground talking to three children seated in front of her. Her gray hair is pulled back into a ponytail. As she speaks, she leans slightly forward and gestures with her hands. She wears a white apron over a pale yellow ribbon dress, a multi-color finger-woven belt around her waist, a necklace with an oval medallion, and bracelets.
The children wear modern shirts and jeans. One child has her hands clasped, her elbows resting on her knees. A second child has her mouth slightly open. The third has his head slightly cocked to one side.
In muted colors that contrast with the full color storyteller and children, background images suggest 10,000 years of Southeastern Indian history. Three American Indian men in loincloths, wearing necklaces and carrying spears and bows stand in a haze behind a flat-topped mound and several thatched-roof structures. In front of the mound, a more decorated man holds a staff with three attached feathers aloft as he looks toward the sky. He wears a loincloth with a diamond pattern, a cape around his shoulders, a pouch with shoulder strap, necklaces, bracelets, and a headdress of vertical feathers in a wide headband. The mound scene represents a version of the Southeastern Indian Creation story.
The mound scene blends into a muted wagon train from the early 1800s. Both men and women walk and ride alongside the canvas- covered wagons pulled by oxen or horses. Three riders in military uniforms, carrying rifles, watch as the wagon train passes between them.
There are three other exhibits on this shelter wall, two to your left and one to your right.
Description
This exhibit, titled “An Enduring Past,” contains an illustration that features a woman from a southeastern tribe sharing the history of her people through storytelling.
Duration
3 minutes, 8 seconds
Credit
NPS
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