Kituwah '98 highlights American Indian arts, heritage and education

Kituwah '98 highlights American Indian arts, heritage and education

ASHEVILLE, NC - A unique chance to learn more about the richly diverse culture of American Indians arrives September 18-20 to the Asheville Civic Center, as well as to area schools and the UNC-A campus during the week.

The 1998 Kituwah American Indian Celebration of Arts, Heritage and Education will offers something fascinating and educational for everyone. Possibly most important is the cultural abundance shared through dance, music and the spoken word.

The 1998 Kituwah education program includes The Jim Sky Iroquois Dancers; author and professor Gabe Horn, a Narragansett from New England; storyteller Ken Edwards, a member of the Colville Confederated Tribes of Washington State; Cherokee storyteller Fred Bradley; Cayuga storyteller and flute maker and player Dan Hill; Fred Bushyhead, chief of the Southern Cheyenne Nation and Kituwah's master of ceremonies; and Molly Hornbuckle, Miss Cherokee of 1998 who lives in the Big Y community of Cherokee.

As in the past, Kituwah offers free educational programs on Thursday and Friday mornings of the festival at Asheville's Civic Center. Reservations are required.

Schools in outlying areas may request a program to come to them, earlier in the week, when the festival artists, dancers, storytellers and historians of the Outreach Program will take the show on the road.

Then on Saturday, September 19, teachers can learn about American Indian history, art and way of life in a format that provides materials for the classroom. This is at the Owen Conference Center on the UNC-A campus.

For more information, call High Country ARt & Craft Guild, producers of Kituwah, for reservations: 828/252-3880 or 828/254-0072, or write PO Box 2854, Asheville, NC 28802.