American Indian Pottery Demonstration and Panel Discussion Nov. 10

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American Indians in 21st-Century North Carolina
Wednesday, Nov. 10
Wilson Special Collections Library
3:30 p.m. Pottery-making demonstration (outside)
5 p.m. Reception and exhibit viewing (North Carolina Collection Gallery)
5:45 p.m. Program (Pleasants Family Assembly Room)
Free and open to the public
Information: North Carolina Collection, (919) 962-1172

A pottery demonstration and panel discussion will take place Nov. 10 in association with the exhibit Unearthing Native History: The UNC Catawba Archaeological Project, in the North Carolina Collection Gallery of the Wilson Special Collections Library. The events and exhibit are free and open to the public.

At 3:30 p.m., potters Caroleen Saunders and Beckee Garris of the Catawba nation will make burnished earthenware vessels outside Wilson Library – or in the first-floor hall in the case of rain.

The event will precede a reception and viewing of the Catawba Project exhibit at 5 p.m. A panel discussion at 5:45 p.m. in the Pleasants Family Assembly Room will address the subject “American Indians in 21st-Century North Carolina.”

Clara Sue Kidwell, Ph.D., director of UNC’s American Indian Center, will moderate the discussion by panelists:
• Thomas N. Belt, Cherokee language instructor, Western Carolina University;
• Edward K. Brooks, attorney and legal counsel to the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina;
• Beckee Garris, staff, Catawba Indian National Tribal Historic Office;
• Theda Perdue, Ph.D., Atlanta Distinguished Professor of Southern Culture in UNC’s history department; and
• Gregory A. Richardson, executive director, North Carolina Commission on Indian Affairs.

The Unearthing Native History exhibit will be on view through Jan. 31, 2011. Visitors will see pottery, beads, ornaments, stone and metal tools, items of both Native American and English manufacture, historical maps, travelers’ accounts and archaeological evidence from six village sites excavated in North Carolina and South Carolina. The exhibit also examines the Catawba’s enduring pottery-making tradition, which is unparalleled in the eastern United States.

Many of the artifacts were unearthed by the faculty and students of the UNC Research Laboratories of Archaeology, which is co-sponsoring the exhibit and events, along with the Library and the American Indian Center.

Related Links

• Pottery-making, exhibit, panel to trace lives of Catawba (news release from UNC News Services)
• North Carolina Collection Gallery
• Research Labs of Archaeology
• UNC American Indian Center