​In advance of November’s “National Native American Heritage Month,” the is offering free fun ways to teach children about the “Native Voices of Loudoun County” Virginia. The exhibit, located in the E.E. Lake Store in Bluemont, covers 17,000 years of Native Americans’ continual occupation in Loudoun.

Volunteer tour guide, René Locklear White (Lumbee Indian) and co-founder of Bluemont’s Native American non-profit Sanctuary on the Trail, is offering to be available for private tours for schools until Nov. 2, as time permits. To request a private school tour, email [email protected] for more information. All tours are free. 

Meanwhile, the Native Voices exhibit is open to the general public every Sunday in October from 12:00 noon to 3:00 p.m. 

Last week (Oct. 3-4), close to 40 elementary students, ages 6-12 and teachers from the Village Montessori School of Bluemont received guided tours. Children spun a wheel listing Indigenous Native-American Indian themes, and then Bluemont resident and Native American (René) explained relevant teachings for each topic within the exhibit.
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René emphasized that Native American people continue to inhabit this region and that children ask authentic and interesting questions.

“Children want to know many things about our Indigenous Peoples. Children call us ‘Indians,’ and I want them to know that we’re still here,” René stressed. 

“This modern spinning wheel combined with Indigenous storytelling has proven to be a clever hands-on decolonized way to share truths, and help local school students foster an appreciation of our rich Indigenous local ways of life in the county, Virginia and the United States – past and present,” she explains.  

“I think this activity also helps children better understand the intimate relationship between Indigenous Peoples and nature while highlighting our skills and knowledge that have been and continue to be essential to us and the world,” she added.

The “Native Voices of Loudoun County” exhibit culminates on Saturday evening on Nov. 2, kicking off November’s “National Native American Heritage Month” with a community celebration potluck dinner and final exhibit tour, open to the general public. Meanwhile, all ages can experience self-guided and guided tours every Sunday in October from 12:00 noon to 3:00 p.m. The Plaster Museum of Bluemont Heritage is located in the E.E. Lake Store at 18351 Railroad Street, Bluemont, VA 20135. 

“This year’s Plaster Museum of Bluemont Heritage rotating-exhibit is dedicated to celebrating the history, culture, and contributions of Indigenous, Native American communities here – then and now,” said Peter Weeks, the museum’s president. “This immersive experience offers a unique opportunity to learn, reflect, and honor the rich heritage of the first stewards of this land.” 

To volunteer or become a member of the Bluemont Heritage and receive a free copy of the book “From Snickersville to Bluemont,” visit their website at BluemontHeritage.org. To learn more about Native American events by Bluemont non-profit Sanctuary on the Trail visit HarvestGathering.org and for more about the Village Montessori School of Bluemont visit VillageMontessori.org. 

12. Native American Music is critical to Native life. Traditional flutes and drum are on display. If you catch René at the exhibit, ask her to sing the Southeastern Indigenous Women’s canoe/water song.
13. Rock Art and worked stone who dozens of items Indigenous Peoples created here by manipulating stones to create symbols, handprints, petroglyphs (etched), pictographs (painted), images of animals, and projectile points that are thousands of years ago. Current stone pipe-bowls are also on display.
14. Languages of words or phrases from three local language groups Algonquian, Iroquoian, and Siouan Native American language families are featured on a poster. Local words continue today like Seneca Ridge Middle School, Tuscarora High School, and Potomac. 
15. Dances and movements have different meanings like the jingle dress dance and warrior dances. Today children can visit 11 tribes in Virginia and attend powwows to watch traditional dances.
16. Trade Items were commonly traded between tribes and colonizers and include wampum, animal hides, and foods in addition trading for skills like hunting and planting. See trade items to include dresses and jewelry on display.
17. Lifeways explore daily life and activities, everything from cooking and gathering to building wigwams and longhouses. Today, many people are learning how to forage for wild foods and how to reconnect to older and healthier lifeways.
18. Historical Sites on a locally made historical map by mapmaker Eugene Scheel shows where Native Americans lived, gathered, held ceremony, fished, and buried.
19. Wampum on display comes from shells (i.e. clam) and was used for trade (as money) and treaties. Today wampum is used in ceremony and as jewelry. QR-codes around the exhibit offer link-offs to modern handbooks and reports that offer greater detail.
20. Tools of the Past on exhibit are a way to examine industrial technology used by Native Americans like the hammer stone, stone axe, hatchets, awl, projectiles, and scrapers. Dozens of these complex exhibit tools prove that the First Peoples were engineers and brilliant craftsmen and women who lived and thrived in what is now called Loudoun County for thousands of years. ​

Yesterday, 35 visitors attended the book signing event by guest author Matthew "Maasaw" Howard (Cherokee). This event is part of the Plaster Museum of Bluemont Heritage Native Voices of Loudoun County Virginia: Past and Present Exhibit that is open on Sundays until October 2024.  

Next Book Signing by Massaw is Sunday, Sept. 1. 12:00 noon until 4:00 p.m. ​Meanwhile, other museum Guided and Self-Guided Tour Days are available every Sunday from noon to 3:00 p.m. until October 2024.