The Gathering Of The Tribes

I attended the Fort Crailo Harvest Festival (see previous three posts) on a Saturday after I got home from work. When I left Fort Crailo, I began to drive to Wal-Mart to do some shopping. But along the way I saw a hand lettered sign pointing down a country road saying "Gathering Of The Tribes." Well, it was a beautiful day and I had both the time and a camera, so I turned down the road and pulled into the parking lot (a hay field the rest of the year). It cost $5.00, so I paid, entered and began my exploration. I found booths with vendors of Native American crafts and ornaments:

I found tepees and encampments both within and outside of the public area:

There was a good crowd, a large percentage of which were bikers, and everyone seemed happy and friendly:

The center of the gathering was a ceremonial fire around which an Aztec couple were performing and explaining traditional tribal dances. This was a big crowd pleaser and lots of folks sat on hay bales to watch:


This animal skin covered lean-to was especially interesting to me as it so closely resembled the branch and leaf covered lean-tos I'd recently discovered while hiking in Dyken Pond Nature Preserve:

There were lots of items for sale, but I wasn't in the market for anything so didn't investigate very closely:

This bear head was decoration at one of the vendor's booths.

I didn't stay long as it had already been a very long day for me and I still had my weekly shopping to do. But I found the gathering to be a fascinating idea and may go again in the future: