Meherrin Tribe ready to celebrate their heritage

Published 4:59 pm Tuesday, October 11, 2022

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AHOSKIE – The tradition continues.

The local Meherrin Indian Tribe will host their 34th annual Powwow on Oct. 14-16.

The venue is at the Meherrin’s Tribal Grounds, located on NC 11 between Ahoskie and Murfreesboro.

Admission is $7 for adults, and $5 for children ages 6-12. Kids ages 5-and-under are admitted free. Senior citizens (ages 65-and-over) are admitted for $3.

Event coordinators rescheduled the Powwow, which was slated for Sept. 30 through Oct. 2, due to Hurricane Ian.

This year’s Powwow will be the first in-person event since 2019. It will feature Cheyenne Daniels from the Haliwa Saponi Tribe from Hollister, the Aztec Dancers, and the well-known Randy Greene from the Tuscarora Nation in New York, an Iroquois social singer who will be the event’s head male.

School day will be Friday, Oct. 14 with over eight demonstrators from various tribes.

Grand entries are scheduled for 7 pm on Friday (Oct. 14); 12 noon and 6 p.m. on Saturday (Oct. 15); and 12 noon on Sunday (Oct. 16).

Additionally, those attending or participating in the Powwow can received COVID-19 vaccinations free of charge. Those vaccinations (Moderna, Pfizer, and Johnson & Johnson) will be administered by licensed medical providers during all three days of the Powwow. The vaccines, approved by the Centers for Disease Control, are available for ages six months and over. COVID-19 testing is also available at the event.

The Meherrin Nation (Tribe) is a state recognized tribe of Native Americans in North Carolina. Descendants of the Tribe have remained in Hertford, Gates, Northampton and Bertie counties.

Meherrin people refer to themselves as Kauwets’a:ka, their original name. They an Iroquois nation, close relatives of the Tuscarora and other Haudenosaunee (Iroquois Confederacy Nations) with whom they share deep linguistic, historic, and cultural ties.

To learn more about the Tribe, visit their website (www.meherrinnation.org).

About Cal Bryant

Cal Bryant, a 40-year veteran of the newspaper industry, serves as the Editor at Roanoke-Chowan Publications, publishers of the Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald, Gates County Index, and Front Porch Living magazine.

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