The Kekionga Storytelling Festival takes place this Saturday at Headwaters Park from 10 am to 4 pm with a concert by Douglas Blue Feather.
One of the storytellers appearing, is Eugene Vincent Brown.
Background provided by the Festival:
Eugene Vincent Brown is a Miami Indian of Indiana and a descendent of Pimyotahmah. He attends Powwows in Indiana and Oklahoma. He has attended many longhouse experiences at Peru, Indiana, where the canal boars carried part of the tribe past Peru on the journey to Kansas in 1846. His goal in life is to show respect to all.
He has told stories and taught flute making at Columbia City powwows. Brown makes flutes, cradleboards, and other woodland crafts, and paints, carves, and burns symbols of the Miami heritage. In 2003, he donated a wood sculpture consisting of a brightly colored of a turtle, a sand hill crane and a loon as part of the Oklahoma Art Show at the Art Museum at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. The work was given to Chief Floyd Leonard’s son, Joe Leonard, who is a professor at the university where the Miami language is taught to Miami children. He also attends weeklong workshops each year at the National Center for Great Lakes Native American Culture in Portland, Indiana, where traditional bearers teach adults and children.
Eugene Vincent Brown will alternate with the other storytellers every hour on the hour.