Native American Festival to start today

Dancers perform in traditional costume at a previous year?s Invitational Native American Arts Festival. This year?s fair will feature similar performances and traditional foods and crafts.Special to View View file photoDancers representing a Hopi reservation perform a Comanche dance for audiences at the 2005 Invitational Native American Arts Festival. Advertisement

The Clark County Heritage Museum, 1830 S. Boulder Highway, will host the 18th annual Invitational Native American Arts Festival today through Sunday.

The event will bring together music performances, storytelling, American Indian food, a children's make-and-take art area and more than 50 invited artists for a craft market and demonstrations.

"Local Native Americans are really presented in all aspects of it (the festival)," said Clark County Heritage Museum administrator Mark Rydzynski.

Rydzynski said the festival will feature several local American Indians, as well as people and groups from across the country and South America.

One of the big draws of the festival is the craft market, Rydzynski said. This year's craft fair will include traditional and contemporary pottery, sculpture, jewelry, beadwork, weaving, basketry, sand, wood, stone, kachina dolls, rattles, fetishes, drums, dream catchers and buckskin art.

In addition, several artists will give demonstrations on various crafts. Rydzynski said asking the artists how to make something is encouraged. All of the artists are reviewed by a panel with the Clark County Heritage Museum before being accepted into the festival.

"We pick people who can provide a range of collectibles. No one is priced out of the market, whether they want a single piece or a lifetime collection," he said.

Grammy award-nominated flautist Robert "Tree" Cody will act as master of ceremonies for the performances. During the performances, Cody will tell the audience a little about the meaning behind the music and dances. "We're here for the why and how that sometimes slip through the hands of the observer," Rydzynski said.

Las Vegas resident Susie McCabe and her family will perform Navajo dances during the three-day event. The dances are traditional men's, women's fancy, the grass dance and the jingle dance. McCabe said the names of the dances depend on the type of outfits that are worn. McCabe said she and her family have been performing since the festival's first few years.

McCabe said her children learned to dance when they were younger and now make up their own moves or learn moves from other people. "Along the way, they just started to have their own style and have their own individual way that they like to dance," McCabe said.

In addition, McCabe and her husband, Herbert, also sell arts and crafts. McCabe does beadwork while her husband is a silversmith.

McCabe said the festival is important for American Indians.

"There have been a lot of natives who have moved away from their native tradition," she said.

In addition, the festival is important to those who do not come from an American Indian background, she said.

"They learn to appreciate the work and time that goes into it. It's also just fun. They see all the colors and the neat work. A lot of the children like to see the young children dance," she said.

Several food vendors will be on hand with traditional American Indian foods, including Indian tacos and fry bread.

In addition to the regular festival activities, a traveling complementary exhibit titled Twentieth Century Pueblo Printmakers will be at the museum. The collection of photos taken in the 1860s and 1890s and artifacts will be displayed through May 26.

Rydzynski said the festival attracted 10,000 visitors last year, and he expects the number to be about the same this year. "It literally is a whole day of Native American culture in one format or another. It's literally the best program put on by a museum in Southern Nevada," he said.

Admission to the Native American Arts Festival is $5 for adults and $3 for children ages 3 to 15. Children under age 3 are free. The festival is open 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.