Take a step back in time for the weekend challenges Glasglow resident, Gary Beers, who is part of the group of Native American history-enthusiasts who have organized the Susquehanna Valley Flintknappers Eighth Annual Bald Eagle Knapp-In and Atl-atl Tournament.
The event will be held at the Mountz Memorial Park in Janesville from June 23 through Sunday, June 25. Events are expected to start around 10 a.m. each day and to extend into late evening on both Friday and Saturday as Blue Grass bands from all over the state will perform at night, including Mountain City Grass and the Allegheny Drifters.
The kitchen will be open from 11 a.m. until 7 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and until about 4 p.m. on Sunday. Admission is free to the public, as encouragement for all to come and step back in time nearly 10,000 years.
The origin of this fascinating event can be traced back to a simple walk in a field when Beers stumbled upon a genuine, Native American arrowhead.
“You see something like these beautiful pieces and you don’t know how long ago it was made, but you know that the last person to touch it was probably Native American, and it gets you close to them,” commented Beers. “It’ll get to you.”
There will be vendors selling flint and collections of genuine arrowheads on display all weekend. Both Revolutionary War and Civil War re-enactors will roam the park. Workshops and demonstrations of flintknapping, arrow-head making, wigwum building, and Native American drum-making will educate children and adults, alike, of the primitive, every-day life of the Native American.
The hunting spear tournament will extend throughout the weekend and an auction of points will take place on Saturday at 2 p.m., along with daily raffles and prizes, including a picture from an artist of Native American art. Storytellers and other contributors to the weekend will come from all over Pennsylvania as well as New York, Maryland, and Washington.
“It’s a great gathering,” said Beers, who cannot wait to share his personal collection of over 1,500 genuine arrowheads. “This will be a beautiful, wonderful weekend for people to come and see how these people lived.”
