Tryon Palace is launching a new Community Class Series “that reach beyond the pages of history books.”
The first of three educational programs on eastern North Carolina is scheduled for Thursday evening at the North Carolina History Center at Tryon Palace.
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Nancy Strickland Fields-Chavis, a member of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, will present “North Carolina Before Tryon: Eastern North Carolina’s Indigenous Communities.”
Director and curator of The Museum of the Southeast American Indian at the University of North Carolina Pembroke, and a commissioner for the North Carolina American Heritage Commission, Fields-Chavis will begin the program with a moment in 1491, long before any European explorer set foot on what was to become Eastern North Carolina.
The land was the home of the Tuscarora, Secotan, Chowanoke, Aquascogoc, Neusiok, Dasamongueponke, Pamlico, Chesapeake, Roanoke, Weapmeoc, and many other Algonquin, Iroquoian and Siouan speaking peoples. Fields-Chavis will go into the politics, lifeways, and culture of a people who governed this land for time immemorial.
A light reception is to kick off the evening at 5:30 p.m., featuring a menu influenced by the food sources known available to the Indigenous peoples, followed at 6 p.m. by a call to order and cultural presentation by Reggie Brewer of the Lumbee Tribe. The main presentation begins at 6:30 p.m. in the Cullman Performance Hall.
All are welcome to attend. Community Class is free, but advance registration is required as seating is limited. Plan to arrive by 6 p.m. to secure a seat. To register, call 252-639-3527, or go to www.tryonpalace.org/events.
Sponsor Spotlight
The next Community Class Series will be on Sept. 26 on “A Tangled Web of Trade: 16th and 17th Century Atlantic Trade and American Indians in Eastern NC” and on Nov. 19, “Tuscarora: The Indian War that Reshaped Eastern North Carolina.”
