Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, July 9, 1993 TAG: 9307080158
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: KEN DAVIS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
And then they were gone.
Like many American Indians, they found that their culture was unwelcome in the white man's world, forcing them to search for a home elsewhere.
But now, more than 200 years after they left the Old Dominion, a museum here has temporarily brought them back home.
The Dan River people, a group who inhabited the Dan River area of Southwest Virginia from 450 A.D. to the 18th century, will have their culture on display at the Virginia Museum of Natural History at Virginia Tech through the end of August.
Located on 428 N. Main St. in downtown Blacksburg, the museum is exhibiting the ways of the ancient people - who were ancestors to the Siouan Indian tribe known as the Sara - with artifacts, graphic panels and life-sized displays of Indian scenes.
But unlike the museum's usual exhibits, museum officials say the Dan River People exhibit is far more than just an attempt to preserve some of the remnants of Virginia history.
It's to teach modern-day Americans the ways of the first - and possibly the best - environmentalists.
"The whole emphasis of the exhibit is the Native Americans' relationship to their environment," said Suzie Leslie, the museum's volunteer coordinator. "They were so aware of their environment and were so careful with it. We so often are not today."
The exhibit starts with depictions of a present-day Southwest Virginia archaeological site, as well as a typical Indian village display illustrating how life may have been centuries ago.
Surrounding the displays are actual artifacts and graphic panels that describe in detail the lives of these ancient Virginians and how they existed in harmony with their environment.
There are pieces of clay pottery, flutes and jewelry made of bird bones, tools made of stones and deer antlers, cups and bowls made from turtle shells and dozens of other artifacts.
And not only do the artifacts represent important connections to the past, they represent the handiwork of the original recyclers, Leslie said. "Their awareness for using everything they had available was amazing," she said. "They never wasted anything."
Although the exhibit hasn't drawn large crowds since it opened last September, museum officials say it has been popular with a large and conscientious group of environmentalists - children.
"It's to show them that the things they invented so long ago, we still do today," said Karen Wilburn, the museum's program-support technician who also acts as a tour guide for children visiting the exhibit.
Wilburn said the children learn that the ways of the Dan River people aren't much different from what Americans do today. "I try to relate everything they did with what we do today and what we should do today," she said, showing the depiction of an Indian scene. "The children are always amazed."
In addition to the displays, there also is a "children's discovery corner" where children can grind corn, look at a number of artifacts under a microscope and experience the culture's ancient lifestyle firsthand. "This has been a very popular exhibit with them," she said. "I hate to see this one leave. I really do."
Leslie said adults and children alike can learn much from the first Virginians. "These native Americans had such a totally different outlook of the earth than we do today," Leslie said. "Today, people have to get into a crisis situation before they are concerned about the environment."
by CNB