Turtle Island Native American Gathering

I was recently invited to attend, as a vendor , a Native American gathering in Lebanon Oregon. It was called the Turtle Island First Gathering.
So I packed up all the merchandise from my RAYVENS RARITIES  on line store and headed for Lebanon Oregon where this gathering was being held.

This was not the first year for this gathering, but it was the first year for it in the location it was in. The group was allowed to use a field at the Fritz Stables located in the Lebanon Oregon area.

The property was originally owned by the parents of the people that now own it, and was originally a HUGE dairy farm but is now being used as a stables.

We set up and then left to stay in an apartment that belongs to a friend of my Daughters. She lives in Corvallis. She is not using the apartment right now as she's here in Redmond for the summer but will return to Corvallis and her apartment in September for college. This worked out great for us as it gave us a place to go every night.

We were given the use of a very large field that had a very beautiful river at the rear just behind where the vendors set up their booths. It was absolutely gorgeous. In the mornings, before the event got underway, and all of us vendors were just kind of sitting around and waiting for the day to start, you could hear the river running in the background.

When we went back behind our booth there, we could see the beautiful river slowly flowing, hear the water running by and listen to all the birds calling out in the trees that stood just at the edge of the banks that led to the water.
It was such a peaceful and pretty place to be. At the end of the event, I really had NO wish to go home :)

For breakfast one of the mornings of the event, we were treated to Native Fry Bread from the lady that actually organized this gathering, Morning Starr. She had a booth one down from where we had ours and she treated all the vendors to a Fry Bread breakfast. Yummmm

The event was a 3 day event with lots of Native dancing and other entertainments. There was a Native American Honor Guard to represent the military service given by some of the members of the group or to honor loved ones gone now that had served in the military in years past.

The gathering had a Native Drum group to play and sing for the dancers to dance to. And we were fortunate enough to have a Native Whipman in attendance as well.
A Whipman is a Native man that serves as a dance leader. He's responsible for keeping the dancers in line and for starting the dances. The man that performed the duties of Whipman for this event was Marcus.

Marcus is in his full regalia in the first three photos. The end photo is of the Chief of this group, Red Bear. In the background in the ribbon shirt is one of the Native Honor Guards speaking with some of the other members.

We had a wonderful time and are planning on taking my store, RAYVENS RARITIES back on the road, in July of 2011 if we are lucky enough to be invited back.