A way of life before the big shopping malls

Imagine a time when there were no items for every day living, to buy and no stores you could shop at for necessities. Imagine a time when you had to depend on natural resources and your own skills just to provide, food, clothing and shelter for yourself and your family.  

This was the life of the prehistoric people. Through, necessity and their own skills they made their own tools, weapons, clothing, and shelters from the items nature provided. Toys, tools, weapons, and utensils for cooking and eating were made from stone, wood, plants and animals that nature provided. With these weapons and tools they could protect, feed, clothe and provide shelter and entertainment for themselves and their families.

Shelters were in caves, made with animal skins or logs, tree branches or straw. Clothing was made from animal skins, and later from spinning flax then weaving it into fabric for garments.

Many of these skills are forgotten arts, and more are on the very edge of being forgotten. Echo’s of the Past is an annual event, showing what these items were made from, how they were made and used by the people of the past. Some of the items we offer for show and purchase were for entertainment as well as for providing the necessities of every day living.

As the years passed, these items were improved bit by bit until the art of making many of them are almost forgotten. We need to keep these arts alive so we can appreciate how much easier life is now than it was before mass production, and the corner store where we can purchase the items we take for granted. .

Echo’s of the Past is an annual event held at Echo Ridge campground in the beautiful Arrowhead State Park located on U.S. 69 and State Highway 113 at Canadian, OK. The event is hosted by the McAlester Archeological Society (M.A.S.) and the Tahlequah Archaeological Society (T.A.S.). Both are chapters of the Oklahoma Anthropological Society (O.A.S.) a part of the OU Campus in Norman, OK.

Our goal for this event is to preserve the cultures, arts, diets, shelters, clothing and entertainment of our ancestors and the ways of producing them.  

This year’s event will be a 2 day affair, to make it easier for those artists who have long distances to travel for the event. It will be held on May 17 & 18, 2008. There will be artists with items for show and for sale.

On Saturday, we will hold some amateur competitions with prizes for the winners. The competitions will be the ATL ATL throw, blow gun shoot, Bow and Arrow shoot, and we will have a contest for period dress, so if your  items are  Native American come dressed in that style. If items are from the American Civil War era, dress in that style, American Revolution, dress in the styles of that era, and so on. You don’t have to come in period costume, but it will be interesting to see some of the older styles and types of dress. Winners for the period dress will be determined by a vote of those participants and guests who sign our guest book.

We hope to have some Historical storytellers on Saturday night to tell stories or legends for entertainment. Anyone interested in keeping their culture’s stories and legends alive are invited to share them with us.

There will be no charge for set up for your items. We only ask they be items used from around 1860 and older.

If you know of anyone who would like to set up a booth of this type for the event have them contact me at 918-339-4226 or Thomas Purdin at 918-456-1977 no later than May 1, 2008 so we can make sure there is room for all booths. We can also be reached at: samok56@yahoo.com or majtom46@yahoo.com

Anyone who does any Native American foods, and has a chuck wagon or means to prepare and offer these foods for sale are also invited to set up for the event. T.A.S. and M.A.S. will sell hot dogs for 50 cents and drinks for 25 cents. Any non-profit organization who participates may offer memberships to their organization at the event also.

This year’s event promises to be bigger and better than the first two we held which were both a huge success.