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These workshops are rooted in the past and present traditional Native culture. Each workshop can be custom-planned as a demonstration or as a hands-on session in which each participant makes a rattle or drum or does beadwork.
The Art of Native American Rattles
Native people have crafted many types of rattles throughout history in this region. Enjoy a presentation exhibiting a variety of rattles. Learn how they were made and hear stories of how they were used for healing, for talking, and what their role became during hard times for the Natives of our region. Make a rattle and decorate it with natural materials given to us by the earth.
Ages: 13-adult
Material fee: $15 per rattle
The Art of Native American Dance Workshop
Patty and Alana share Native dancing, teaching the steps of the old tradition as well as modern Pan-Indian dancing. The Shawl dance, Round dance, Sneak-up dance, and Couples dance were all part of the dance tradition of this region. The Jingle dance comes from the Ojibway people and the Grass dance was originally from the Plains. Today these and other dances are performed at Powwows in our own region. Native dance is a medium for expression, celebration, and healing. Each dance has its own unique step, story and history.
Participation in at least one dance is suggested.
Ages: all
The Art of Crafting a Native American Hand Drum
Drums throughout history in our region were highly respected and revered. People believed you could only play a drum if you had the greatest respect for all living beings on the Earth. Join in and learn about the ancient art of drum making. Each drum will become your own creation. Reconnect to the heartbeat of Mother Earth. Honor your own rhythm and come back to harmony. These are teachings of the drum.
Ages: 13-adult
Material fee: $50 per drum
Native American Beadwork Techniques
Each workshop is rooted in past and present traditional Native culture surrounding the bead stitch demonstration. Bead traditions are Loom, Lane-stitch or Lazy stitch, Applique and Double Curve motif, Gourd/Peyote stitch, Edging stitch, and earring making. Double Curve motif, Applique, and loom work were the most common forms of beadwork done in our region historically. As tribes traded with each other more stitches became popular. Today all forms of beadwork are used on Regalia and other Native items in New England. In this workshop we will learn the techniques of different stitches and look at design and color patterns.
Material fee: $15
Patty Manning and Alana Manning
See workshop descriptions above
Prices for all presentations, workshops and programs are negotiable. A fee for materials may be separate – see specific workshop descriptions above.
$100 - 1 1/2 hour workshop-
$ 250- day (6 hours) workshop
$ 1000- week (6 hours)
Patty Manning and her daughter Alana are of Wampanoag descent and are members of an Intertribal community in Vermont. The Wampanoag people are based in coastal Massachusetts and share a common culture with the Abenaki; Vermont is home to Native people from all over the United States who come together as an intertribal community.
Patty began beading in the 1960s and over the years has had the opportunity to work with Cherokee, Lakota, Pottowatami, Pomo, Abenaki, and Mohawk beaders. She has learned rattle and drum making and traditional dance from Native artists and elders in Vermont and on the Powwow Trail in New England. Patty and Alana practice the centuries-old artistic traditions of the Native cultures of this region as well as the traditions of other Native peoples, which they have learned through the Pan-Indian movement.
Patty Manning
Address: 92 Brooks Road
Northfield, VT 05663
Phone: (802) 485-8747
E-mail: pattyhummingbird@aol.com