Feast of the Hunter's Moon

What makes The Feast Of The Hunter's Moon different? It is the annual celebration of the meeting of Native Americans and French people during the fall. Located in Fort Ouiatenon (wee-ot-ah-non), fur traders from up and down the Wabash River, the Mississippi, the Ohio and others would come to make deals with the Native Americans.

Once you have entered the grounds to The Feast Of The Hunter's Moon, there is a wide array of choices of things to do and see. Of course, the first thing anyone sees is that all the vendors and other workers are in costumes that are straight out of the eighteenth-century. Fur-traders and militia as well as Native Americans, mill around the entire thirty acre grounds.

Have you ever learned to make candles? Well maybe the modern way, but have you ever made them the old fashioned, dip the wick in wax method? Learn to make them at The Feast, and walk away with something that you can actually take home, and use, too.

Of course, there is the Tomahawk Throw that gets the attention of many little youngsters-especially the boys. Fully dressed Native Americans show off their tomahawk throwing skills, and will show you how to toss the tomahawk yourself-and do it with some pretty decent accuracy.

You have to check out the canoes and bear furs, of course. Keep in mind, these same canoes and bear furs went through Fort Ouiatenon on a regular basis almost three hundred years ago. So, what self-respectable Native American or French trapper in the eighteen hundreds would be without one of those, right next to a river?

Spearheads are neat to check out-they were great for hunting all sorts of game, including the white man when needed. Nets for catching fish are actually amazingly good at catching fish, too. Those can be found at The Feast Of The Hunter's Moon-and you can learn to make the nets, too.

Have you ever fancied the idea of making an outfit from scratch? Learn how to gather wool, turn it into thread, spin and then weave it-and finally come up with fabric to make what you want. Or, would you prefer to turn the wool into yarn and knit it? Learn how to do that, too, at the Feast Of The Hunter's Moon.

Compare the art of making Indian clothing to the art of making colonial type clothing from scratch. Discover how to skin the animal, tan the skin, cut out the pattern, and sew the pieces together to make an Indian outfit. How cool is that? Kids love it!

Finding out how to make music from the eighteenth century can be quite interesting for children, as well-or adults for that matter. So many people don't think about the fact pianos and guitars as we know them did not exist almost three hundred years ago. However lutes, dulcimers, washboards and the occasional bagpipe provided plenty of music-granted it was different from what we consider music now but it still was music.

Useful skills such as rope-making and woodturning are some of the other things that you will find at the Feast Of The Hunter's Moon. Normally, most people wouldn't think too much of either one, especially woodturning. However, the tools used in the mid-eighteenth century to saw, clamp, and turn wood, do not look anything like today's tools. Some of those old tools look like things used for torture.

For those into the military aspect of history, check out the cannons, guns and assorted other weaponry from the days of Fort Ouiatenon. The local gunsmith can show you a thing or two about the guns from the eighteenth century-those guns are not at all like the ones of today. Have you ever had to pound gunpowder, and a ball into a gun to shoot it before? It is interesting...

Silversmiths are a dying breed now-but in the eighteenth century they provided quite a number of things to the public. Tea services, eating utensils, cups, plates and candlesticks are just a few of the everyday things they made. Today, those things are routinely made in factories, made in processes that are computerized.

Blacksmiths also provided plenty of things that are now made by computers. Pots, pans, horseshoes, poles for supports, weather vanes, and much, much more. Watch the blacksmith actually work on some horseshoes, or some pots and pans. That is really neat to see.

Of course, this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to covering everything that goes on at The Feast Of The Hunter's Moon. You really must go check it out for yourself. It normally takes place either the first or second weekend of October, every year in West Lafayette, Indiana. Feel free to come visit!

Source: Personal experiences, Margaret Merrill