Vendors had their tents set up at convenient spots around the grounds of the museum, selling Native-made or Native-inspired merchandise. Visitors enjoyed delicious Native American food prepared by Museum Trustee and Chef Deluxe Grace Fraser.Several craftspeople were on hand to demonstrate and teach participants different skills: Elizabeth Perry, with her traditional twine bags; Micheline and her finely decorated gourds; and Hilde Barnes with sweet grass and quill earrings, created with an artist's eye and a crafter's attention to detail. Children were able to make their own Corn Husk Doll and Rudy Bourget and John Hohenadel of "White Mountain Primitives" gave visitors a chance to learn hands-on survival skills.
The highlight of the day for many was the opening and dedication of the the Mt. Kearsarge Indian Museum's Arboretum and Activity Center. With his characteristic creativity, energy and generosity Museum co-founder Bud Thompson worked throughout the summer, overseeing the creation of an arboretum where 32 trees or shrubs are planted. Each of these plants was used by Native Americans as a source of food, medicine and the materials from which everything from rope to canoes were made.
Award winning author Kent Nerburn returned to Mt. Kearsarge Indian Museum to dedicate the arboretum. After the dedication visitors were invited to tour the Arboretum with a guide book written by former MKIM Trustee, Karen Sullivan. Mountain Spirit Drum concluded the day with singing and drumming.
Kent Nerburn's dedication speech is reprinted here:
"When Bud and Nancy set out to create the Mount Kearsarge Indian Museum, one of their friends asked, 'What will set your museum apart from other similar museums?'
It was Nancy who provided the answer -- the museum would not end when people walked out the door, but would continue into the surrounding woods and hillsides.
Over the years, Bud and Nancy have built upon this commitment by creating the educational and meditative experience that is the Medicine Woods Nature Trail. By walking this trail, visitors have the opportunity not only to expand their understanding of native plants and culture, they have a chance to contemplate the significance of the creations they have just seen and experienced inside the walls of the museum building itself.
This, alone, is justification enough for creating the Medicine Woods. But in creating the Medicine Woods and Nature Trail, Bud and Nancy did more than just make their museum unique, they tied it ever more closely into the heart of Native American belief – a love and reverence for nature.
Ohiyesa, the Dakota Sioux thinker who is one of my personal heroes, said, We have always preferred to believe that the spirit of God is not breathed into humans alone, but that the whole created universe shares in the immortal perfection of its maker.
Whenever in the course of our day, we might come upon a scene that is strikingly beautiful or sublime – the black thundercloud with the rainbow’s growing arch above the mountains, a white waterfall in the heart of a green gorge, a vast prairie tinged with the blood-red of sunset – we pause for an instant in the attitude of worship.
We recognize the spirit in all creation, and believe that we draw spiritual power from it."
By extending the museum beyond the walls of the building, Bud and Nancy have embraced this Native American belief. They have acknowledged the presence of spirit in all creation, and have offered us the opportunity to contemplate that presence in whatever manner we see fit.
Now Bud and Nancy have decided to take this honoring of nature a step further. They have chosen to expand the outdoor section of their museum to create an arboretum and activity area as a lasting legacy to the Native belief in the healing, teaching, and spiritually restorative power of the natural world around us.
This was not a simple task. They needed the assistance – moral, physical, financial, and spiritual -- of many people. And due to the generosity of many of you here, they got that assistance. But, at the heart of the effort, they needed someone who could help galvanize and guide their vision. In Bud’s words, they needed someone who was 'an artist, a dreamer, a lover of nature.'
And, to the great benefit of the museum, and those who will visit it now and in the future, they found such a person.
They found a friend, a guide, an inspiration -- someone who was moved by the feel of rich, moist earth, the sight of birds in the sky, and the beauty of flowers blooming on the New Hampshire hillsides. Someone who loved to learn and teach by telling stories, who would both work and organize to achieve a goal, who believed in the sanctity and power of service to others. They found Betsy Janeway, dedicated and selfless worker for the museum, New Hampshire, and the values and history of Native American people.
Betsy is not an ordinary person, as all who know her are well aware. There is hardly an aspect of New Hampshire civic life that has not felt her impact. The Audubon society, the Concord Bird and Wildlife Club, the New Hampshire Spinners and Dyers, and the Northeast Organic Farming Association, to name just a few, have been the beneficiaries of her energy and expertise. She has served in leadership capacities with the Webster Conservation Commission; Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays; and, of course, the Mount Kearsarge Museum, where she has been both chair and vice chair. It is probably also safe to say that her influence has extended far beyond the many organizations and causes she has served. As the wife of the soon to be retired State Senator, Harold Janeway, we can well imagine that her gentle fingerprints are on many of the accomplishments for which he over the years has had to take the credit or blame.
But to Bud and Nancy, she has always been simply Betsy, the tireless worker and visionary whose assistance and inspiration have kept the Mount Kearsarge Indian Museum moving always in the direction of its dreams. Wishing to honor the many contributions she has made to that dream, they decided to dedicate the Arboretum to her. They knew that she understood the power of the land as teacher, nurturer, giver of knowledge, healing, and spiritual rest. It would be a fitting gesture, they believed, to dedicate the arboretum to someone who embodies all these virtues in her own personal character.
And so we stand today, before what in many ways is the culmination of Bud and Nancy’s dream. Though the museum will always be evolving and growing, the arboretum represents the ultimate homage to the Native value of honoring the land. Now that arboretum will forever be associated with one person.
From this day forward, it will be known as “The Mt. Kearsarge Indian Museum Arboretum & Activity Center dedicated to Betsy Janeway -- Trustee, Supporter, Naturalist, Artist and loyal friend". It will stand as a legacy to a woman who has committed her life to understanding, serving, and protecting the land, and will serve as a living embodiment of the single most important lesson that Native traditions have to offer – one that Betsy has understood and promoted throughout her life – that we are a part of nature, not apart from it.
Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the
The Mt. Kearsarge Indian Museum Arboretum & Activity Center
dedicated to Betsy Janeway
Trustee, Supporter, Naturalist, Artist and loyal friend"
Pictures from the festival, generously provided by Jamie Murray of Meadow Pond Photography and Jeff Daigle, can been seen on the Mt. Kearsarge Indian Museum's Facebook photo page. To find the page, click the link at the top of the column just to the right of this article.
While you're visiting MKIM's Facebook page, please become a fan. Invite your friends to see the photos and become fans as well!
While you're visiting MKIM's Facebook page, please become a fan. Invite your friends to see the photos and become fans as well!
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