Shiloh National Military Park announces Chickasaw Heritage Festival to be held at Shiloh Saturday, October 26

On Saturday, Oct. 26, Shiloh National Military Park will host the Chickasaw Heritage Festival at the Shiloh Indian Mounds National Historic Landmark, located on Shiloh battlefield.
Tribe members from the Chickasaw Nation will return to their ancestral homeland for a day of cultural demonstrations that include stickball, the Chickasaw Nation dance troupe, archeology, and storytelling. Volunteers will also be demonstrating pre-historic weapons of the Native Americans.
“The Shiloh Indian Mounds National Historic Landmark preserves the remnants of a Mississippian Era Indian village that is culturally affiliated with the Chickasaw Nation,” said Superintendent Dale Wilkerson. “We are very pleased to partner with our friends at the Chickasaw Nation and the Inkana Foundation to present a variety of American Indian activities to our visitors.”
Shiloh is one of the very few places in the eastern United States where remains of prehistoric houses are still visible on the ground’s surface. About 800 years ago, a town occupied the high Tennessee River bluff at the eastern edge of the Shiloh plateau. Between two steep ravines, a wooden palisade enclosed seven earthen mounds and dozens of houses. Six mounds, rectangular in shape with flat tops, probably served as platforms for the town’s important buildings. These structures may have included a council house, religious buildings, and residences of the town’s leaders. The early inclusion of the mounds area within the boundary of the national military park has protected the site from any modern use. Because the Shiloh site has never been disturbed by the plow, the daub of collapsed walls still stands as low rings or mounds.
The Chickasaw Heritage Festival at Shiloh is free and open to the public. For a schedule of Saturday’s events please visit the park’s website at www.nps.govshil, or pick up your copy at the Shiloh Battlefield visitor center.
For more information on Shiloh National Military Park’s events, visit us on the web at www.nps.gov/shil, or call the visitor center at (731) 689-5696. You can also find us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ShilohNMP, on Twitter at twitter.com/ShilohNPS, and on Instagram @ShilohNPS.