HERMITAGE, PA. Native American Gathering to feature crafts and teaching

Various drum and dance troupes will perform.
HERMITAGE, Pa. -- Representatives of as many as 25 tribes will take part in a Native American Gathering June 22-24 on Snyder Road.
The event is sponsored by the United Eastern Lenape Nation, often referred to as the Delaware Nation.
Billy Hartford of Hermitage, whose Indian name is Billy Blue Feather, is chief of the UELN. He said the public is invited to visit the gathering between 10 a.m. and 8 p.m. daily. There is a $4 admission fee, but all children under the age of 8 will be admitted free.
Benefit: Blue Feather said proceeds from the event will benefit Lenape villages being built in the region.
The UELN has a village of about 2,000 people in Copley, W.Va., and a smaller one of about 12 families near Salem, Ohio. It is building two in northwestern Pennsylvania, one near Erie and the other near Kennard in northern Mercer County.
Money raised at events like the gathering will offset heating and other costs the villages incur.
Events: The tribes will stage a grand entry ceremony each day at noon.
There will be American Indian crafters and various drum and dance troupes led by Lenape Pohonasin, the UELN's head drum troupe.
Village Drum, a Cherokee group, and Mother Earth Beat, a Shawnee and Cherokee group, will also perform.
There will be storytelling and teaching of language and dances as well as tomahawk- and knife-throwing exhibitions.
Participants will also cook and offer samples of such game as buffalo, elk and venison.
The gathering will be at the end of Snyder Road off U.S. Route 62 just north of the Shenango Valley Mall.
The UELN includes Pennsylvania, Ohio, Maryland, New Jersey and West Virginia.