Native American Celebration

Native American Celebration at Hagood Mill

Friday, November 20 • 6:00–8:00 PM • FREE

Saturday, November 21 • 10:00 AM–4:00 PM • $7 per person (ages 10+) • Kids 9 & under free

Come celebrate Native American Heritage Month with us! Our annual Native American Celebration is a weekend to give thanks to, and honor, the first people of these lands, whose food, traditions and customs have shaped life here in the southern Appalachians for hundreds of years. Bring the whole family and make a weekend of it!

Friday Night Kickoff (Free!)

Join us in the Heritage Pavilion for an evening of Catawba Nation drumming, singing and storytelling. You’ll also see Jerry Hunt, one of the world’s top Navajo hoop dancers, and hear Michael Bramlett present “Carved In Stone: The Hagood Mill Petroglyphs and the Future of Rock Art Research in South Carolina.”

A Full Day of Culture on Saturday

Saturday fills the Mill Site with traditional drumming, singing and dancing, Native American flute music, storytelling, and Cherokee hymns sung in the Cherokee language. Jerry Hunt returns with his hoop dance, too! Wander the grounds to catch demonstrations all day long:

Traditional Cherokee blowgun

Traditional Catawba pottery making

Beadwork and basket making

Flint knapping and corn husk doll making

Traditional open-fire cooking

Atlatl spear throwing and bow-and-arrow shooting

Many of our guests will have beautiful handmade crafts for sale, so bring a little extra for a one-of-a-kind keepsake.

Meet Our Featured Performers

Jerry Hunt, Navajo hoop dancer (Friday & Saturday)

Nancy Basket, storyteller and basket maker from Walhalla, SC

Catawba & Navajo (Diné) Singers

Keepers of the Word Drum Group

Paul Snowcloud, Native American flute

Michael Hartje, flint knapping

Chief Lamar Nelson, Eastern Cherokee, Southern Iroquois, and United Tribes of SC

Fun for the Kids

Little ones will love our children’s corner, where they can make beaded necklaces and get their faces painted in a Native American style. For a special treat, kids can even “paint” live horses with their handprints in the style of the Plains Indians. It’s always a favorite!

Walk Our Native Roots Trail

Don’t miss “Our Native Roots: An Interpretive Trail,” which follows the Old Indian Path, an ancient trading route that once stretched from the Mississippi coast up through the Eastern Continental Divide to Virginia. Along the way you’ll find a dugout canoe being shaped with fire and stone chisels, a river cane restoration area, a sacred fire circle, a medicine wheel garden, a corn garden, a prehistoric stone mortar, an archaeology adventure for kids, the Paul West artifact collection, and our prehistoric petroglyphs.

Stay the Weekend

Primitive camping is available Friday and Saturday nights (November 20–21): $10 per person for one night or $15 for both nights (ages 10+). Kids 9 and under camp free! Car and RV spaces are limited, so grab your camping pass with your tickets below.

We can’t wait to see you there!

📍 Hagood Mill Historic Site, 138 Hagood Mill Rd., Pickens, SC

This project is funded in part by the South Carolina Arts Commission, which receives support from the National Endowment for the Arts; by SC Humanities, a state program of the National Endowment for the Humanities; and by Pickens County Accommodations Tax.