Photo by Ken Odor
Goochland Middle School sixth-grader Dakota Wells looks at Native American artifacts with Julia Brown-Carter last Friday.

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“Do I enjoy being an Indian?” said Darius Carter, repeating a question from a student in Emily Ray’s creative writing class last Friday at Goochland Middle School.

“The Creator put me here,” explained Carter in response. “The Creator makes you who you are.”

The question and answer session was just part of Carter and his wife Julia Brown-Carter’s visit to GMS last week, for a presentation of Native American storytelling and dance.

The event was part of a series “Celebrating our Stories” events scheduled for GMS.

The couple, clad in bleached white deerskin regalia, told traditional stories and demonstrated and taught the students about Native American dancing traditions.

Julia Brown-Carter, also known as Ahwa-holeh, or Eagle told a story of how she dreamed that her tribe had been attacked by an enemy tribe who killed them all.

“I realized the Creator wanted me to tell the story,” said Julia, who said she began having the dream after a neck fracture that caused severe headaches.

Julia, whose story was called “I am Alive,” explained how storytelling is how Native Americans handed down dreams and visions and their history in an oral tradition.

Earlier Julia taught the sixth-graders gathered in the gymnasium a traditional women’s dance, after Darius cleansed the room by smudging, carrying a bowl of smoldering sweet grass, sage, cedar and tobacco around the room.

Darius led a group of the boys in a warrior dance and later “Crow Hop,” which he said mimicked the way the crow bird hops along.

Darius also told the story of how the Eagle defeated the Bear, a sort of allegory about how the United States defeated the old Soviet Union in the Cold War, leading to the breakup of the Soviet Union.

The couple, who hail from Burlington, North Carolina, also brought along a large display of artifacts for the students to study, including feathers, animal skulls, painted turtle shells and leather items.

Darius, who said he had ancestors who fought at the Battle of the Little Big Horn, told Ray’s class about the history of the Bald Eagle and the struggle to preserve the once almost extinct species through the Endangered Species Act.

The visit by the Native American storyteller couple was part of the Partners through the Arts program, said Ray. The program is a non-profit project started by former Richmond teacher Joan Oates. GMS teachers in the humanities departments developed a unit plan called “Celebrating Our Stories: Through Oral Histories, Writing, Art, Drama and Music.”

The grant made it possible to invite visiting artist to the school. Author Connie Lapallo and musician-songwriter Jim Connor.

Later students will interview community members and present the stories in a museum event in the GMS Library Media Center next spring, said Ray, who is coordinator of the grant.

Photos by Ken Odor
Julia Brown-Carter leads sixth-grade girls in a Native American dance during her visit with husband Darius to GMS. From left the students are: Hannah Herrmann, Maiya Smith and Dakota Wells.

Photos by Ken Odor
Darius Carter speaks to sixth-graders at GMS last Friday.

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