ROCK HILL, S.C. — The Catawba Nation will welcome the public to its cultural center in Rock Hill on Saturday, Nov. 21, for the yearly Yap Yè Iswà festival, and this time visitors will get an early look at a new living-history exhibit.
Admission is free, and the gates stay open from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. on the cultural center grounds off Tom Steven Road. In English, the Catawba name refers to the river people, and many simply call the gathering the Day of the Catawba.
The new Catawba Life Village uses live actors to show what daily life in a Catawba village looked like. Money for the project came through South Carolina 250, which funds historic commemorations across the state. The village will be open for special programming from noon to 2 p.m. during the festival, and the center plans to bring on three or four docents to staff it.
Longtime crowd-pleasers are back too. Dancers will perform, storytellers will hold court, guides will lead hikes on the trail, birds will be set free, and students from the center’s blowgun course will compete. Tribal artists will have pottery, beadwork and ribbon skirts for sale.
Talks on Catawba history are set each hour from 11 a.m. through 2 p.m., including a 1 p.m. session by State Archaeologist Christopher Judge on the Catawba peace pipe.
No other tribe in South Carolina holds federal recognition. The Catawba Nation counts more than 3,300 enrolled citizens and holds a 700-acre reservation in eastern York County.
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