[OR_Archaeology] Demonstrations at Tamaslikt part of OAC Sept 20th

[Susan White]

Pendleton: The Tamastslikt Cultural Institute, as part of the Oregon
Archaeology Celebration, will host from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.  on September
20, 2008, experts demonstrating the atlatl, flintknapping and tule duck
decoy-making.

Visitors will have the opportunity to throw spears at targets behind
the museum and to create their own tule duck decoy.  Tamástslikt will
award a prize for the best spear toss with the atlatl and also serve
prehistoric pizza to visitors in the lobby at noon. 

The atlatl was in use around the globe by ancient peoples before the
invention of the bow and arrow. Early hunters used it to kill large game
animals such as the mammoth, an extinct prehistoric elephant. Remains of
mammoth have been found near Tamástslikt and can be viewed in the winter
lodge exhibit.  Archaeologists found remnants of the earliest atlatl in
the Roaring Springs cave in southern Oregon. 

The Tribes in this region used the tule (pronounced too-lee) reed for
everything from housing to burial mats. A traditional tule reed lodge
can be visited at Tamástslikt in its permanent exhibits at Tamástslikt
and outdoors in the Living Cultural Village. Tom Bailor and Lloyd
Barkley of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation
will give instruction on the use of ancient tools and crafts.  They
harvest the tule reeds used in making the ducks and provide the
flintknapping and atlatl materials. 

Tamastslikt is located south of Interstate 84 near its intersection
with Highway 331.

For more information, visit www.tamastslikt.org of phone 541-966-9748.