Fort Necessity plans two-day encampment
FARMINGTON – The National Park Service will host a “Lenape and Cherokee War Party” encampment at Fort Necessity National Battlefield on Saturday, Aug. 9, and Sunday, Aug. 10. The camps will be open to visitors from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. both days.
Re-enactment groups will represent a Lenape war party allied with the French and a Cherokee war party allied with the British. Native woodland fighting tactics, weapons, trail cooking and items carried by warriors will be demonstrated. The involvement of different native groups in the French and Indian War will be discussed. Re-enactors welcome inquiries concerning those early years.
The military goal of the French and Indian War parties was to harass the colonists to such a degree as to make them want to move back east and no longer try to establish communities of British colonies west of the Alleghenies. These parties conducted raids along the Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia frontiers during the 1750’s.
The park service said educational programs are scheduled each day at 11:30 a.m., 1:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. The programs will focus on the tools of the warriors, including demonstrations of musket, bow and swivel guns, all weapons used by the combatants at Fort Necessity.
“British and Cherokee Alliance in the French and Indian War” is a special presentation at 4 p.m. Aug. 9. Husband and wife living history interpreters Dianne Anestis and Doug Wood will explore how women influenced war decisions in the matrilineal, gender-balanced cultures of eastern North American Indians. Visitors are encouraged to learn about how American Indian women influenced the outcome of the French and Indian War in the Ohio Valley and Potomac regions.
General admission for the park is $5 per adult. Children 15 and younger are admitted free.
For more information on this and other programs at Fort Necessity, call 724-329-5512 or visit the park’s Web site at www.nps.gov/fone.