Please note that the descriptions below are for past events.
Free Family Fun ~ Hands On Activities ~ Special Exhibits
Stay for an hour, or stay for the day!
This summer our grounds will be open for three special events. The Lelooska Museum will be open throughout the day to explore and learn. Museum Hunts will be available as well as a native plant find that can be used on our grounds. The Gathering Hall will feature additional exhibits, learning games that can be used on site as well as items for purchase.
These events were made possible with the generous support of Mark & Midori Hanus, Fibre Federal Credit Union, Port of Woodland, Paramount Sewing & Vacuum, and Cowlitz County Tourism.
Painted Art on Rawhide
Explore the Lelooska Museum and learn about the many uses of rawhide by Native Peoples. View a special exhibit of parfleches from our collection.
Visit the fur trade camp in our new outdoor education area where interpreters will demonstrate the paint making process. Try making pigment from rocks and binding it into paint and painting your own rawhide disk to take home.
Meet under the tent outside the Gathering Hall to color, cut and fold your own miniature paper parfleche.
Buttons, Blankets & The Trade
Come explore the evolution of Northwest Coast ceremonial robes during the fur trade. We will trace the design elements from Ravenstail to the Button Blankets. Learn the significance and importance of button blankets and hereditary crests. Watch a demonstration of button blanket making.
Learn about trapping and the fur trade from interpreters at our fur trade camp in our new outdoor education area, then bring your “pelts” to our fur trade store to trade with interpreters for “button blanket trade goods”.
Visitors will then have the opportunity to make their own miniature button blankets from felt and sequins. Special exhibits of button blankets and aprons from the Lelooska Foundation Permanent Collection and private collections.
Sign Language & The Trade
Come visit the fur trade camp in our outdoor education area and learn to trade without speaking. This particular sign language was used by some of the Plains and Plateau First Nations and traders when they did not share the same verbal language. Hudson’s Bay Company traders learned this language and used it to help trade their goods across the west. These trade items significantly impacted the art and culture of many First Nations.
Visitors will then have the opportunity to make a simple bracelet with trade beads.