Celebrating 25 years of Native dance, art and friendship

Key points:

• A celebration of Native American culture and traditions marked its 25th anniversary at an Aug. 14-16 event in Middle Tennessee.
• The sessions attracted Native and non-Native participants seeking to better understand and recover Indigenous skills and stories.
• Sponsored by the Tennessee-Western Kentucky Conference of The United Methodist Church, Native Moccasins Rock drew attendance from the Southeast and Midwest.

It was time to dance.

Participants at the 25th annual Native Moccasins Rock (Mocs Rock) had honored missing and murdered Indigenous relatives. They had learned about sacred sites and sung “Amazing Grace” in three Native languages. Their stomachs were full and their stories shared on the dining hall porch at Lake Benson, a Christian camp in central Tennessee.

The Bell family, Choctaw members who live in Henning, emerged in Native dress and stepped to the drumbeat through the snake dance, inviting onlookers to join them. Then it was time for the event that has captivated at least three generations at Mocs Rock: the potato dance.

Couples placed a large potato between their foreheads, positioned their hands behind their backs and shuffled to the beat of the drum. Concentrating hard, they kept the potatoes suspended for long minutes. Then potatoes started falling, sending the couples back to their seats. Eventually, Zoe and Devin Francis, winners in 2024, were crowned 2026 champions.

Mocs Rock is made possible by the Native American Ministries of the Tennessee-Western Kentucky Conference of The United Methodist Church. Mary T Newman, whose tireless efforts are central to the annual mid-August event, says it’s not just for United Methodists or even for Christ followers.

“I usually open up (the event) by saying we’re The United Methodist Church,” Newman said. “But we never talk about people’s denomination, that we’re this or that.”

Mocs Rock, however, does leave room for the spiritual. Each community meal opens with a prayer, sometimes in a Native language. One of the workshops at the Aug. 14-16 event explored Native and traditional Bible interpretations. Participants were encouraged to place prayer concerns in a biodegradable paper boat to release on the property’s small lake.

And at the evening service honoring murdered and missing Indigenous relatives, a solemn prayer offered by Loretta Bolden from the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians urged participants to hold victims of violence in their hearts. “Lord, we ask you to help us understand how to use our traditional spaces to learn, to speak, to help in any way we can,” Bolden said.

Recovering history

Newman said Mocs Rock emphasizes understanding through education.

“We acknowledge the past, examine our present and look to the future,” she said.

Each year’s Mocs Rock offers workshops on contemporary and historical issues. This year there were sessions on the loss of Indigenous languages, and another on Indian boarding schools where thousands of Native children were forced to erase their beliefs and assimilate into white Christian cultures.

“I’m still trying to reconcile church, Native people and boarding schools,” MJ, who is Navajo, said during a workshop on boarding schools. She asked that her full name not be used. “Our story needs to be told, and our voices need to be heard.”

Now 48, and living in Nashville, MJ was forced into an Indian boarding school in New Mexico. She said she was abused and forced to erase her heritage. “My children are the first generation of kids not to be taken by the government. I’m here to bridge the gap.”

Forced assimilation was also a theme of another workshop, on language. Beckee Garris, a member of the Catawba Indian Nation from South Carolina, said her grandfather’s generation was the last one to speak the Catawba language. Now, tribal members are working to publish a 500-page dictionary of Catawba vocabulary.

“It took 30 years to gather the words and phrases (from tribal members),” Garris said.

Garris and Cubert Bell Sr., a Choctaw elder, emphasized it’s not possible to easily translate English words and phrases into Native languages. They sang a verse of “Amazing Grace,” along with Sonya Marable, singing in Cherokee. They said it’s impossible to capture the same words because there aren’t Choctaw or Catawba words for “amazing” or “grace.”

Bell lives in Henning on land that is the only federal land designated for Indian holdings in the state. The 220 acres in West Tennessee is owned by the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians. Bell said he’s been mentoring a young man who is learning Choctaw, which is written right to left, and “he’s shared with me it is the most difficult language he’s ever learned because everything is backward to him.”

Arts, crafts and seeds

Young people attending Mocs Rock learned to make loom bead bracelets, pine-needle earrings and corn-shuck dolls. Buddy Hayes, who lives near Camp Benson, leads a flintknapping class every year. It’s one of the most popular sessions. Knappers shape rocks to replicate stone tools used by Native Americans. Simultaneously to Hayes’ instruction on flintknapping, Mike Glasgow led flute-playing lessons. Later, Hayes also led a session on cordage using braided plastic bags.

Charlotte Hagood from Alabama shared seed and gardening wisdom though she didn’t learn it from her parents. She says she was married before she knew how to cook and she failed miserably in her first attempt at growing tomatoes in the red clay of her Alabama home.

Over time, she became a food historian without setting out to and today is one of the wisest food/gardening experts in the region. “I learned over time that being a good person isn’t enough to be a good gardener,” she said. “I had to read.”

Mocs Rock generations

Throughout the weekend, Newman pointed out some of the event’s newest parents were once little ones accompanying their own parents in the early days of Mocs Rock. The first event was less than a day back then, and over time, it has attracted hundreds of people, white, Black, Indian, and from multiple states.

More than 80 people attended this year’s Mocs Rock. One participant drove from Michigan, and another represented the Mountain Sky Conference of The United Methodist Church at the vendor tables, selling jewelry to benefit United Women in Faith-sponsored Native American Ministries in Lake Junction, Colorado. Two booksellers spread out dozens of Indigenous-themed fiction and non-fiction books. The proceeds, they said, go to Native ministries across the country.

Ruthan Patient brings a large family nearly every year. She and granddaughter Zoe Francis estimated they had been to Mocs Rock for at least 15 years. A Caucasian family, they love the arts workshops, the Saturday night dancing and seeing old friends.

Each year’s events conclude with a circle of sharing. Several participants said the weekend gave them a chance to learn and honor tradition. For some, it was a family reunion. For others, it was a therapy session or a chance to breathe deeply, despite the 100-degree summer heat.

“If you’re not Indian when you get here, you won’t be when you leave,” Newman said, “but you understand what it means to be Indian.”

Through the event, people wrapped squares of cloth containing tobacco representing their prayers. As Mocs Rock concluded, Newman invited participants to take packets outside to a grill where a fired burned just outside the dining hall. As the flames sent the prayers into the sky, some hugged and said, “See you next year.” Goodbye is not a word in Native languages.

Jane DuBose is a freelance writer and Mike DuBose is a freelance photographer in Nashville, Tenn. News media contact: Julie Dwyer at newsdesk@umnews.org. To read more United Methodist news, subscribe to the free UM News Digest.