PRINTVIDEO: Honoring old traditions at Columbia’s Heritage Festival
September 19, 2011 | 10:41 p.m. CST
Colorful characters provided a history lesson unlike those learned in school at Columbia’s Heritage Festival on Sept. 17 and 18. Vox talked to three passionate people working to preserve the lost arts and honor old traditions.
Jim “Two Crows” Wallen has played many characters in his lifetime, from Noah with his ark to Santa Claus at Christmas. At the festival, Wallen told tall tales and true ones, too, as a mountain man from the 1800s.
Bernard and Patti Tappel are members of the growing Missouri blacksmiths’ guild. The couple showcased their metalwork and shared the process with spectators at Columbia’s 34th annual Heritage Festival on Sept. 17 and 18.
Dancers from Haskel College, an all-Native American college in Lawrence, Kansas, came to Columbia specifically for Columbia's Heritage Festival. Michelle Byington shares the history of her dance and why it’s important to her to share her heritage.
