 Green
and yellow parakeets will soon fly from the Missouri River bottoms.
Exotic visitors? No, the Carolina Parakeet was once native to
the Missouri River valley. A large flock surprised the members
of the Lewis and Clark Expedition when they camped at the confluence
of the Missouri and Kansas Rivers in 1804. |
| Teenagers
from the Kansas State School for the Blind, who traveled the
Lewis and Clark Trail last summer, will bring the birds back
with a public-participation mural for visitors to the Lewis
and Clark Expedition commemoration at Kaw Point Bicentennial
Park, Saturday and Sunday, June 25th and 26th. |
| The
teens, together with Trail friends from the Fort Berthold Indian
Reservation in North Dakota, will prepare more than 200 feet
of concrete floodwall with primer and outlines of the birds
against a background of blue. On the weekend, the teens will
distribute paints and oversee the public in painting the parakeets’
portraits. Brochures prepared by the U.S. National Fish and
Wildlife Service will give details and pictures of the parakeets,
which were hunted to extinction in the early 1900s to provide
plumage for ladies’ hats. Some templates on the mural depict
the hats. |
|
 |
| The
Kansas State School for the Blind teens will contribute to two
other activities during the commemoration at Kaw Point, June
25th-27th. In the Tent of Many Voices, sponsored by the National
Park Service, the teens will present a video documentary of
their Lewis and Clark travels. And in a wooded area of the park,
the teens will join Indian youth from North Dakota, Missouri
and Kansas in a drumming, singing, dancing circle led by Choctaw
singer Jay Mule. |
| The
general public, especially families with school age children,
will find much to inspire and entertain at Kaw Point Bicentennial
Park June 25th-27th. |
| For
further information, go on-line at www.lewisandclarkwyco.org
and www.journey4th.org. |
|