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Re-Enactor of the Month

by Jim Cummings

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Gavin Kelly

Re-Enactor of the Month

August 2007

By Jim Cummings

About four years ago I had the pleasure of meeting a Re-Enactor by the name of Gavin Kelly of Brownsburg, IN. He is around 5'10 tall with a booming laugh that you can hear from one end of camp to the other. He has a great wit about him and a personality to match that wit.

Will Rogers - the American icon from from Oklahoma in the 30's once said ``I never met a man I didn't like." And this fits Gavin Kelly to a T. And the reverse is true also. Anyone that has met and had the pleasure of re-enacting with him - has nothing but high praise for him.

But it takes more than being a great guy with a great personality to become Pioneer Times Re-Enactor of the month. It takes a willingness  to help others get involved in re-enacting, to turn people on to history and to keep telling history's story so that the pioneers (our great, great, great grandparents) won't be forgotten. 

And Gavin Kelly does all that. He works as a volunteer at Vincennes with Frank Doughman and his band of brothers at George Rogers Clark National HistoricPark.

Gavin also spends time working with children, teaching them history and the ways of  the American Indian. In a recent interview Gavin said ``there's nothing like turning a kid on to history. When you are standing in front of 10-20 of them and you begin to see eyes open wider and wider. They cling to every word you say and they re-act to your body language and watch your demonstration with great intent. Now that's powerful. You know that you have hit a home-run with them.

As Tecumseh at Muster on the Wabash

You will see Gavin just about everywhere usually portraying an American Indian of different cultures. He is at Vincennes, Indiana twice a year both for The Spitrit of Vincennes in the spring and at Fort Knox II in the fall. We also caught up with Gavin this summer at The Pigeon Roost Massacre and the Indiana Territory Festival.

On his fall agenda will be KoKoMah, Mississenewa and for the first time The Siege of Boonesborough. In addition Kelly does many first person interpretations throughout Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky and Illinois. What many people don't realize though, is that Gavin Kelly is a trained actor. He trained at the Nebraska Repertory Co.and has done everything from The Hunchback of Notre Dame to MacBeth. Gavin first met his wife Katherine during a performance of Arsenic and Old Lace.

And Gavin is quick to point out that Katherine (Katie) is one of the driving forces in his life. Says Kelly' ``She is encouraging and supportive of everything I want to try in life." The couple has a daughter, Alice who accompanies them to most re-enactments.     

Gavin Kelly has directed, is a screenwriter, and uses his working knowledge of the theatre in re-enacting. For the past 6 or 7 years he has interpreted many Indians, probably the most well known being Tecumseh. But his other impressions include Buckongehelas a Muamee/Delaware chief of the Wolf Clan. Buckongahelas was known to roam the Little and the Great Miami Rivers. His home was along the White River in Indiana.

Another character portrayed by Kelly is the Civil War Brigadier General Stand Watie. He was born on December 12, 1806, in the Cherokee Nation. Stand Watie's Cherokee name was De-ga-ta-ga, or "he stands."  At the outbreak of the Civil War, Watie quickly joined the Southern cause.  He was commissioned a colonel on July 12, 1861, and raised a regiment of Cherokees for service with the Confederate army. 

 

At Mississinewa as Tecumseh's younger brother, Tenskwatawa, the Prophet.

One of the things that he really dislikes is the way Hollywood portrays the American Indian. He feels the Indian is much, much more than he is portrayed to be in the movies. It is one of the reasons that many of his first person portrayals are of Indians. He feels that living history and dedicated re-enactors  can get the true story out there.

Kelly giving a first person account as John Shields on the Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery.

At the Indiana Territory Festival Kelly portrayed John Shields - one of the nine young men from Kentucky. (If you didn't catch his live performance Click Here to see a Newsreel of some highlights of it.)

I asked Gavin what his next step is a re-enactor or first person interpretor. Gavin looked at me with a smile and said ``I want to learn more history - no, I have to learn more history. You can never stop learning. It is the basis of what we do,"

Gavin Kelly is a member of the NWTA and has also formed the Brant Volunteers,  named after the Mohawk leader Joseph Brant. This makes Kelly and his family part of the growing number of re-enactors that strive for the best interpretations they can do and the best persona they can develop. Three huzzahs and a tip of the hat to the August 2007 Re-Enactor of the Month Gavin Kelly.

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