By RIC ROUTLEDGE
ricroutledge@hotmail.com

PORTLAND -- A New Castle woman and her daughter have been chosen to demonstrate their Native American weaving skills at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival on the Mall in Washington, D.C.
Robin McBride Scott and her daughter, Emeline, will leave Tuesday for a two-week visit to the nation's capitol.

"I'm ecstatic. This is a dream come true for me to demonstrate my basketry weaving on the Mall," Scott said.
To be asked to display your work at the festival is considered the top honor among Native American artists, she added.
After her work is displayed in Washington for about a month, it will become part of a traveling display that will crisscross the United States for about six years. The display might be taken to foreign countries, as well.
Scott is a member of the National Center for Great Lakes Native American Culture Center's board of directors. The center is based in Portland.
Scott is one of about 80 weavers from across North American to be invited to demonstrate and present lectures on traditional Cherokee and Southeastern river cane basketry and mat making at the 40th annual Folklife Festival.
"We are justifiably proud of Robin and her many accomplishments," said Kay Neumayr, chairman of the center's board of directors.
The festival will feature Carriers of Culture: Living Native Basket Traditions from June 30 to July 11. The event attracts more than a million visitors annually and reaches another 40 million through the media.
Scott is also a Tradition Bearer, artist, educator and consultant.
Emeline, 9, will also be demonstrating weaving at the festival and is part of the New Generation/Youth Curatorial Advisors.
Scott is also a member of the Curatorial Advisory Council for Carriers of Culture. As part of her involvement with the Smithsonian's Carriers of Culture festival and exhibition, she attended and demonstrated at the 10th Annual Celebration of Basket Weaving Festival and Marketplace at the Heard Museum in Phoenix, Ariz., in December 2005.
Scott and her family live in New Castle. She is a 1988 graduate of Ball State University with a degree in graphic design and minors in Native American studies and metalsmithing.
She also serves on Indiana's Area 5 Regional Arts Round Table and is on the Advisory Board of the Oklahoma Native American Basket Weavers Association. She has recently been featured in Native Peoples magazine and in the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian magazine.
The Portland-based center is composed of native and non-native members whose mission is to continue and preserve traditional Great Lakes Native American art, history and culture by helping pass those traditions on to native peoples and by educating the general public.
Contact Jay and Blackford county reporter Ric Routledge at (765) 728-5241.

Originally published June 26, 2006