Deep River Parks Association will host a Native American Gathering and Celebration at the Camelback Bridge Park, located at 5485 R. Jordan Road, Sanford, from 12 to 5 p.m. on Saturday. Admission is $10, with children 12 and under admitted free. Proceeds from the event will go toward maintenance of the parks at Camelback Bridge and the former Carbonton Dam.

“The association is here to celebrate and acknowledge the long history of Native Americans in this area,” said Kevin Degon of the Deep River Parks Association. “The bluff that begins at our park and extends for miles up the river was home to people for centuries before my ancestors ever got here, and we need to remember that. We’re not here to claim anyone’s heritage or culture, but to honor it. Come out and learn something about the place where you live.”

The event will feature Native dancing, music and storytelling. Seven-time Native American Music Award winner Keith Secola, blues guitarist Lakota John, flute player Aio Sifu and drum keeper and teacher Suki Sneed are to perform.

Mike and Jeannie Cranford, who represent the Cherokee Nation, are coordinating Saturday’s event. The couple participates in powwows from Maryland to Florida and gives presentations for schools, churches and organizations throughout North Carolina.

Secola, who represents the Anishinabe Tribe, is from Minnesota, and now lives in Arizona. He carries Native American stories through guitar, flute, mandolin, harmonica and piano, and his 1992 song “NDN Kars” is the most-requested song on tribal radio. Secola has performed numerous times at the Shakori Hills Festival of Music and Dance in Chatham County.

Secola was inducted into the Native Music Hall of Fame in 2011, and has performed at the Olympic Games, the Kennedy Center, the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian and SXSW, and has collaborated with Mickey Hart of the Grateful Dead, among others.

Lakota John, from the Pembroke area, represents the Lumbee Tribe and mixes blues with indigenous music. A renowned slide guitar player, Lakota John is associated with the Music Maker Foundation and has played with Native artist Pura Fe, blues icon Taj Mahal, Secola, Dom Flemons (formerly of the Carolina Chocolate Drops), and others. He tours nationally and internationally and has performed at the Kennedy Center and the Library of Congress, and has regularly performed in California, New Mexico, Canada and Europe.

Aio Sifu is a poet and writer, composer, graphic artist, dancer, flute player, speaker and burgeoning singer who is a descendant of the Muskogee Tribe. She is a native of Washington, D.C., and lives in Tidewater Virginia. She is a member of the Sound Healer and Weyenoke Associations as well as a member of the United Native American Missionaries. Sifu has been called upon to give presentations within school systems, women’s groups, churches, community events, and festivals, and has been a guest performer at the Patuxent River Park Native American Festival 11 years running.

Food will be available for purchase on site, and several vendors are to be present as well.