CULTURAL HERITAGE REVIVAL PROJECT - Sponsored by Trey Schlichting & Horseback Field Archery Association
Have you ever seen or experienced the deprivation racked upon native cultures from poverty and subjugation? Stripped of your identity, your self-worth, your language, and the historical practices that linked you to cultural heritage? I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to compete in the Asian Mounted Archery Championships in Mongolia. While I was there, I was able to realize my life’s dream of riding Mongolian ponies across the steppe and competing in horseback archery in the region where the first horses were ever ridden astride. After the tournament, my fellow competitors from around the world were blessed by being able to stay in a traditional Ger camp and trek across the steppe for three days. In the evening, all of us spent the evenings with archery games shooting both rolling and flying targets. I was astonished when I noticed native Mongolians that were driving or walking by, came back with their families to sit in the grass and watch us for hours on end. I discovered upon asking, that under Soviet control Mongolians had 2,000 Buddhist priests executed in one day and the people were banned from having last names, clan affiliations and practicing their ancient customs of mounted archery. Their culture, shamanic religion, and history begins and revolves around a horseman with a bow. After a couple of generations the knowledge of how to do it [horseback archery] for most, has been lost. As a developing nation, the Mongolian people are hungry for equipment and the skills to regain their lost heritage as horse archers. After reflecting inward, it didn’t take long to recognize this same adversity had also occurred right here in the United States with our own Native American culture. With all that in mind, we decided to come together and make a difference. The Cultural Heritage Revival Project was born, with the intention to raise money for bows, arrows, and training to help rebuild what has been lost within these ancient cultures. Our mission is to give back hope, a sense of pride and well-being to people who share our passion for horseback archery and its integrity building effects. Horseback Archery is one of man’s earliest known martial arts. Both the bow and horse are spiritual vehicles to many cultures around the world. However, over time in both the birth place of riding astride (modern day Mongolia) and in the United States, the art is all but forgotten with native cultures who embraced it as a way of life. The Cultural Heritage Revival Project was established to give back the tools and education to native cultures that have had it stripped away from them by the hegemonic influences of governments and time. The way of the bow and the way of the horse are both pathways to meditation. The pursuit of the two together offer positive influences to the body and soul that are hard to quantify. Please help us in our efforts to give back some of what has been lost, and revive horse archery within the cultures that brought it to us so long ago.
