Head to downtown Raleigh this weekend for a double dose of history and science at Bicentennial Plaza, the open area between the N.C. Museum of History and the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences.

See colorful costumes, dancing and music at the 11th annual American Indian Heritage Celebration, housed at the Museum of History. Then amble over to the Museum of Natural Sciences for Archaeology Days, a new event that delves into 10,000 years of state history.

At the American Indian celebration, kids can watch Occaneechi-Saponi tribe members burn a tree trunk to create a dugout canoe. They can poke around inside a longhouse similar to ones Eastern Woodland Indians built 500 years ago and watch artists craft silver jewelry, beadwork and pottery.

Members of the Sappony tribe will help your kids make a dreamcatcher, which supposedly traps bad dreams in its web. Afterward, play the traditional chunkey game and try your hand at a blowgun.

No need to pack a lunch: Be adventurous and try traditional American Indian foods -- Indian tacos, sweet potato fries, fry bread, turkey legs and ribbon fries.

Don't miss the Call to Nations at noon when 40 dancers outfitted in regalia descend the museum's front steps. They'll perform traditional, fancy, jingle, grass and hoop dances, accompanied by rhythmic drumming.

Across the plaza, Archaeology Days features the artifacts recovered from the Hardaway site in Stanly County, the state's oldest excavated settlement and a pretty significant archaeological find in general.

Though not specifically geared toward children, Archaeology Days incorporates plenty of kid-friendly activities. On the plaza, watch a fire-making demonstration. Learn about bow-drilling and seed identification. Then take some seeds of your own home and watch them sprout.

At the Hardaway site, Indian artifacts were revealed by the thousands -- more than seven metric tons' worth. Many of these artifacts, mostly spearpoints and stone scrapers, have never before been seen by the public. They're not necessarily the most impressive-looking artifacts around, but they are really, really old and helpful in telling the story of early North Carolina.

"Kids don't really get the concept of how old things really are," said Erin MacEntee, curator of educational events. "We're going to try to demystify for kids the idea of what that timeline is."

Archaeologists from UNC-Chapel Hill will be on hand to explain artifacts' significance to the younger set. Outside, they can get a better idea of how the artifacts were found at a mock dig square. Kids can sift through material and find pottery shards to gain an understanding of what it is that archaeologists do.

Various stations throughout the museum will show kids what life was like thousands of years ago. Kids can make reproduction pump drills, which ancient people used for drilling holes in shell and sometimes building fires. They can taste ancient foods such as sassafras tea and cattail root.

There will be pelts to touch and skulls to see and games to make. At one station, kids can use a rubber stamp incorporating designs found on Indian pottery to decorate a popsicle stick "raft" joined by tape. When the tape is removed, it becomes a puzzle kids can put together at home.