Cherokee, N.C.

Cherokee, N.C., is a monument to determination.

In 1838-39, roughly 20,000 Cherokee Indians were rounded up from their homelands in the Southeast and driven west to Oklahoma along what would later be called the Trail of Tears for the journey’s legacy of death, hardship, and loss of homeland. Roughly 1,000 Cherokee from Tennessee and North Carolina remained behind, however, hidden in the mountains.

And they never left. Nearly 30 years later, they gained government recognition and in 1868 established a formal tribal government in Cherokee, N.C., a settlement that remains and thrives today. Roughly 10,000 Cherokee call it home.

The town and reservation in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park are rich in Native American history. The Oconaluftee Indian Village, an authentic replica of a 1750s Cherokee Indian community, is alive with historical tours, basket weaving, beadwork, pottery making, and more. The nearby Museum of the Cherokee Indian houses thousands of years of Cherokee history and culture. And each June through August, Cherokees bring the story of the Trail of Tears alive with the outdoor drama, Unto These Hills.

New attractions and businesses are springing up all over the reservation, but only Cherokee people can own the land, which they lease to outside businesses. This way they can ensure tourism doesn’t get out of hand.

The museum, village, and play provide the primary sources for visitors to understand and get a glimpse into the culture of the Cherokee people of the past. Visitors can also indulge in trout fishing, tubing, and rafting, and browse Cherokee-operated shops with authentic arts and crafts.

Tribal members are going a step further by making sure that today’s Cherokee youth don’t lose touch with their heritage as they increasingly embrace a more modern world. One of the best examples is the Eastern Cherokee Language Project, begun in 1992 by tribesman Robert Bushyhead and his daughter, Jean. They’ve compiled years of linguistic data for the project and have received federal grant money to help with their efforts.

Dave Redman, manager of the Tribal Travel & Promotion Office—the reservation’s chamber of commerce—says the father-daughter team has been instrumental in making sure signs on the reservation are written in Cherokee as well as English. And the ancient language also is taught in Cherokee public schools, which are attended almost exclusively by the Native American children of the reservation.

Kay Thorpe Bannon, professor of education at Gordon College in Wenham, Mass., has worked with the Bushyheads since 1990, when she taught special education in the Cherokee schools while on sabbatical. She has since taken the lessons and the language outside the reservation and presented them in schools scattered around the East. One such lesson has been incorporated into Bannon’s book, Yonder Mountain: A Cherokee Legend, taken from a story told by the elder Bushyhead and used as a teacher’s guide.

School children are “hungry for something authentic. I think this is very important in light of the history of the Indians in this country,” she says.

And the restoration spreads further. Under the leadership of tribesman Walker Calhoun, the Cherokee are reviving old ceremonies, dances, and songs. Jerry Wolfe, an elder tribesman, says some of the tribal women have again taken up A-ne-jo-di, or stickball, which they had not played since 1870.

“But, this just isn’t a ballgame,” Wolfe says. “(As legend goes) this game dates back to when the animals of the forest had a ball team. The animals played the eagle and his team, the fowl of the air.

“There is always a dance the night before (the game),” he continues. “The dance performed makes you feel sad, it makes you feel good. There is a mixture of a lot of feelings. No one can understand it unless involved. It is the Cherokee way.”

Pam Sherborne is a Tennessee-based freelance writer.

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