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APPALACHIAN WEEKEND 2005:  September 24-25, 2005
Appalachian Weekend 2007 | Appalachian Weekend 2006 | Appalachian Weekend 2005 | Appalachian Weekend 2004 | Appalachian Weekend 2003

Agenda | Did you know | Places to Visit |  Books | Driving Tour

PHOTOS FROM THE DAY (Click on pictures to enlarge.  Use your browser's back button to return to this page).

Place to Visit in Cherokee, NC

Please don’t just cruise the main street, buy a string of beads, have your picture taken beside a native in headdress, and go on your way saying you have been to Cherokee. Of course, there are appeals to tourists; tourism is a business, a means of livelihood.  But Cherokee, NC is much more. It is the Qualla Boundary, home of the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Nation. And there are in Cherokee four institutions which have long presented Cherokee culture to those interested in history and authenticity. The oldest is the Cherokee Indian Fair which will in October hold its ninety-third annual event. Second in terms of age is the Qualla Arts and Crafts Mutual, founded in 1946, a cooperative owned and operated by the Cherokee. It is open year round. In 1948 the Museum of the Cherokee Indian opened, offering many education and outreach programs. Finally, the Cherokee Historical Association operates the Oconoluftee Indian Village. This association has produced the outdoor drama, Unto These Hills, for more than fifty years.  These four institutions will help us bring Cherokee history, culture, spirituality, music, crafts, and stories to our Appalachian Weekend Sept. 24-25. I hope you will come.

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Did you know:

The New Echota Treaty of 1835 relinquished Cherokee Indian claims to lands east of the Mississippi River. The majority of the Cherokee people considered the treaty fraudulent and refused to leave their homelands in Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina, and Tennessee. 7,000 Federal and State troops were ordered into the Cherokee Nation to forcibly evict the Indians. On May 26, 1838, the roundup began. Over 15,000 Cherokees were forced from their homes at gunpoint and imprisoned in stockades until removal to the west could take place. 2,700 left by boat in June 1838, but, due to many deaths and sickness, removal was suspended until cooler weather. Most of the remaining 13,000 Cherokees left by wagon, horseback, or on foot during October and November, 1838, on an 800 miles route through Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, and Arkansas. They arrived in what is now eastern Oklahoma during January, February, and March 1839. Disease, exposure, and starvation may have claimed as many as 4,000 Cherokee lives during the course of capture, imprisonment, and removal. The ordeal has become known as the Trail of Tears.
(Source: The Carl Vinson Center, University of Georgia, 2004.)

Cherokee comes from a Muskogee word meaning “speakers of another language.” The Cherokee originally called themselves Aniyunwiya, “the principal people,” but they have generally accepted the name Cherokee, which is spelled and pronounced Tsalagi in their own language.
(Source: Laura Redish and Orrin Lewis, Native Languages
of Americas, 2004).

The Cherokee were farming people. Cherokee women did most of the farming, harvesting crops of corn, beans, squash, and sunflowers. Cherokee men did most of the hunting, shooting deer, wild turkeys, and small game and fishing in the rivers and along the coast. Cherokee dishes included cornbread, soups, and stews cooked on stone hearths. The Cherokees in 1828 were not nomadic. In fact, they had assimilated many European-style customs, including the wearing of gowns by Cherokee
women. They built roads, schools and churches, had a system of representational government, and were farmers and cattle ranchers (Source: Georgia.com, 2004).

There are three federally recognized Cherokee communities, the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma (the largest with 125,000 members), the United Keetoowah Band in Oklahoma (with about 7000 members) and the Eastern
Band of Cherokee in North Carolina (with about 10,000 members).
(Source: Laura Redish and Orrin Lewis, Native Languages of the Americas, 2004).

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 This page was last updated 06/12/2008