DOCUMENT RESUME ED 211 242 RC C13 018 AUTHOR French, Laurence, Ed.; Hornbuckle,Jim, Ed. TITLE The Cherokee Perspective;Written by Eastern Cherokees. INSTITUTION Appalachian Consortium, Inc., Boone,N.C. POE DATE 81 NOTE 270p.; Paper copy not availabledue to publisher's preference. AVAILABLE FROMAppalachian Consortium Press, 202Appalachian St., Boone, NC 28607 ($5.56 S.89 postage E hP,ndling). EDPS PRICE 1001 plus Postage. 4C NotAvailable !roc IDES. DESCRIPTORS *American Indian Culture;*American Indian Education; American Indians: Att Products; Craft.Workers; *Cultural Activities; CulturalBackgrourd; Cultural Influences; Dance; folk Culture;Handicrafts; Interviews; Oral History; Poetry;*Profiles: *Quality of Life; Social Change; SocialProblems IDENTIFIERS *American Indian History; *Cherokee(Tribe) AISTRACT Cherokee students at the QuallaBoundary started a student organization in 1973 toimprove, educational prospects among Na ive Americans attendingnon-Indian colleges and universities. Be ause cultural conflict wasperceived as playing a crucialrole in the failure of Cherokee students inhigher education, a major objective of the group was to researchtheir own Cherokee culture. Students talked with traditionalelders, corroborating all information. Spacial classes were se'.up.td encourage additional student involvement. Many of thearticles in this bock are a direct consequence of thatself-initiated search for traditionalroots. Part One centers on historicaland contemporary views of the Cherokee people, with emphasis on education,tradition and change, and contemporary social issues. Part Twofeatures stories on Cherokee Heritage and Folklore by Carl Lambert(Cherokee historian); provides sections on Cherokee poetry, artsand crafts, and excerpts fromthe "Cherokee One Feather" (officialTribal newspaper): and ccncludec with profiles of the Cherokeeresearchers, many of whom now have their degrees and are teaching inthe reservation schools orworking in the areas of lair, health,and social welfare. (881, *********************************************************************** Repoductions supplied by EDRS are thebest that can be made * * * * from the original document. *********************************************************************** J THE CHERgKEE Cherokees FERSPECTIVE:Written by Eastern rERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS MATERIAL IN MICROFICHE ONLY HAS BEEN GRANTED BY I-4.0 renc.e.rce1-1 G h il, 13,.x. ton exv-rry' TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)." U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) This document has been reproduced as received from the person or organization / onginating it I/ *nor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality Points of view or opinions stated in this docu ment do not necessarily represent Offi COI NIE position or [rob( y Edited by Laurence French and Jim Hornbuckle /71 Oro S Published by the Appalachian Consortium Press, a divi- sion of the Appalachian Consortium, Inc , Boone, North Carolina 28607. The member institutions of the Appalachian Conlin-bum are. Appalachian State University Blue Ridge Paway East Tennessee State University ' Ferrum College First Tennessee-Virginia Development District Lees-McRae College Mars Hill College U. S. Forest Service University of North Carolina-Asheville Warren Wilson College Western Carolina University Western North Carolina Historical Association Affiliate Memi,ers. The Council on Appalachian Women, Inc, North Carolina Division of Archives and History Copyright 1981 by the Appalachian Consortium, Inc MI rights reserved Library of Congress Catalog Card Numher. 81-65842 t.J tt Dedicated to the Cherokee People: Past, Present and Future 4 _ ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: We wish to express our deepest appreciation to all those who worked with us in the development of this book. We are especial- ly grateful to Rupert Costo and Jeannette Henry of the American Indian Historical Society; Gerald Eller, Borden Mace, Susan Huff- man, and Martha McKinney of the AppalachianConsortium; and to Sharlotte Neely, Burt Purrington and Zohara Boyd for their editorial work. t) FOREWORD The Cherokee Perspective is not intended tobe a review of historical literature about the QuallsBoundary, nor is it meant to be a sociological study full of bargraphs and statistics. Compiled by Laurence French and Jim Hornbuckle,the book is actually the product of many writers, each of whomdeals with a different aspect of Cherokee life. These authorshave not researched their material; they have lived it Because it waswritten in this way, the book may have lost somethingin academic methodology and unity, but it has also gained much inimmediacy and impact. The editors have tried to preserve thebook's vitality by not meddling with the writers' words too-much. Ifthe interviews are ungram- matical, then that is the way the peopleinvolved speak. The in- coherence of certain dance descriptions,recipes, and folk tales is also deliberate. The old people who arethe keepers of these tradi- tions wish to share only part of theirknowledge; the rest, they say, must remain within thetribe. This book is not intended to be a scholarlywork. It is a living testament for future scholars toanalyze. Zohara Boyd Assistant Professor of English Appalachian State University el. 0 FOREWORD When the Appalachian Consortium Press asked me to do editorial work on a manuscript for a book called The Cherokee Perspective, I was pleased to help out because I realized how valuable such an endeavor could be. Besides the value of the book's immediate impact, I was excited about the undertaking, because I saw the book as a means of creating primary source material. Besides my fieldwork, I have conducted ethnohistorical research on the Eastern Cherokees, and I realized the value of such a book to that kind of inquiry. Most of my ethnohistorical work has been at the Federal Records Center in East Point, Georgia, where allEastern Cherokee Agency files of the Bureau of Indian Affairs are now housed. Sometimes, I have pored over box after box of dusty documents looking for that letter, diary, or report which would put flesh and blood on an era of Cherokee history, only to have to content myself with school attendance records or purchase orders. After awhile, the feeling is that of being on a treasure hunt. I can remember the joy upon finding out that Henry M. Owl, an enrolled Eastern Cherokee, had written an M.A. thesis in history at the University of North Carolina in 1929. It was full of Owl's opinions, criticisms, feelings, and goals for the Cherokee. It put flesh and blood on the 1920's for me. It was even better than interviewing someone now about that era. The feeling was of in- terviewing an informant frozen in time for nearly half a century. The Cherokee Perspective will have that effect on future genera- tions of Cherokees and Cherokee researchers. Such an undertaking cannot be totally objectiveinits outlook, and ite value anyway probably lies in the opinions and biases of its writers, the Cherokees. When I read Henry Owl's ac- count of the Cherokees in the 1920's, I did not assume that his point of view was universal. But combined with other sources of information,Owlwasinvaluable.Theeditors,researcher Laurence French and Cherokee Jim Hornbuckle, have opir.:cns not necessarily shared by others, but that is as it should be. I do not, for example, share all their opinions. The book's writers also have their own varied opinions. When one puts together the vi'ws of each of the writers along with other data, one does get a mosaic of opinions, which is "objective,"Lon which to base an "ob- jective" study. The Cherokee Perspective has many strong points. One of these is that it includes an article 'n Snowbird, a traditional com- munity not studied until recently, written by a Snowbird man. When I did my own research on Snowbird, Hound-it quite dif- ficult to find any firsthand data on the community. Yet, by many criteria it is perhaps the most traditional of Eastern Cherokee communities. 7 The book appropriately begins with a chapter on Cherokee history and culture which is an important basis for appreciating the folklore and poems thatfollow as well as a basisfor understanding the contemporary problems that are explored. Sometimes the editors include daring accounts, such as that of In- dians in local jails, and sometimes the accounts are simply mov- ing, such as those on the preservation of Cherokee crafts and dances. The mini-biographies at the end cover traditional and not- so-traditional people, men and women, old and young. Firsthand data is critical for the Eastern Cherokees. Prob- ably no other group has been written about so extensively and yet has often been so horribly misunderstood. TheCherokees have a mystique which attracts everyone from boy scouts seeking Indian lore to little old ladies with Cherokee blood. Some Indians themselves have suggested that if everyone who thinks he has Cherokee blood really does, then the Cherokees are ancestors to most of the world's population. Firsthand data helps cut through mystique to reality. An accurate assessment of the Cherokees iscrucial to understanding North American Indian history and culture. The Cherokees are often labeled the most changed of all Native American groups, and yet the core of traditional cultural traits which persists is amazing. Most histories tell only part of the Cherokee story, and the gaps between the data are often larger and more significant than the data. Many histories concentrate on