Cherokee

Native American Village Offers Living History in Cherokee, NC
[A recent $25,000 grant...]

Oconaluftee Indian Village, a replica of an eighteenth century Cherokee community in the mountains of Western North Carolina, springs to life on May 15, 1997.

This is opening day. From now through October 25, 1997, it will teem with activity and host thousands of visitors.

Native Cherokees from the parent community of Cherokee and the Eastern Band of Cherokee will populate Oconaluftee Village to demonstrate how their ancestors lived 250 years ago.

Men with fire and ax will laboriously hollow out a huge tree trunk to form a canoe, a primitive but effective mode of transportation. Others will carefully fashion instruments for hunting. They will chip stone into arrowheads and make blowguns of the long, straight cane found in the area. Missiles for the blowguns will be in the form of sharp pointed darts bound at one end with thistle to give accuracy in flight.

Cherokee women will engage in the arts and crafts of their mothers. Some will do finger weaving, some bead work and others pottery making. Men and women will share in basket weaving. In some of the sturdy log cabins of the period, women will pound corn, and show how they cared for their husbands and homes.

The seven-sided Council House, hub of village life, will have a Cherokee in the role of the Beloved Woman, who will tell visitors something of the history of these people and how they governed themselves.

The setting of the Oconaluftee Village is authentic. It is on the Qualla Boundary, the home of the Eastern Band of Cherokee, adjacent to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Its people are descendants of those whose story they tell. Thus, visitors are assured of an educational as well as entertaining experience when they delve into this facet of American history.

Visitors may wish to take advantage of the Cherokee Nature Trail and Arboretum which also opens on May 15. The Trail and Arboretum adjoin Oconaluftee Indian Village and are included in the Village admission. They feature thousands of plants and flowers which are especially beautiful in the springtime.

Just across from Oconaluftee Village is Mountainside Theatre, home of the outdoor drama, Unto These Hills, which will begin performances on June 13, 1997.

At the intersection of U.S. 441 and Drama Road is the Museum of the Cherokee Indian. Within its walls of mountain stone and native timber, audio-visual presentations and hundreds of artifacts tells more of the history of the Cherokee and their leaders.

For more information on Oconaluftee Indian Village and other attractions in Cherokee, call 1-704-497-2111, or write P.O. Box 398, Cherokee, NC 28719.

A recent $25,000 grant from the Canon Foundation has put the Museum of the Cherokee Indian one step closer to a new permanent exhibit.

Scheduled to open in 1998, the new exhibit will present the history and culture of the Cherokee people through two concepts central to Cherokee philosophy and world view: duyukta, or the right way of living and seeking balance, and the land, which is the sacred center of the Cherokee nation.

Using a variety of state-of-the-art sensory techniques created by designers recommended by Walt Disney Imagineering, visitors to the remodeled exhibit will experience the cold of the infamous Trail of Tears, hear traditional Cherokee rhythms, and much more. Museum visitors will experience directly how and why the Cherokees, despite centuries of adversity, are today a thriving community and one with a strong sense of history.

The Museum of the Cherokee Indian currently has a renowned artifact collection, an active archives and the only scholarly journal devoted to one tribe.

Information:

Museum of the Cherokee Indian
P.O. Box 1599
Cherokee, NC 28719