Cherokee, North Carolina Vacation |
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The Museum of the Cherokee Indian tells the story of the Cherokee people and sets the scene for the Cherokee Heritage Trails. Here the Cherokee community presents its perspective on its own history and culture. The museum's new high-tech exhibit, installed in 1998, takes the visitor from 11,000 years ago to the present. Cherokee people were involved in creating the exhibit: elders as well as scholars consulted on the script; life size figures were created from full-body casts of local people; and many of the voices in the audio portions of the exhibit come from tribal members. This new award-winning exhibit combines artifacts with interactive technology, special effects, and colorful graphics. At the Cherokee Voices Festival in June, Cherokee people demonstrate crafts, tell stories, perform music, and do traditional dance. Elders who do not usually travel long distances to festivals often participate in this event. Throughout the summer and fall, Cherokee artists and crafts people exhibit and demonstrate inside the museum. The Qualla Arts and Crafts Co-op sells only the best quality crafts, hand-made with natural materials by Cherokee people. Here you will find meticulously made baskets, pottery, woodcarving, bead work, jewelry, dolls, blowguns, and other items. But the co-op is more than another crafts store. For more than fifty years, it has provided year-round income for Cherokee crafts people by buying crafts during the winter as well as during the summer tourist season. Profits are shared with all co-op members, who must be enrolled in the Eastern Band. The co-op has helped Cherokee traditions survive, and has held high standards for their quality. In the process, it has become one of the most successful Native American crafts cooperatives in the country. In addition to the sales area, an exhibit room provides information on crafts traditions through displays of materials, photographs of the process of creation, and examples of work. The Qualla Co-op is a non-profit organization that has been active in supporting crafts throughout the region as a member of the Southern Highlands Handicraft Guild and one of the founding members of Handmade in America. The Oconaluftee Indian Village and Living History Museum portrays an eighteenth century Cherokee village on a large site on the mountainside above the town of Cherokee. Cherokee people demonstrate carving, weaving, pottery, dugout canoe making, flint knapping, blowgun making, and other traditional crafts as they would have been done in the 1700's. They work in a setting of natural beauty and authentic reconstructions of Cherokee architecture. Expert guides lead you along the village's paths, among streams and rhododendrons, taking you to houses constructed of woven saplings plastered with mud, early log cabins, and brush arbors. Their tour includes stops at a council house and dance grounds, where guides lecture on Cherokee history, culture, language, government, and traditions. When the hour-long tour is finished, you can also visit a nineteenth century cabin and Cherokee garden. Unto These Hills Drama, America's most popular outdoor drama, is the tragic and triumphant story of the Cherokee. Set against the backdrop of the Great Smoky Mountains, the drama is presented under the stars on three stages in our beautiful Mountainside Theater. Since opening on July 1, 1950, "Unto These Hills" has been seen by over five million people. The compelling story opens with the arrival of the Spanish explorer Hernando DeSoto in 1540, and builds to a stirring climax with the cruel removal of all but a remnant of Cherokee on the infamous "Trail of Tears." This powerful drama recreates the inspiration of the great Sequoyah, the wise leadership of Junaluska, and the heartbreaking sacrifice of Tsali, who gave his life so a handful of people might remain on the land of their heritage. Cherokee descendants, whose ancestors were forcefully driven out of the mountains and marched 1,200 miles to Oklahoma, play important roles in the drama and in the many dances, highlighted by the colorful and world-famous Eagle Dance. Presented each Summer Mid-June through late August.
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At the main North Carolina entrance to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park (via US Highway 441) is your Cherokee vacation, home to Eastern Band of Cherokee Nation. The Eastern Band of Cherokee Nation is one of the only three federally recognized Cherokee tribes. There are about 13,400 Eastern Band of Cherokee members, most of whom live on the Reservation. Properly called the Qualla Boundary, the Reservation is slightly more than 56,000 acres held in trust by the federal government specifically for the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.