June 9, 2012 Cherokee, North Carolina

Cherokee is on the eastern Cherokee Indian Reservation.  Saturday  they had an Indian Heritage Festival out side their museum. We went to the Festival, the museum and the Oconaluftee Living Indian Village.  The Oconaluftee Cherokees were able to stay on their tribal land on a reservation of land they bought. The rest of the Cherokee tribe was driven from their homes along with the other 5 tribes by the Indian removal Act passed by President Andrew Jackson on the ‘Trail of Tears” to a reservation in Oklahoma. the eastern Indians had more contact with the white men than the western Indians. The Cherokees even fought  on the  confederates side during the civil war.

The Museum of the Cherokee Indian, with a statue of Sequoia- the Indian who invented the written alphabet for the Cherokee language. It is made of redwood from California. Cherokee Indians in traditional Cherokee dress at the festival. There were booths demonstrating the traditional crafts , vendors and traditional indian food and music.

The bear dance at the festival . Suep with Cherokee warriors.

Oconaluftee Indian Village. Oconaluftee means ‘river that is thigh deep’ in Cherokee. The village is a recreation of a 1750’s Cherokee community where Native Americans demonstrate how to fashion such mainstays as baskets, pottery, dug out canoes, arrows, spears, tools and blow guns.  They have traditional buildings found in villages . You get a tour explaining the way of life then.  Finger weavers making belts.

Our guide Kevin demonstrating a blow gun.  The inside of the Council house. It has seven sides for the seven clans.  It was where the business of the  village took place. the eternal fire was kept here, burning all the time and the fires in each home came from this fire. The fire was the heart of the village. They even had a British trading post.

A 16th century home. It is made of timber wall, lined with mats and covered with clay, with a thatched roof. Later after they Indians had more contact with white man and had better tools they made log cabins.  Around town they had painted bears. Kind of like the painted horses, pelicans and light houses we saw in other towns around the US. This one is in front of the theatre that shows a historical drama about the Cherokees.

This bear is in front of the Museum, it is Sequoia with the Cherokee alphabet on his side.  John with a jar of Hillbilly Whup Ass. It says don’t make me open this on the top!!

He found it in this rat cheese place we stopped at. It also had Traffic Jam, Toe Jam and Moonshine Jelly. The Cracklins-pork skins were not that tasty. The street sings in Cherokee are in both English and Cherokee.