Cherokee NC 6/13/09

 The small Native American Indian village of Cherokee sits at the southernmost end of the Smokey Mountains in North Carolina. It's been overrun by a collection of bears. But, don¹t worry­ these bears are completely harmless. Several Eastern Band of Cherokee artists have created a series of large, life-like fiberglass bears and painted them in bright vibrant colors and designs. Currently there are 15 painted bears completed, located in various spots around town. It was fun to try to find them all.

  Cherokee, is home to Eastern Band of Cherokee Nation which 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. Like many Indian reservations in the United States, it has a casino which is a major source of income for the local tribe that lives on the reservation.

 In addition, the  shops in the town sell a lot of tourist items... 

 some of which are not even vaguely related to the cultural history of the local tribe

The Cherokee  put on tribal performances  in several museums, a outdoor drama and at several festivals   in which they tell tourists about their heritage

 

As the Oconaluftee  River passes through the town of Cherokee, it is split by a beautiful, grassy island. Called the Oconaluftee Islands Park – it is  sheltered by canopies of oak and sycamore with beautiful walking bridges connect the island.   Its a nice place to have a picnic.  

The Cherokee charge a fee for fishing in the  rivers and streams running through their lands.

Once this entire land belonged to them, but the white settlers whittled away at their holdings until the tribe's population was confined to this one small valley.

Even that was jeopardized when the lead surveyor for the  Blue Ridge Parkway wanted to put the terminus of the road right through the center of their only farmland.  It took a near Indian uprising to convince the US Congress, and the President, that such and action was tantamount to genocide.

Fortunately the Blue Ridge  Parkway was diverted through Asheville, giving that city the advantage of it's tourist traffic, but allowing the Cherokee to retain the fertile farm land they need  to feed their people.