The Community of the Eastern Cherokee:
Enacting Community via Discourse

Danna Gibson
Austin Peay State University

This paper was awarded top paper in SSCA’s intercultural division at the SSCA / CSCA in St. Louis, Missouri, April 9, 1999.

Abstract

The Trail of Tears stands as a start reminder of a people ripped from their land, as the Eastern Cherokee was forced to move to Oklahoma. This march not only removed these people from their individual homes but also separated them from their heritage. Some members of this band chose to disobey the government's removal order and remained in their beloved mountains of Western North Carolina - the place which tied them to their identity. Today, in spite of the commercialization of Cherokee, North Carolina, these people remain as a testimony to community. Almost within sight of the tourist district, these Eastern Cherokee have renewed their sense of community and commitment to place. As a work in progress, this paper examines how the Eastern Cherokee's survival as a people has applications for the modern communication scholar who is in search of building a sense of community through communication.

How well I remember sitting in the open air amphitheater on a July evening watching actors portray the events just prior to the forced evacuation of the Cherokee Indians. The first time I saw the drama, I was impressed more by the noise made by actor's guns than I was by the story being told. As a child, I found the scenery, the costumes, and the smoking guns sufficient entertainment. Situated just a few miles from my own home, it was hard to associate words like danger, tragedy, and death with the history of the residents of Cherokee. In fact, the very word Cherokee meant the town through which our family would pass on our way to Gatlinburg for an afternoon drive. Thoughts of this quickly brought to mind a picture of Indian chiefs standing outside stores. The number of chiefs standing on the corner was dependent upon the season. Summer vacations and changing of the autumn leaves were sure heralds of peak tourist seasons. In the summer, there were several Indian chiefs standing in full regalia awaiting photo opportunities with passing tourists. Cherokee was the town where at least one caged bear or dancing chicken could be found outside a souvenir store or beside a gas station. At nine years of age, the word meant nothing more than a traffic jam due to the tourist choked street, making travel difficult.

That night, as in many others, I left the drama, Unto These Hills, relatively unmoved. I remained unmoved as long as the word Cherokee was simply a location on the map. The change came for me when I realized the Cherokee were a people

with both a story and a heritage as rich and majestic as the mountains which they have called home for over a thousand years. In part, this realization came after I had moved away from my Smoky Mountain home. For me, as with the old adage, many times, you don't know what you have until it is gone. After moving from the place I called home, I sometimes wondered how my life would have looked had I not chosen to move from those mountains. My decision to move was made and little thought was actually given to it in terms of sacrifice. To this day, however, home is represented by a particular place in Waynesville, North Carolina. For me, my home and my heritage is tied to that place. At least once every season, I renew my commitment to return home to my roots, never again to leave it. Meanwhile, I know my parents and my sister will keep that place for me. It will be there when I come back to it. I cannot fathom being told I would never be allowed to wade in my dad's cool streams, walk on his leaf strewn paths through our mountains, and talk to the wind knowing it would keep my secrets. It is something to leave a place temporarily and of your own freewill. It is yet another thing to be forced to leave behind everything that made me who I was. No pictures, no keepsakes, no material link connecting me to my heritage.

The history of the Cherokee Indian, a people native to this place in Western North Carolina, reveals they had little choice about whether to move or to stay. That decision was made by the U.S. Government. Their plight, quite unlike my choice to remain or stay at home in the mountains, came at a great cost to the Cherokee people. From an historical perspective, the decision of whether to cling to their place in the Smoky Mountains or to follow the U.S. Government's mandate to relocate to and

to create a new place in Oklahoma was a decision that would permanently impact them as a nation. The purpose of this paper is to identify the essential elements of effective community , explicate how they are enacted through discourse, and to provide an extensive example of such enactment through the Eastern Cherokee Tribe. It will examine how the decision to stay behind and cling to their place as a people cost them dearly in loss of family, tradition, and a way of life. Their lives would forever change, as would the way they lived within their community. Some families were divided and the Eastern Cherokees had to forge out of the mountains a means of making a living in order to survive. They answered these challenges and found a way to preserve community around the place they held so dear. When the tourists came into their area, the Cherokees again had to change to meet the new challenges. Theirs is a story of survival and victory over impossible odds, and a testimony to the strength of community.

As a people, the Cherokee lived in small communities. Each village had a council house where ceremonies and tribal meetings were held. Each tribe elected two chiefs -- a Peace Chief who counseled them during peaceful times, and a War Chief who made decisions during times of war. The Chiefs did not have absolute authority, however, as the decision-making was more democratic. Each tribal member was given the opportunity to voice their concerns; and this opportunity was regularly exercised (Mooney, 1975). By the early 1800's, this was a people who had a constitution and a code of law. Sequoyah had established a Cherokee alphabet for his people. They had the Cherokee Phoenix, their own community newspaper (Smith, 1928).

The Cherokee society was that of a matriarchy. The children took the clan of their mother, and kinship was traced through her side of the family. The homes were built by the family and community members. To the Cherokee, what impacted one member of their tribe impacted the entire tribe. Women had an equal voice in the affairs of the tribe and marriage was only allowed between the members of different clans (Mooney, 1975). To the Cherokee Indian, the Smokies had always been home, part of their collective tribal identity (Finger, 1991).

As a faithful means of shelter, the Blue Mountains could no longer protect the Cherokee Indian against the onslaught of the white settlers and their desire for more wealth. Following a series of changes in Washington, D.C. and the rumor that gold was discovered in the mountains, the decision was made to relocate the Cherokee to a new and better place. Because most of the Indians thought the law for relocation would never be enforced, they did nothing to prepare for the journey to Oklahoma. As a result of this reluctance to face the horrors of being uprooted, there was mass disorder and confusion when the U.S. Army came to enforce the rounding up of all Cherokee people. Most were able to do nothing more than gather their children's hands and leave behind their homes. Some were determined to find a way to stay in their beloved mountains which had and still continued to define who they were as a people (Finger, 1991).

An honorable Cherokee named Tsali was one who had determined nothing would remove him from the land of his people. He was an old man with grown sons when the soldiers came to the Cheoah Valley in the Snowbird Mountains and told them to leave their ancestral home and go to the stockade. Tsali, his sons Alonzo, Jake, and George, and their wives chose to stay in their homes near the mouth of the Nantahala River. They were rounded up and forced to proceed to the government stockade. On the way, a skirmish broke out, resulting in the death of three soldiers. Tsali and his family returned to their Snowbird Mountains, where they evaded government search parties. The U.S. Army agreed to allow the remainder of the Snowbird Indians to remain in their native land if Tsali would turn himself in to the authorities. Ironically, it was this death sentence for Tsali which bought freedom for hundreds of his community. Tsali turned himself over to the authorities in the home of an acquaintance, where he ate his last meal and had prayer. Then, he was led off and shot. Tsali's death, however, secured a home in the Blue Mountains for all his people (Smith, 1982).

These people, Tsali's community, would not have to walk the Trail of Tears, the forced dispossession of the entire Cherokee nation that began in 1838. While his people could stay in their mountains, most of his friends in neighboring communities were forced to relocate to Oklahoma. For those Cherokees, they took their long, last look at the Blue Mountains and slowly began the wilderness march into an unknown country eight hundred miles away. Tsali's people would remain in their place. While other members of their families left behind the security they had found in their everlasting hills, community found a way to exist in the Snowbird Mountains (Smith, 1928).

As Tsali's people hid from the government troops in their mountains, they knew they were only a fraction of their once proud nation with its long heritage and connection to the Smoky Mountains (Smith, 1928). It would be the task of this group to restore community and pick up the pieces of a people being ripped even further apart with every mile walked on the Trail of Tears. The rift, however, would continue to evidence itself long after the government's relocation project had been completed. Eventually, this rift would result in the joining of the relocated Eastern Band of Cherokees with the Western Band that became known as the Cherokee Nation. This left the Eastern Cherokee, isolated both by their mountains and from their brothers and sisters in the West, to take the official name of the Eastern Band of Cherokee (Finger, 1991). These descendants of Tsali's family and community now had the responsibility of instilling a love for the legend of who they were as a people and the land upon which they lived to the younger generation. They have been described during this period of transition as a "retreating glacier on an isolated slope...the sole remnant of an ancient people occupying its original domain" (Finger, 1991, p. 7).

The Eastern Cherokee now faced the task of finding a way to survive in an area which seemed worlds away from what most would describe as anything civilized. During this time, agricultural land was at a premium in Western North Carolina. Because there was little interest in selective breeding, or any other aspects of modern animal care, Cherokee animals were generally of an inferior quality (Mooney, 1975). Tribal diets had been reduced to corn dishes, chestnuts, berries, homegrown apples and peaches. While exact figures are not available, there is strong evidence the Cherokees took thousands of fish from the nearby streams. There is also evidence to suggest the near extinction of the game animal populations (Finger, 1991), so great was the need of these Eastern Indians to find a way to live off of the desolate land that the government had allotted to them. Once again, the land provided a means of survival; they earned a meager living by lumbering the vast amounts of timber their forests provided (Finger, 1991).

By 1900, the Eastern Cherokee had made several changes. One of the most obvious was the way kinship and clan membership was determined. Now, the tribe tended to go by the father's lineage (Finger, 1991). Further, these people had adopted some forms of Christianity, specifically the forms that reflected more closely to their tribal heritage. The Baptist denomination was favored among these people since it called for water baptism or immersions, similar to native rituals involving going to the river for cleansing (Smith, 1928).

Many anthropologists have argued that the Cherokees were rapidly losing their uniqueness during this period (Mooney, 1975). Indeed, the Cherokees were no longer performing rituals such as the Green Corn Ceremony. With the death of the last surviving Cherokee witch doctor, anthropologist Mooney (1975) warned of a tradition never to be recaptured. While Mooney and many of his colleagues correctly noted a metamorphosis, they were incorrect in stating the tribe had lost its identity. Even with the changes or accommodations, however, the Eastern Cherokee retained significant attributes of their original culture. They maintained their own language, their own myths and their own legends, that defined their own history. For the most part, the Eastern Cherokee maintained a shared community of ideas that centered around their place in the mountains. Above all, they still considered themselves as Cherokees (Finger, 1991).

The following two decades proved extremely difficult for the Cherokees living in the mountains of Western North Carolina. A brief decline in the timber industry had forced them to seek new work. Dry seasons, such as the fall of 1925, threatened the loss of tribal resources through forest fires. Sawdust and waste from other mills threatened to destroy wide stretches of streams where the Cherokees had attempted to establish fish hatcheries (Finger, 1991). Agriculture remained toilsome and offered few rewards for the Indian laborer. In spite of these hardships, the Cherokee people attempted to protect the land that made up their identities. Despite these efforts, nothing seemed to hold as much promise for an economic boost to the Cherokees as the tourist. A groundswell of tourist interest in the Eastern Band of the Cherokees began in the early 1920s. Concerned that the Cherokee way of life was disappearing before most Americans became aware of its existence, prominent anthropologists published their works about these native people. It was predominantly the research

and the writings of Mooney and fellow anthropologist Olbrechts that provided an inside glimpse into the world of the native Americans who dwelt in the Blue Mountains. The beauty of the mountains and the mystery attached to the Eastern Cherokee prompted a flood of tourism interest. Dependable roads, however, were the biggest blocks to bringing the automobile tourist into the mountains. By l928, the road situation saw rapid improvement as sociologist Black attested: "The importance of the highways in practically every aspect of...life can scarcely be overestimated...rapid changes...more and more tourists were arriving by car, and local products such as Indian baskets have doubled in price in the last five years." (Finger, 1991, p 55). The age of the tourist brought new challenges to the Eastern Cherokee's community life. As the tourist age was ushered in, reports of Anthropologist Olbrechts and several of his colleagues indicated a concern that the Cherokee's traditional way of life was dying. Today, anthropologists wrestle with the same issues of determining whether culture observations indicate change, modification, or a dying tradition. The Cherokee that Olbrechts observed was becoming acculturated into white society.

It was the work of William Bradley from the University of Chicago that uncovered the gadugi, a major feature of Cherokee town life. The gadugi was a cooperative, developed and practiced among the Cherokees during the previous century, to provide economically for its members. The gadugi typically hired out its services and divided any profits among its members. In Big Cove and Snowbird Mountain areas, about one-fourth of the residents, including women, belonged. Other

town institutions included societies for conducting funerals and providing assistance to the poor, as well as ball teams that competed against those of other communities (Finger, 1991). Perhaps the best example of community on the reservation was the daily use of the Cherokee language in most households, although increasing numbers also could speak English as well.

While the federal government provided education for the mountain Indian children, school sites failed miserably. They were either staffed by unlearned teachers or the buildings provided little shelter from the elements. When a 1925 report of the Indian Agent disclosed his suggestions for closing the Snowbird Mountain school and sending the children to another reservation boarding school, the residents rebelled. Cherokee adults viewed the recommendation as an unwarranted disruption of Indian life, and, like their ancestor Tsali, did whatever was necessary to keep the children in their own community in the Snowbird Mountains (Finger, 1991).

The creation of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park guaranteed that tourism would become a vital force to the life of the Eastern Cherokee, who were seen as a "big drawing card" for the park (Finger, 1991, p. 98). From the park's beginnings, the founders perceived a need to attract tourists to the Cherokee reservation. In order to do so, Indian agents encouraged this promotion of the Cherokee in larger cities. A good example of such was a 1935 promotion parade in Asheville, North Carolina, led by a Cherokee Indian dressed in a Sioux warrior costume, and mounted on a beautiful horse (Finger, 1991). Thus the Hollywood approach to the Cherokee seemed to set the

precedent on how these Indians could attract the tourist trade, and with it, the tourist dollar. Throughout the 1930s Cherokee dancers performed a festivals, ballplayers traveled widely to demonstrate their abilities, and tribal beauty queens competed in regional pageants and contests. Other ongoing efforts aimed at marketing the Cherokees and their goods dealt with their arts and crafts. Promoters saw this as yet another way to reinforce a tribal distinctiveness which would attract more tourists (Finger, 1991).

During this time, Indian agents were trying to work out deals for leasing Cherokee commercial properties to white entrepreneurs. Further, agents attempted to organize a tribal crafts guild and to issue licenses to trade on the reservation for a fee (Finger, 1991). The leasing of commercial properties, though bothersome in its fine print, resulted in the opening of Cherokee's first motel in 1937. From there, motels sprang up along the roadsides of the reservation. During the Depression years, the number of tourist visiting the reservation soared. This boost to the tourist business brought needed economic assistance, but there were problems between the Indians and the government over the leasing arrangements. It seems some Cherokee Indians had "the strong feeling of ownership for their individual holdings...they do not view their lands as a temporary assignment (by the federal government) on which to live. They think of this land as do white people with deeds, as being theirs and that no one can take the land away from them" (Finger, 1991, p. 103). New agreements had to be worked out before the Cherokees would agree to outsiders using their land even for a designated length of time.

While the story of the Cherokee Indian is interesting, it also provides an exemplar for building a healthy community. Contemporary Americans live in a time where our very language is businesslike and institutionalized. Communication does not thrive in a world that always looks for the bottom line (Farkes, Friedman, and Bers, 1996). A healthy community, however, is one where discourse is encouraged among its members. While this kind of discourse may not be cost effective in the business world, it is the preferred way for community. A community where discourse is encouraged will be a community where its members build trust. One of the ways the Cherokee Indians of Western North Carolina built trust among their members was through face to face dialogue. They encouraged the active participation of both men and women in tribal meetings. They elected two chiefs-one for when the tribe was at peace and the other for when the tribe was at war- shows they were concerned with specialized discourse. Further, they privileged discussion as a means of decision-making. Anthropologist Mooney (1975) tells the story of Chief Junaluska's decision of refusing to engage in further battle with the Creeks. His announcement was make in the middle of a tribal dance. The chief knew this was a time when all the tribe would most certainly be together. His actions then were nothing out of the ordinary for these people. Discourse among chiefs and tribal elders was also very common in the history of the Cherokee (Smith, 1928).

Another component of healthy community is a communal self-image invoking change, such as a community that views itself as a dynamic place (Farkes, Friedman, & Bers, 1996). The community must be responsive to changing circumstances, needs, tastes, preferences, and beliefs of its people. A dynamic community is willing to change if change will benefit its people. Responsibility is shared. Problems are not defined as belonging to them; but rather, the them is us. There is a shared responsibility for one another. The changes the Eastern Cherokee had to go through in order to survive are a lasting testimonial to the strength of their community. When they were forced by the government to change their old ways, they adapted and remained a community. When the Eastern band was isolated from the Cherokee Nation in the West, the Cherokees of the Smokies adapted by doing what was necessary to survive and maintain their community. These people adapted to the influx of tourists onto their reservation. Though the Eastern Cherokee chose a different path to survival than that of the turn of the century when they were living on berries, their driving force was to maintain their way of life. Their current lifestyle is a testament to a tribe who has changed just enough to maintain their place in order to best meet the needs of their community members.

Another component of a healthy community manifest in the Eastern Cherokee clan is the expected involvement of its individuals and families in their tribal community. If the work was not done by the individual, the entire clan would suffer. Whether the Cherokee Indians are living on Big Cove, on Qualla Boundary, or on Snowbird Mountain, they do not follow the popular current trends of our society that thrives on making excuses. With our society, blame is placed on officials (e.g., law enforcement, teachers, politicians), but rarely on the individual (Mathews, D. 1994). No longer do our people share the same norms as to what actions are considered appropriate or inappropriate for behavior. We seem to have lost the code for unlocking the secrets to societal norms.

As a community, the Eastern Cherokee learned to depend upon themselves. Like Berry (1993), these people see the value of placing their future in their own hands. Currently, their use of gadugi, the cooperative system which was established in the 1800s, continues to distribute earnings among artisans. Historically, the Indians have learned, from repeated incidences, the danger of placing their trust in the hands of strangers. The last time the entire Cherokee people of the Smoky Mountains placed their trust in the U. S. government, they were given the Trail of Tears. They trusted in a friendship forged between their Chief Junaluska and President Jackson at the battle of Horseshoe Bend. Under the chief's leadership, the Cherokee had helped Jackson secure a mighty win. Years later, Jackson did not make good on his promises to the Cherokee.

He violated their trust. When Jackson failed Junaluska, the great Cherokee chief was quoted as saying "If I had known that Jackson would drive us from our homes, I would have killed him that day at the Horseshoe." (Mooney, 1975, p. 168). Chief Junaluska spoke these words while he was literally walking with his people on the Trail of Tears in 1838. According to legend, this chief later walked from Oklahoma back to his beloved Snowbird Mountains where he remained until his death (Finger, 1991). The story of Chief Junaluska provides a most appropriate illustration of the role of a community leader who, in a healthy community takes responsibility and displays integrity. By setting the example, the leader is then able to maintain the trust of his people and set a precedent from which others could follow. Chief Junaluska's body lies in the ground he loved, near the graves of those he loved dearly. Their children's children, still living in the Snowbird Mountains of Graham County, North Carolina, still tell their children his story and honor his grave today. Not only do these living Indians honor their dead, they also cherish those who can tell the stories of days long gone (Finger, 1991).

A healthy community instills in its members a sense of connectedness or belonging (Kretzmann & McKnight, 1993) One of the way the Eastern Cherokee create this sense of belonging and connectedness is through the passing down of stories and other artifacts (Trotter, 1997). The stories and the histories of these people from Qualla Boundary to Snowbird Mountain serve to attach the Eastern Cherokee to that place and to define who they are as a community. The stories further serve to help create a common destiny which is shared with others of the tribe (Trotter, 1997). In a recent business journal article (Archibald, 1996), neighborhoods and communities were described as totally forgotten because the places they had once occupied were now covered with people living in suburbs. Suburb dwellers were characterized as people who create few stories because the place in which they are living has been designed more for the automobile in mind than its people. In contrast, the stories of the Cherokee tell about the heritage of a group of people who have honored and pair dearly to occupy their place in the Smoky Mountains. In a recent telephone interview with Marjorie Trotter, a professional Eastern Cherokee storyteller, she revealed that artifacts are still being made in the ways of the ancients. As an example, she spoke of a friend in the Snowbird Mountains who continues to make pottery fashioned like that which dates back to the pre-Mississippian era. When asked to identify or give the use of the particular artifact she makes, this woman will quickly answer to both questions that she has no idea. There is a reason she readily gives for continuing to make these unidentifiable objects. She makes them and will continue to make them because her mother made them just like this, and her mother before her, etc....so too will this lady and her children's children after her (Trotter, 1997). Storytelling does not concern only the individual but also encompasses others as they are part of the weaving of the history (Archibald, 1996). This woman typifies the Cherokee efforts to preserve the connections that remain and to rebuild those traditions which have been lost (Trotter, 1997). Stories help to form the connection (Archibald, 1996).

Closely related to the stories which help create a connectedness within the community, there is a sharing of symbols among community members (North, 1990). The symbols of community are not necessarily obvious to the outsider. For instance, an outsider may think the song "Amazing Grace" would mean nothing to the Eastern Cherokee. The song, however, carries a deep history with these mountain Indians which dates back to the Trail of Tears. As the story goes, many of the Cherokee were so overwhelmed with the reality of what they were being forced to leave behind, moans and wails were all they could offer. In the midst of intense sadness, an old Cherokee man began the first few lines of "Amazing Grace". A sort of peace settled over the men, women, and children. Throughout that horrible ordeal along the trail, with the death of thousands, the singing of that song became a theme to these people. Consequently, the song "Amazing Grace", being sung by those Cherokees who were strong enough to make a noise, were the first sounds to greet the ears of those bystanders who were awaiting the arrival of this relocated Eastern Cherokee into Oklahoma (Trotter, 1997).

A symbolic song is only a part of the shared symbols among the Eastern Cherokee. Another is the way these people have attracted tourism to their reservation in the town of Cherokee. While, to the outsider, it may appear the Cherokee has traded in their heritage or lost it altogether, these people understand what it is to change surface things in order to maintain stability in the real and genuine underlying community (Trotter, 1997). At first glance into the souvenir shops of Cherokee, a tourist finds most items for sale not original to the Cherokee. After all, what do the souvenir shops, with their items made in Hong Kong, the caged bears, and the dancing chickens, have to do with Cherokee Indians?

These mountain Cherokee honor the place and the heritage of their community, while in contrast, tourists seem ignorant and uninformed. For example, most tourists would designate downtown as the area with souvenir shops; the Cherokee call this area Japanese Cherokee (Trotter, 1997). The Cherokee tribal members’ claim is generally within five minutes from that downtown area designated by shops. Those five minutes, however, mean a world of difference to these Cherokee, for it is here where one could see the real Cherokee community as being alive, active, and surviving quite well. The Big Cove and Snowbird Mountain areas are called lovingly called dinosaur land, because of the heritage of these people's reluctance to change (Trotter, 1997). Yet another shared symbol of this community is the renewed interest among its people to rediscover the Cherokee language. When anthropologist Mooney (1975) wrote of his work among the Eastern Cherokee, he identified the language as one of the last vestiges of heritage left these Indians. He predicted it would be extinct before the new decade, but time has proven Mooney wrong. Before any contemporary Cherokee youth is allowed to graduate from their high school, they must first be able to speak their Cherokee language (Trotter, 1997).

As a means of summary, a functional community values face to face discourse and trust. Its leaders set an example by having integrity and taking responsibility for his/her actions. The community as a whole expects participation from its individuals and families. The community is dynamic, rather than static. It encourages a sense of belonging and commitment. The community also displays a sense of direction and maintain shared symbols. A healthy community is tied to and has respect for place.

As Wendell Berry (1997) stated: "...I want to live in a good place, and I know that people can't live in good places unless they know where they are and pay the closest, kindest attention to what they do there" (P. 912). The Eastern Cherokee of Western North Carolina has attempted to do just this. Theirs is the story of a people who understood the value of the land they felt they had been given by divine authority. They felt it their duty to defend this place even if it demanded their blood to do so. Their example of commitment adds yet another piece to this ongoing project of building community through communication. The place and the call was bigger than the individual desire. Should there be any doubt as to whether or not this process of community has worked for these people, ask any Eastern Cherokee Indian to tell you where they live. That individual may respond by stating an address in New York City or in Goodlettesville, Tennessee. The difference arises, however, when one asks that Eastern Cherokee: AWhere is home?@. No doubt the response will be: ACherokee, North Carolina (Trotter, 1997).

References

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Kretzmann, J., and McKnight, J. (1993). Building communities from the inside out. Neighborhood innovations symposium, University of Illinois.

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Trotter, Marjorie. (1997, December 04). Telephone interview.