I’ve always liked Cherokee, NC, probably because I first saw it as a child. A kid just can’t resist the wiles of Cherokee – real Indians, teepees, totem poles, live bears, souvenir shops. In the days before Disney World and video games, it was everything that a kid could possibly want. But like most of our illusions of youth, the charm of Cherokee gets a bit tarnished as the years go by. We learn that those real Indians are wearing eagle feather war bonnets that were part of the Plains tribes, not the Cherokee. Ditto the teepees. Totem poles? The Kwakiutl and Haida tribes of the north Pacific coast. The souvenirs? Mostly cheap trinkets, some of which are made in China.
On the other hand, I guess you’ve gotta make a living. Very few of us have ideal jobs that have no gray areas, and in a sense, what makes something “authentically Cherokee” anyway? If the Eastern Band of the Cherokee builds a casino or a McDonalds or low-cost apartments, I suppose that’s authentic Cherokee. Traditional Cherokee? No. Authentic? Yeah, sort of. It’s Cherokee people who are doing it, so that makes it authentic, right?
But there are some things in Cherokee that I just can’t bear. For example, in 1828 something happened that guaranteed the Cherokee people would lose their remaining shreds of land and would be sent west. Gold was discovered on Cherokee land in the mountains of North Georgia. So when I see a gold mine for tourists (“Pan for gold! Strike it rich!”) on the main road of Cherokee with a picture of a white prospector panning for gold, I can’t bear to look. Why hasn’t that place been struck by lightning? And why do the Cherokee people put up with it?
Just a moment of thought about human nature, history, economics, and tradition provides a quick answer. From the very beginning of white contact with the natives – both east and west – the tribe would divide into two groups. One faction wanted nothing to do with the whites. These people would usually just ignore the whites, or move further west, or eventually fight. The other faction was enticed by the products of European civilization – knives, guns, cloth, beads, alcohol. These were the ones who eventually sided with the whites because it was obvious that the whites were powerful and numerous and would ultimately win the war. The Sioux called these people “those who hang around the fort.” They became collaborators with the invaders. Or maybe they were just wise and pragmatic, choosing to go with the flow of the inevitable.
The same thing still happens today on most Indian reservations, including the Qualla (Cherokee) Reservation. There are those who are willing to pander to the stereotypes and dollars of tourists. Why? Because you gotta do what you gotta do. And one of the things you “gotta do” is make a living, in this case by serving the tourists. And it works. You can make a decent living from the tourist dollar in the town of Cherokee, but a traditional Cherokee might call these kinsmen “those who hang around the town.”
But there is undoubtedly the other group, a group which probably gets a little smaller every year as the youngest generation is enticed by money, video games, Hollywood, MTV, and that whole wasteland we call American popular culture. The traditional group doesn’t like the tourist town and what it has become and what it portrays. Maybe they don’t like the traffic. Maybe they don’t like the teepees and totem poles. Maybe they are still mad about the Trail of Tears the way some Southerners are still mad about the burning of Atlanta. They just want to be left alone, so they live away from town in the rural parts of the reservation. You probably don’t see these folks in town, except at the grocery or hardware store.
So, if you want to see traditional, authentic Cherokee people, untainted by tourism and pop culture, the museum might be helpful, or get away from the Casino and shops and spend some time at a small grocery store or hardware store on the edge of town. Just watch and listen. In that respect, the reservation is no different than any other county. If you want to see the heart and soul of a place, go to those living museums where average people buy their necessities: grocery stores, co-ops, hardware stores, gas stations. In spite of our historical and cultural differences, there are still a few things that we all have in common.
On the other hand, I guess you’ve gotta make a living. Very few of us have ideal jobs that have no gray areas, and in a sense, what makes something “authentically Cherokee” anyway? If the Eastern Band of the Cherokee builds a casino or a McDonalds or low-cost apartments, I suppose that’s authentic Cherokee. Traditional Cherokee? No. Authentic? Yeah, sort of. It’s Cherokee people who are doing it, so that makes it authentic, right?
But there are some things in Cherokee that I just can’t bear. For example, in 1828 something happened that guaranteed the Cherokee people would lose their remaining shreds of land and would be sent west. Gold was discovered on Cherokee land in the mountains of North Georgia. So when I see a gold mine for tourists (“Pan for gold! Strike it rich!”) on the main road of Cherokee with a picture of a white prospector panning for gold, I can’t bear to look. Why hasn’t that place been struck by lightning? And why do the Cherokee people put up with it?
Just a moment of thought about human nature, history, economics, and tradition provides a quick answer. From the very beginning of white contact with the natives – both east and west – the tribe would divide into two groups. One faction wanted nothing to do with the whites. These people would usually just ignore the whites, or move further west, or eventually fight. The other faction was enticed by the products of European civilization – knives, guns, cloth, beads, alcohol. These were the ones who eventually sided with the whites because it was obvious that the whites were powerful and numerous and would ultimately win the war. The Sioux called these people “those who hang around the fort.” They became collaborators with the invaders. Or maybe they were just wise and pragmatic, choosing to go with the flow of the inevitable.
The same thing still happens today on most Indian reservations, including the Qualla (Cherokee) Reservation. There are those who are willing to pander to the stereotypes and dollars of tourists. Why? Because you gotta do what you gotta do. And one of the things you “gotta do” is make a living, in this case by serving the tourists. And it works. You can make a decent living from the tourist dollar in the town of Cherokee, but a traditional Cherokee might call these kinsmen “those who hang around the town.”
But there is undoubtedly the other group, a group which probably gets a little smaller every year as the youngest generation is enticed by money, video games, Hollywood, MTV, and that whole wasteland we call American popular culture. The traditional group doesn’t like the tourist town and what it has become and what it portrays. Maybe they don’t like the traffic. Maybe they don’t like the teepees and totem poles. Maybe they are still mad about the Trail of Tears the way some Southerners are still mad about the burning of Atlanta. They just want to be left alone, so they live away from town in the rural parts of the reservation. You probably don’t see these folks in town, except at the grocery or hardware store.
So, if you want to see traditional, authentic Cherokee people, untainted by tourism and pop culture, the museum might be helpful, or get away from the Casino and shops and spend some time at a small grocery store or hardware store on the edge of town. Just watch and listen. In that respect, the reservation is no different than any other county. If you want to see the heart and soul of a place, go to those living museums where average people buy their necessities: grocery stores, co-ops, hardware stores, gas stations. In spite of our historical and cultural differences, there are still a few things that we all have in common.
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