On April 6, 2012, I went with my American Indian Literature class to the Qualla Boundary or the Cherokee Indian Reservation in North Carolina. While there we visited the Museum of the Cherokee Indian, the Kituwah Mound, and the Casino. Each of these places represented history, spirituality, and survival. Representation of all of these things in the museum is not easy, for the Cherokee have such a long history. Without a written language until Sequoyah created a writing system in 1821, much has been lost, but the Indians have found a way to record their history and their culture. Much is found in the museum.

            The museum begins at the beginning. We are led into a small room with bench seats and three screens in the front. This introductory film tells story of how the Earth was created. The story has been passed from generation to generation. The art of oral storytelling was very important to the Cherokee, for earlier, they didn’t have a written language to record their history. Accounts were passed through storytelling.

The lights were dimmed and the film began. Several members of the Cherokee tribe talked about how important oral language is to their history. The myth of creation was displayed on the screen in the form of digital cartoon, and soft white lights lit up at our feet and displayed specked shapes around the room. The next myth was how the first flute was made. Music was added to the surround sound system, and it stayed with us as we walked through the museum and looked at the displays. After we received instructions to walk through the open doors at the rear of the room, we stepped into the display area.

The lighting was very soft in order to highlight the displays behind Plexiglas on the walls and in clear cases on the floor. Still soft lighting was used to highlight the cases as well. I was a little disappointed in the lack of lighting. One had to get up really close to see details, but even then, sometimes that wasn’t even enough. The mood was warm, and the lights invited one to stay and linger a while. The flute played gently and was very calming. Those things were both a plus, but it still hard to see.

The first displays were at the beginning of time, or for as far back as archeologists have found evidence of human existence by excavation and carbon dating. In the display cases were spearheads dating back to the Paleo period (before 8,000 BC). These were from hunters living in the southern Appalachians. The spearheads are lined up neatly, but the directional chart at the bottom was hard to read, for it was close to the ground and was typed in small letters. The elderly would have a hard time ciphering the chart’s meaning.

Beautiful murals were painted on the walls. Some brightly depicted daily life in a Cherokee
camp. One display held Sequoyah’s symbols for the Cherokee language. It would light up and a
recorded voice would say the sound.

Another massive mural showed how one fall turned into a harsh winter on the journey to the Oklahoma territory. The mural came out of the wall with snow covered stone fences and wagons. The wall painting of the Trail of Tears was heart breaking. One display held a gorgeous turkey feather mantle for a ritual dance. Again the low lighting made it hard to see the details of the cape, but I understand that lighting had to be low in order to preserve the artifacts.

Wax figures stood in welcoming poses against the harsh stance of the English. Tension from over 200 years ago still hung in the room. Other wax figures wore traditional Cherokee dress, and wall plaques told of their meaning. There were lots of wall signs in which one could read about this and that, so many in fact; it was hard to read them all. I believe that I would have enjoyed a personal tour of the museum with a guide to tell me about important events in Cherokee history and to tell me how they used to live. That may have given a more homely feel to match the warm lights.

There was so much information that I will have to revisit and spend more time. Going with a class and having an agenda with other things to accomplish that day, one has to follow the crowd. These people are proud. I even met the man who was the model of a statue that stood in the middle of one of the rooms. His name was Jerry Wolf, and he autographed a pamphlet for me. The man was happy to share his time and his culture, and welcomed me to come back.