In Focus

Fall 2022

In Focus: In partnership with The 400 Years Project, a local photographer showcases contemporary Cherokee artists and their work

WRITER:

MaryKent Wolff

PHOTOGRAPHER:

Madison Hye Long

A hat decorated by Eastern Cherokee bead artist, Jen Bird. Qualla Boundary, North Carolina.

Pucker toe moccasins made by Eastern Cherokee descendent artist, Evan Mathis. Whittier, North Carolina.

Bead artist Jen Bird admires the scenery from her front porch; Bird is Eastern Cherokee and resides in the Qualla Boundary.

Bird applies the pellon to The Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians 2021 Miss Cherokee crown.

John Henry Gloyne (Eastern Cherokee, Pawnee, Osage) completes "The Process of Weeding Out" (above) in his Asheville studio.

John Henry Gloyne hugs his son, Elmwood.

The game of "A-Ni-Tso-Di," coined "Stickball" is a sport with a rich cultural tradition. Woodworker Monk Walkingstick (Eastern Cherokee) crafts the equipment and places it high in the treetops to signify its sacred nature.

Using Butternut wood, Walkingstick finishes another project.

Wooden carvings depict the Seven Clans of the Cherokee in the midst of a ceremony. A claim to clanship is determined through the mother, and members of the same clan are considered brother and sister.

By using a pottery stamp, Eastern Cherokee potter Sarah Thompson creates a unique circular pattern across one-of-a-kind pottery. Here, Thompson is working in the Museum of the Cherokee Indian. The museum's mission is "to preserve and perpetuate the history, culture, and stories of the Cherokee people."

Fingerweaving is a traditional method of creating woven fabrics using special techniques passed down from weaver to weaver. Artist Nola Teesatuskie handweaves chevron patterned belts and garters on her porch.

Meet Michelle Long (Eastern Cherokee). Long sits outside her home in the Qualla Boundary working on a new clay sculpture.

PHOTOGRAPHER:

Madison Hye Long

The history of the United States is not congruent with the stories often told and taught around Thanksgiving. Tales of European discovery and peaceful settlement erase the treatment of Native Americans during colonization. Western North Carolina is no exception. These beautiful blue hills were not found by settlers searching for a new home. They were already home to many.

Today, the mountains remain the residence of the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians (EBCI). 57,000 acres make up the Qualla Boundary—a land trust, not a reservation—held by the tribe after purchase in the 1870s. Here, artisans still work to produce crafts of many kinds: intricate beadwork, pottery shaped from soft clay, hand-sculpted moccasins, wood carvings, and hand-woven designs.

Photographer Madison Hye Long, alongside her editor, spent two months capturing moments of artists diligently tending to their craft.

“It was just so humbling. Seeing these talented artists in their element and how gracefully they can carry on our culture in such a contemporary way,” says Long, who was born and raised in the Painttown community on the Qualla Boundary. She now lives in Maggie Valley, “for the time being.”

Long has been interested in photography for most of her life, ever since her parents would provide disposable cameras for trips and excursions. That passion can be observed in her work, which ranges from portraits to landscapes and much in between. Treks on the parkway beneath an inky, star-studded sky or time spent in the splash of a rushing waterfall are moments of opportunity to capture a perfectly unique image.

“I, as a child, would snap shots of things that I found interesting or odd,” says Long. “Our house always had shoe boxes full of pictures and I remember spending hours looking at these photos, realizing the amount of weight and meaning a single print could have.”

Long’s photos of Cherokee artisans carrying on culture and tradition was created in partnership with The 400 Years Project. Since 2020, The 400 Years Project has been showcasing the work of Native American photographers via online collections. It is a means of combating erasure, sharing stories, and documenting communities and identities. It is also a network of artists, providing a forum to communicate and learn through one another’s art and practice.

“I wanted my viewers to see what true Native American identity is,” says Long, “cutting out the stereotypes and misconceptions.”

History in Focus

Photo essays like Long’s “Contemporary Artists Defining Cherokee Culture,” as well as texts, lectures and conversations, and a Library of Native American photographers are all part of the narrative being composed by The 400 Years Project. Exactly four centuries after the Mayflower brought colonizing Europeans to the shores of what is now the United States—four centuries after genocide and disease decimated populations of indigenous people across the nation—the photography collective is growing an archive of identity, art, nature, storytelling, and culture. The lasting impact? “A wide understanding that cameras have been in the hands of Native photographers since the invention of the medium and Native people have incorporated photography into their lifeways since the 1800s, both as patrons and creators,” says Sarah Stacke, a photographer and founder of the project alongside Brian Adams and, formerly, Sheena Brings Plenty.

To learn more and to see the digital archive’s stories, visit 400yearsproject.org

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