A first-of-its-kind exhibition centering Native voices, perspectives and creativity in response to the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States, the exhibition “Unrelenting: Cherokee People and the American Revolution” is currently being showcased at the Museum of the Cherokee People (MotCP) in Cherokee. 

The first “Conversations with Storytellers” of the 2026 season with Chris Aluka Berry will be held at 6 p.m. Thursday, April 9, at the Pigeon Community Multicultural Development Center in Waynesville.

Berry has worked in the South as an award-winning documentary photographer for more than 20 years, with his images appearing in major American and international publications. 

Western Carolina University is currently hosting the Master of Fine Art Thesis Exhibition at the Fine Art Museum on campus in Cullowhee.

Experience the culmination of three years of intense creative study and exploration in this exhibition highlighting artwork from graduating MFA students in the WCU School of Art and Design. 

Knots can mean the difference between success and struggle in the great outdoors.

A hands-on class will dive into the essential knots every adventurer should know — whether securing gear, building a shelter or handling unexpected challenges in the wild. 

For fiscal year 2026-2027, Haywood County Schools is requesting an additional $3 million in annual county funding. 

The ask is driven by several overlapping needs — offsetting state and federal cuts, avoiding fund balance appropriations, covering a $400,000 increase in annual operating costs, financing salary raises and supporting continued program needs — all while facing a budget shortfall between $700,000 and $740,000. 

The question of who will control one of Jackson County’s most visible public assets is beginning to draw clear lines, and on March 26, Sylva’s Board of Commissioners stepped firmly onto one side. 

In a unanimous vote, commissioners adopted a resolution supporting continued control of the Jackson County Library Complex by the Jackson County Public Library, signaling opposition to any effort that would shift authority elsewhere. 

Brian Byrd, Western Carolina University’s professor of environmental health sciences and resident “skeeter man,” was awarded the 2026 University of North Carolina System Board of Governors Award for Excellence in Teaching. 

Byrd has been with WCU since 2008 and has taught thousands of Catamounts over his tenure. His most recent courses include “Epidemiological Methods,” “Vector-borne Disease Control,” “First Year Seminar” and “Global Health.” 

The Fontana Regional Library has held part of Tracy Fitzmaurice’s heart for over half of her life, and now she must consider what to do without it.

Fitzmaurice, 60, first came to the region during a March 1985 vacation. While in the region, she visited Western Carolina University. After returning home to England, she applied to attend college in the place that instantly captured her heart, and in August 1985, she made the move. 

They may be coming for just the signs, but the message is clear: let’s rewrite history while ignoring science. The disappointments of this administration just never stop piling up. 

A leaked memo from the Department of the Interior contained a list of markers and educational signage at national parks that this administration may have a problem with.

To the Editor:

The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. There has been a coordinated plan by people such as those in the Heritage Foundation to dumb down regular people in the USA since the Reagan era. Alvin Toffler even said in his book, “The Third Wave,” that industrial era schools were designed to teach students to be obedient, on time and do rote repetitive work.