Memories of Johnson Catolster and the Cherokee little people
I woke up this morning with the echo of Johnson Catolster’ gentle laughter in my head. I had been dreaming that I was riding through the Great Smoky Mountains Park with Johnson, and as we came down U.S. 441 past the Smokemont Campground exit, he had suddenly stopped his old truck and pointed. “There!” he said, “See that clump of little cedars near the road? Well, he was standing right there, looking left and right like you do before you cross the road, and I stopped right here.”
Archeologist to visit proposed quarry site
By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer
Tuckasegee residents are hoping that the proximity of an ancient Cherokee village to the site of a proposed rock quarry will help coax state officials not to issue a permit to the quarry’s operators.
Scene changes: Revised ‘Unto These Hills’ garners bigger audiences and mixed reviews
By Michael Beadle
Ticket sales and attendance were both up this season for Cherokee’s long-running outdoor drama “Unto These Hills,” which saw major changes to its cast, crew and storyline.
The retooled production also found its share of detractors, who liked the old show better, according to James Bradley, executive director of the Cherokee Historical Association, which oversees the show.
Rutherford Trace: Local historians examine the legacy of a shock-and-awe Revolutionary War campaign against the Cherokee
By Michael Beadle
To some, it was a crucial military campaign early in the Revolutionary War, an unprecedented patriot force that crushed a potential British ally and paved the way for American independence and inevitable white settlements in Western North Carolina.
From military campaign to political campaign
If politics makes strange bedfellows, then surely Rutherford Trace offers some curious pillow talk in the legislative halls of Raleigh and Washington, D.C.
Duke says project does not extend to tribal land
Duke Power discounted accusations last week that a portion of the hydropower operation on the Oconaluftee River extends onto tribal land belonging to the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.
Duke could owe tribe Oconaluftee dam profits
The Bureau of Indian Affairs is questioning whether Duke Power concealed the boundary of its hydropower operation on the Oconaluftee River to avoid sharing a portion of its profits with the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.
On Sacred Ground
By Michael Beadle
Nearly two centuries have passed since the last time Cherokees held a council meeting on the sacred ground of Kituwah, the tribe’s revered Mother Town.
The Second Act: ‘Unto These Hills’ opens with a new look that aims to draw big crowds and give a more authentic account of Cherokee history and culture
By Michael Beadle
It’s a story 10,000 years in the making. And now Cherokees and Native Americans from all over the United States will tell it.
When “Unto These Hills” opens June 8 for its latest outdoor season, audiences will find a whole new show — a new script, new cast, new stage, new Surround Sound speakers, new costumes and outfits, new songs and dances, and a new kind of energy that the drama’s management says has been missing for years.
Telling a better story
By Michael Beadle
There’s a heavy heat inside Mountainside Theatre’s rehearsal studio even with fans blowing and the lights turned off. The dancers, sweaty but still smiling, have been practicing all afternoon, fine-tuning the finale for “Unto These Hills.”
