Date/Time
Date(s) – May 11 2019
12:00 pm – 12:30 pm
Chieftains Museum/Major Ridge Home is proud to partner with Cherokee High School in North Carolina and Appalachian State University to bring students from the Gadugi Scholars Program for a corn planting ceremony at 12pm on May 11th on the museum campus.
Chieftains is partnering with Dr. Allen Bryant, Associate Professor in the College of Education at Appalachian State University to bring Cherokee culture to our community for this event. Dr. Bryant facilitates a partnership with Cherokee Central Schools to encourage American Indian students on the Qualla Boundary in North Carolina to pursue the field of education, a great need in the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. Dr. Bryant will bring several of his Cherokee high school students to northwest Georgia to learn more about their history and promote their culture in our region.
While in Georgia, the Gadugi Scholars will conduct a program titled, “But One Summer More: Remembrance and Resistance Selu Planting Ceremony” at Chieftains Museum. This program is a response to a circular dispatched by General John E. Wool in March 1837 that stated, “Your fate is decided. The President, as well as Congress have decreed that you should remove from this country. The people of Georgia, of North Carolina, of Tennessee, and of Alabama have decreed it. Remember that you have but one summer more to plant corn in this country.”
Gadugi Scholars were asked to write a response to General Wool’s statement, one of which will be part of the ceremony at Chieftains on May 11th. Other parts of the program include a discussion of remembrance and resistance by Dr. Allen Bryant, a song in Cherokee by Taran Swimmer, the great granddaughter of Cherokee Beloved Woman Amanda Swimmer, and a prayer before the Cherokee students plant corn in the Three Sisters Garden at the museum in memory of those Cherokee who were victims of Removal and as a defiant reminder that they are still here.
This event on the Chieftains campus is free and open to the public and is one of the many programs sponsored by the museum to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Major Ridge coming to the house that is Chieftains Museum today. Regular admission fees to the museum will apply the day of the ceremony.
For more information about this event, or to become a member of Chieftains Museum, visit www.chieftainsmuseum.org or call (706) 291-9494.
