Eastern Band Research Articles

Sitting on the Watcher’s Stage: Networks of Kinship and Sovereignty Among the Corn Rows

Abstract: In the decades following the Civil War, hundreds of Cherokees living East of the Mississippi River were compelled to emigrate west. Post-war poverty, loss of land, and political struggles threatened the survival of Eastern Cherokee communities. Having received an invitation from the Cherokee Nation to be accepted as tribal citizens, many turned away from their eastern homelands after avoiding Removal and outlasting decades of pressures to emigrate. Though the Trail of Tears of 1838–39 is generally understood as the history of Cherokee Removal, this study draws from scholarship on the Long Removal Era to problematize the typical narrative. This postwar emigration phenomenon was a definitive challenge which shaped the newfound Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. Contrary to typical characterizations, their survival in the east was not a foregone conclusion, instead facing its gravest challenges in the Civil War era. A power vacuum resulted in divisive factionalism, with rival councils from Qualla and Cheoah competing for legitimacy. The emigration of leading Cheoah politicians signaled their defeat, galvanizing and consolidating the Eastern Band. This article offers a social history of this emigration process, investigating the phenomenon through memoirs and oral histories, tribal council minutes, and petitions and correspondence to Washington. Following the paper trail of emigrants, the study incorporates federal records alongside archival records from North Carolina, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. Interrogating the overlap of the Long Removal era and Long Civil War era, the study offers a new history of the Eastern Band in its harrowing formative years.

Inventory and quantitative assessment of Devonian geosites in the Azrou-Khenifra Basin (eastern band of the Central Hercynian Massif, Morocco)

The Devonian outcrops of the Azrou-Khenifra Basin are located in the eastern band of the Moroccan Central Massif. They are characterized by a high geodiversity since they show sedimentary, stratigraphic, paleontological, tectonic and geomorphological aspects. Those outcrops allow the understanding of the evolution and geodynamic of the area during the Devonian. This proves their relevant in term of scientific value. In addition, they also have educational and touristic interests. The objectives of this work are making the inventory and quantitative assessment as well as the mapping of nine Devonian geosites. To approach the topic, the method proposed by Brilha (2016) have been used which based on qualitative and quantitative criteria. The results show that the geosite Famennian zebra griottes limestones of Ziyar has the highest scientific value (345) while the others are characterized by scientific, educational and tourist values ranging from moderate to high. Regarding the degradation risk, the geosites have a low value. This work could be considered as the base of any geoconservation strategy and geotourism action plan in the area since it focused on the two first steps of it. This may help improve the sustainable development through the establishment of geopark consequently and enhance economical level of people living the Azrou-Khenifra area.

Casino-based cash transfers and fertility among the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians in North Carolina: A time-series analysis

Fertility decline remains a key concern among high-income countries. Prior research indicates that income supplementation through unconditional cash transfers (UCT) may correspond with increased fertility. We examine whether a casino-based UCT, in the form of per capita (percap) payments to members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) corresponds with an acute increase in fertility. We use North Carolina vital statistics datasets from 1990 to 2006 and apply time-series analysis methods to examine the relation between specific months of percap payments (exposure) and monthly number of conceptions that result in live births (outcome) among the EBCI. We control for autocorrelation and monthly counts of births (arrayed by conception cohorts) among white women (ineligible for UCT receipt) in the study region. Results indicate an increase in conceptions that result in live births at 1 and 3 months after percap receipt among EBCI women aged ≥20 years (exposure month lag 1 coefficient = 1.74, p = 0.03; exposure month lag 3 coefficient = 1.60, p = 0.04). Exploratory analyses indicate that the observed fertility increase concentrates among primiparae EBCI women. We do not find any association between percap payment timing and births to EBCI women aged <20 years.

A Sun that Never Sets: Eastern Cherokee Tattoo Artist John Henry Gloyne and the Aesthetics of Reimagining

Abstract: This article examines a selection of work by contemporary tattoo artist John Henry Gloyne (Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians) to understand how tattooing functions as an Indigenous creative practice that can imagine alternative realities and reestablish connections to Native pasts and presents. Gloyne's work redefines contemporary Native tattooing by highlighting its continuing significance and artistic innovations in the present. In doing so, Gloyne's work challenges the settler notion that Native cultural practices are static and stuck in the past. The authors' analysis includes Gloyne's reinvention of Cherokee symbols (water spider and Booger mask tattoos), early/mid-twentieth-century Americana tattoo flash, and his tattoo-inspired painting Sacred Realms: Tobacco Offerings to the Picture Machine . Honma and Francoso employ an analytic of "reimagining" to investigate how Gloyne's work embraces an ethos of experimentation and innovation that moves beyond settler frameworks of comprehension. In order to understand how he challenges various modes of representation and ways of looking that normalize the settler project, they historicize the symbols and motifs found in Gloyne's work. They incorporate interdisciplinary methods of visual analysis, historical recontextualization, and interview data to center Gloyne's unique aesthetic approach, which foregrounds renewed ways of envisioning and embodying Indigenous worlds.

Abstract C112: Understanding and addressing cancer disparities among American Indians in North Carolina: The Southeastern cancer health equity partnership

Abstract North Carolina (NC) is home to the largest American Indian population in the Eastern United States (approximately 300,000 residents, about 2.8% of the total NC population), represented by eight state and federally recognized tribes (Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, Sappony, Occaneechi Band of Saponi Nation, Meherrin, Haliwa Saponi, Coharie, Lumbee, Waccamaw Siouan) and four urban Indian organizations (Metrolina Native American Association, Guilford Native American Association, Triangle Native American Society, Cumberland County Association for Indian People). This population experiences significant health disparities largely related to adverse social determinants of health and limited access to health care. With regards to cancer, disparities exist for incidence and mortality for certain cancer, although there are limited data available with regards to cancer screening stage at diagnosis, treatment and survivorship. Furthermore, evidence suggests that racial misclassification contributes to a significant underestimation of the true cancer incidence and mortality in this population. To address the cancer care needs of NC American Indians, a unique collaboration was established in 2021 among the leadership of the Community Outreach and Engagement programs at the three NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers in North Carolina (Duke Cancer Institute, University of North Carolina Lineberger Cancer Center, Wake Forest Baptist Comprehensive Cancer Center). The collaboration, entitled, The Southeastern American Indian Cancer Health Equity Partnership (SAICEP), has as its mission to "understand and address the cancer-related health needs of American Indian communities in our catchment areas and beyond." SAICEP includes: (1) a quarterly speakers' series, featuring nationally recognized experts in the area of American Indian cancer research and care; (2) educational outreach and engagement activities at tribal and state cultural events; and, (3) cutting-edge culturally respectful research to understand and address cancer disparities at the tribal and state level. Partnerships have been established with tribal leaders across the state as well as researchers at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke in the traditional homeland of the Lumbee tribe (the largest tribe in the state). Future endeavors will include partnerships with tribes in other states in our catchment areas (Virginia, South Carolina). Citation Format: Ronny A. Bell, Tomi Akinyemiju, Stephanie B. Wheeler. Understanding and addressing cancer disparities among American Indians in North Carolina: The Southeastern cancer health equity partnership [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 15th AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2022 Sep 16-19; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2022;31(1 Suppl):Abstract nr C112.

Doing research together: wasdi ( Allium tricoccum ) plants guide dynamic research collaborations in Cherokee landscapes

Research on harvesting culturally significant food plants can contribute to Indigenous food sovereignty. Relationships drive the process of research, which can affect research methodologies and outcomes. Promoting inclusion and equity in research relationships is necessary to reduce power hierarchies that often position conventional sciences above Indigenous knowledge systems. This paper employs a reflexive lens to consider important dynamics of an ongoing research collaboration between the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, federal agencies, and academic partners focused on the Cherokee food plant ᎤᏩᏍᏗᎭ [transliterated as <em>uwasdiha</em> or <em>wasdi</em> and also recognized as ramps or <em>Allium tricoccum</em>]. An aim of our paper is to contribute to our collective understandings of Indigenous research methodologies (IRM) and collaborative research. Through iterative, place-based conversations and thematic analysis we identify and discuss our process engaging in trust building and relationality as co-authors. Key themes emerging from our work include the importance of (1) developing relationships when conducting collaborative research across multiple knowledge systems and (2) Indigenous food narratives that center traditional foods in research and relationships.

Indigenous Storytelling, Cherokee Traditional Ecological Knowledge, and Place-Based Education

Indigenous storytelling is a transaction between narrators and audiences that can be expressed through Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK). TEK narratives, such as those of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI), can demonstrate ecological literacy by empowering audiences to co-create their engagement with the local environment of that Indigenous society and its TEK. Place-based education integrates such experiential relationships with ecological systems into progressive learning and holistic well-being. TEK stories can describe how those interactions promote inclusive sustainability with local places prioritized by place-based education. To date, no known research has investigated the integration of Cherokee TEK narratives with place-based curricula for middle school students. This study explored middle school student’s interpretations of a collaborative experience that integrated place-based education, EBCI TEK narratives, and the local environment. As participants reflected on their experience, three major themes emerged through narrative inquiry analysis: cultural literacy, well-being, and respecting nature.

Managing forests for culturally significant plants in traditional Cherokee homelands: emerging platforms

The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI), and the USDA Forest Service are engaged in integrated research and action to manage forests for culturally significant plants within portions of traditional Cherokee homelands. The effort seeks to support EBCI arts, food sovereignty, and cultural practices while promoting coordinated forest stewardship guided by Cherokee knowledge. The focus area includes the Qualla Boundary (EBCI tribal lands); the Pisgah, Nantahala, and Cherokee National Forests; and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Examination of synergistic efforts to date suggests an emerging platform for access, sustainable harvesting and improved ecological conditions. Here, a platform is conceived of as long-term institutionalized collaboration across policies, practices, and governance at different scales. Building on approaches to adaptive collaborative management with Indigenous peoples at the landscape level indicates that key features of platform building in this context include responding to Indigenous priorities, fostering cross-boundary relationships, community engagement, and co-producing knowledge.

Sovereign Entrepreneurs: Cherokee Small-Business Owners and the Making of Economic Sovereignty

Focusing on the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) and their homeland, the Qualla Boundary in North Carolina, Courtney Lewis’s Sovereign Entrepreneurs addresses a striking lack of ethnographic research on Native American small-business owners. More importantly, this monograph responds to prior scholarship that has overwhelmingly associated economic sovereignty and self-determination with large operations overseen by tribal governments, especially casino gaming. Lewis persuasively argues that small businesses play a crucial role in mitigating Indigenous economic precarity by lessening tribal governments’ administrative burdens and fostering economic diversification that has combatted the effects of a single-industry (tourism) market and allowed the EBCI to brave the economic downturn of the Great Recession.Lewis’s in-depth coverage of issues relating to Eastern Band entrepreneurs is the product of months of participant observation research among business owners, government officials, and classmates in an “Indianpreneurship” course; personal experience as a Cherokee small-business owner; and familiarity with comparative cases of Indigenous entrepreneurship. Her analysis at times surpasses the promises of her introduction. For example, though she contrasts her understanding of economic sovereignty with Kevin Bruyneel’s idea of a “third space” of sovereignty (13), much of her evidence speaks brilliantly to this concept. She highlights how land trusteeship and blood-quantum reckoning of citizenship devised to facilitate Native assimilation ultimately serve Eastern Band economic and cultural sovereignty by protecting national assets from outsiders and underwriting the cultural capital of Native space, even as the former forces some Cherokees off the Boundary in search of property, and the latter prevents children of exogamous marriages from inheriting businesses.Despite such nuanced analysis, Lewis could have engaged more deeply with the implications of the capitalist nature of entrepreneurship. In her first chapter, while acknowledging that Eastern Band entrepreneurs have often worked to redistribute wealth and support their community, she echoes Philip Deloria, Daniel Usner, and Alexandra Harmon in noting how Native small-business owners defy settler colonial myths that cast Indians as inauthentic for engaging with capitalism, accumulating wealth, or failing to conform to business models of “social entrepreneurship” (24). For the remainder of the study, though, she implicitly equates Native entrepreneurship with social entrepreneurship, as though all small-business owners have contributed equally to the politics of sovereignty regardless of their relative prioritization of profit.Ultimately, though unquestionably valuable for students of history, anthropology, and Native studies for demonstrating that tribal governments and casinos are not the be-all and end-all of modern sovereignty struggles, this book’s interpretive contribution is additive rather than transformative. Lewis provocatively calls into question the celebration of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act by such scholars as W. Dale Mason and Laurie Arnold by pointing out how the 1988 law leaves Native nations beholden to state governments and restricts the spending of gaming profits, and she points out many unique advantages of small businesses: economic diversification, support for casinos and the tourism sector, multiplier effects, community wealth creation, augmentation of the tribal tax base, retention of Indigenous expertise, and the psychological effects of Native success in business. Many of these benefits, though, are dependent on tribal government support, including loans (significant because trust lands cannot serve as collateral), casino-dividend payments that provide capital and off-season support, tax breaks to citizen business owners, training programs, and Chamber of Commerce publicity. Furthermore, the EBCI government itself plays important roles in economic diversification, as Lewis herself acknowledges in noting existing and proposed tribal investment in an indoor water park, a bank, and medicinal marijuana production, among many other tribally controlled avenues of revenue generation, particularly through casinos, to which she devotes perhaps more space than would be expected in a book on small businesses. Nevertheless, Lewis has done important work to balance the equation of economic sovereignty.

Race and agriculture during the assimilation era: Evidence from the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians

The role of race within tribal communities is a contentious topic, and some of this acrimony emerged from 19th-century Indian policies rooted in scientific racism. There has been relatively little written on the role of intermarriage within indigenous comm

Staging Indigeneity: Salvage Tourism and the Performance of Native American History

Staging Indigeneity: Salvage Tourism and the Performance of Native American History

Letter from the Editor

This first issue of Ecumenica’s fifteenth volume pays respect to I Nyoman Cerita. His essay on calonarang performance in Bali was under review, here, when he passed away in late 2021. A respected artist and scholar, Cerita taught at the Institut Seni Indonesia and choreographed performances of many sorts around the world. Cerita has written about the ritual practice of performers in calonarang and encourages us to regard that practice as fundamental to calonarang performers’ art. In this issue we offer his essay, which was co-authored by his friend Kathy Foley, Distinguished Professor Emerita at UC-Santa Cruz and a past editor of Asian Theatre Journal. Foley and I Nyoman Sedana provide a preface to this essay, in memory of I Nyoman Cerita and as an introduction to the art in which he was a true expert.This issue also offers the first of two parts of Kristen Rudisill’s translation of Cho Ramasamy’s play Cāttiram Coṉṉatilai (The Scriptures Don’t Say So). Composed in Tamil, Ramasamy’s comic play dramatizes caste conflict in southern India, where caste and its implications are fundamentally entangled with religion. The second part, completing this first English translation of the play, will appear in this volume’s second issue.The last feature item in this issue is an interview with Moslem Nadalizadeh, professor of Persian Language at Ahlul Bayt International University in Tehran, Iran, who has also been a ta’ziyeh performer from childhood. In this conversation, Nadalizadeh reflects on the history of his family of ta’ziyeh performers and comments on the central features and methods of ta’ziyeh performance.The performance reviews and the book reviews in this issue attend to two specific topics. Readers will find here reviews of separate pastorela performances of this past holiday season. Javier L. Hurtado articulates his experience of El Teatro Campesino’s renowned La Pastorela, as revised and performed in 2021 as a radio broadcast. Aliza Moran looks at The Last Christmas / La Ultima Navidad, performed bilingually by Cazateatro in Memphis, Tennessee. The book reviews in this issue all attend to studies of performance and Indigenous peoples. Taken together, the books in review in this issue cover considerable ground, literally and figuratively, from Mexico City to Wisconsin, USA, and from Pre-Columbian Aztec-Nahua civilization to today’s Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. In surveying these different books, this issue’s review authors—Emily Goodell, Guillermo Avilés-Rodríguez, Neal Anderson Hebert, Sarah Alice Campbell, and Andrew Gibb examine Indigenous philosophy and epistemology, colonial history, tourism, and performative representation.We are entering the third year of global pandemic, or leaving the second year, depending on the point from which a person chooses to look at it. We at Ecumenica express hope for a year that is more free of this threat to our common health. Acknowledging what the pandemic has revealed about all of us, we hope for a year that is more open to performance and to religious practice that renews our global consciousness and our respectful regard for each other as interdependent individuals.

“That's Why We Hold Hands”: Gadugi and the Path Toward Indigenizing a PWI

This article seeks to extend our understanding of how American Indian college students’ success is crafted from their lived experiences and ancestral understanding to create community on a college campus. Using a methodology of portraiture, the Cherokee concept of gadugi is explored as a formidable concept to indigenize spaces on a primarily white institution campus. The findings highlight the strength and agency of Eastern Band of Cherokee Indian students in disrupting the marginalizing structures of a settler academy.

Choreographic Revisions: The Eagle Dance as Historical Hallmark of Unto These Hills

Choreographic RevisionsThe Eagle Dance as Historical Hallmark of Unto These Hills Heidi L. Nees (bio) Over the past few decades, there has been an upsurge in Native and Indigenous performance arts to revisit and remember—to tell through retelling—stories of the past and how they have shaped Native and Indigenous identities and knowledges as those stories, identities, and knowledges have struggled to survive continued expropriation, abuse, and erasure. Native dance, specifically, has experienced revitalization through a number of Native artists' endeavors to interweave the traditional with the contemporary. —Shay Welch This is a story of a dramatized version of the Cherokee Eagle Dance. Or perhaps what follows are snapshots of a (hi)story of a dramatized version of the Cherokee Eagle Dance as performed in the outdoor historical drama, Unto These Hills. This essay, then, explores the ways past moments of choreographic design circle each other and enact perceptions about Cherokee culture and history. One purpose in writing these histories is to preserve them, an act that I recognize is not unencumbered, especially when discussing an embodied, Indigenous cultural practice. In doing so, I do not intend to commit these performances to the past, nor do I intend to lock down a meaning for these performances. Rather, I call attention to a particular incarnation of a long-running dance in order to consider what this signature element of a decades-old production says about this drama, modes of artistic and cultural creation, and Cherokee culture.1 By interpolating context regarding two of the show's past choreographers—Foster Fitz-Simons, the show's original choreographer, and Larissa FastHorse, who served in this [End Page 107] capacity from 2007 to 2011—in accounts of Unto These Hills, this essay explores the aesthetic styles and their mentors' legacies in their choreographies. These predecessors' histories contribute to the palimpsestic nature of the Eagle Dance, within which modern dance history, theatre history, and Cherokee history commingle. Another layer to this exploration concerns the modes by which Unto These Hills depicts the historical past while also featuring a traditional Cherokee dance, the Eagle Dance, that is not temporally confined to the past.2 That is, the traditional version of this dance enacts culturally specific epistemologies in the present. And yet, historically, the dramatized version of the dance was detached from that function. I consider the ways that Larissa FastHorse's 2011 version of the dramatized Eagle Dance called upon the past and present in its invocation of repertoire-based and intergenerational knowledge and identity transfer. I argue that FastHorse's choreography commingled styles of movement in manners that captured the tension and inextricable interdependencies of various incarnations of the dance, which reflected shifting notions of authenticity for the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) and its history. To connect these various points, I turn to artist Daystar/Rosalie Jones, who simultaneously ponders and affirms the future of Native modern dance: "Be assured it will not be in a straight line, as in western thinking, a projectile speeding into the vast unknown. As in all things cyclical, the 'dance of the people' will continue naturally to circle, as ripples in a pond, filtering through history and ancestry and sacred story and back again, moving ever outward but taking meaning and substance in remembering the original source."3 The variegated visions of dance's expressive potential and the ways in which Unto These Hills' Eagle Dance has manifested those expressions circle each other, with the ripples of influential pasts infusing subsequent understandings of the ways in which notions of "traditional," "modern," "contemporary," and "history" commingle. I begin with information about outdoor historical drama as a genre, and dance's role therein, drawing on primary source materials published in the mid-twentieth century, when the form first emerged. I then provide information about Unto These Hills before addressing the Eagle Dance and tracing the dramatized version's stylistic lineage. My attention to the 2011 version of the Eagle Dance is framed by scholarship on Indigenous epistemologies and dance, as well as by anecdotal reflections by FastHorse. I locate FastHorse's dance influences within modern dance contexts related to those of Fitz-Simons, demonstrating the intermingling of...

Obituary for Raymond D. Fogelson

Ray Fogelson passed away peacefully on January 20, 2020, near his Southern home in Blairsville, Georgia. A lifetime member of the American Society for Ethnohistory (ASE), he served as its president in 1987–88. He also served as president of the Central States Anthropological Association in 1982–83 and was the longtime book review editor for American Anthropologist. He was one of the foremost ethnohistorians of his time, and a leading expert in Southeast ethnology. He mentored several generations of graduate students, including many who have been active in the ASE.Ray received a PhD in anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1962. While at Penn he held a fellowship at the Eastern Pennsylvania Psychiatric Institute, reflecting his own lifelong interest in psychoanalysis, and that of his mentors, A. Irving Hallowell and Anthony F. C. Wallace. He went on to teach at the University of Washington and University of California, San Diego, before moving to the University of Chicago, where he spent the bulk of his career. He held visiting positions at Princeton and the University of Texas.He conducted fieldwork initially with the Eastern Band of Cherokee under the tutelage of John Gulick at the University of North Carolina. He would later conduct research with the Shushwap, the Western Cherokee, and the Muskogee, where he was an adopted member. In addition to conducting research among these tribes, he practiced “action anthropology,” as an advocate. One example is his congressional testimony in favor of federal recognition of the Lumbee.Ray was dedicated to his students at all levels, including those who would not go on in anthropology. He was a raconteur, a bon vivant, someone possessed of a “wild sense of humor,” to quote his dean. He loved the city of Chicago and was a devoted fan of the Bears. He will be missed by all who knew him. He is survived by his wife, Karen Luckritz.

Environmental Views of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians

This exploratory study sought to better understand the environmental views of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) through an intergenerational approach. The primary research question guidin...

Income dividends and subjective survival in a Cherokee Indian cohort: a quasi-experiment

ABSTRACT Persons with high temporal discounting tend to value immediate gratification over future gains. Low self-reported lifespan (SRL)―an individual’s assessment of a relatively short future lifespan―concentrates in low-income populations and may reflect high temporal discounting. We use casino-based cash dividends among the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) as a quasi-experiment to test whether large income gains among EBCI members translate into increased SRL. We used SRL data for EBCI and White youth, aged 19 to 28, participating in two waves of the Life Time Trajectory of Youth (LTI-Y) survey from 2000 to 2010. We controlled for unobserved confounding across individuals, time, and region through a longitudinal design using a difference-in-difference analytic approach (N = 294). We conducted all analyses separately by gender and by quartile of socioeconomic status. Cash dividends correspond with a 15.23 year increase in SRL among EBCI men below the lowest socio-economic quartile at baseline relative to Whites (standard error = 5.39, p < .01). Results using other socio-economic cut-points support improved SRL among EBCI men (but not women). The large magnitude of this result among EBCI men indicates that a non-trivial cash dividend to a low-income population may confer long-term benefits on perceptions of future lifespan and, in turn, reduce temporal discounting. Abbreviations: EBCI: Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians; SES: Socioeconomic Status; LTI-Y: Life Trajectory Interview for Youth; GSMS: Great Smoky Mountains Study; SRL: Self-Reported Lifespan; SSS: Subjective Social Status

New South Indians: Tribal Economics and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians by Christopher Arris-Oakley

Reviewed by: New South Indians: Tribal Economics and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians by Christopher Arris-Oakley Courtney A. Lewis (bio) New South Indians: Tribal Economics and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. By Christopher Arris-Oakley. (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2018. Pp. 265. $34.95 cloth; $34.95 ebook) In New South Indians: Tribal Economics and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, Arris-Oakley (associate professor Eastern Carolina University, non-Native) presents a case study of Indigenous economics via the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) that sets a place at southern history's table for American Indians while acting as a much-needed contemporary augment to John Finger's Cherokee Americans: The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians in the Twentieth Century (1991). The material spans the 1830s through 1990s, addressing [End Page 327] key moments in the economic history of the EBCI with a particular emphasis on government-driven initiatives. The book begins by describing the creation of the EBCI's Baker Roll (the founding census for its current enrollment), the launch of EBCI businesses (both governmental, as in lumber, and individual, with farming and wage labor), the status of EBCI assets, and the creation of the now famous EBCI Cherokee Fall Fair. Chapter two covers the creation of federal policies that impacted Native Nations, from the New Deal and the Indian Reorganization Act, to the creation of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, alongside the growth of the tourism industry on the Qualla Boundary. Chapter three moves to post-World War II, describing a time also known as the Termination Era when Native Nations came under attack by a federal government intent on washing its hands of Native Nations through dissolution measures. This chapter ties these national actions to the establishment of the influential Cherokee Historical Association, along with the creation of the Unto these Hills play, Oconaluftee Village, Museum of the Cherokee Indian, and the Qualla Arts and Crafts Cooperative, as the tourism industry rapidly increased. The book then moves to the issues of increasing China-made crafts competition and EBCI government attempts at diversification from the tourism behemoth. Chapters four and five break the last quarter of a century into two parts (the 1970s, then the 1980s with a bit of the 1990s). Chapter four looks at the pendulum swing of federal policy back to support of tribal sovereignty and the subsequent EBCI government actions to increase its autonomy through an expansion of its powers, as well as the continued promotion of the tourism industry along with associated challenges, and further attempts by the EBCI government at specifically tribal enterprise diversification, ending with the creation of the Cherokee Boys Club. Chapter five critiques Reaganonmics' impact on Native Nations, introduces the topic of gaming through the Indian Gaming and Regulatory Act and gives a brief background to the opening of the EBCI's first large-scale casino. [End Page 328] The stated goals of this work are threefold. First, an examination of twentieth century Indigenous economics and a tribal perspective (of the tribe, not from within) that looks at twentieth century Indigenous economics. Second, to "incorporate Native Americans into contemporary southern history." Finally, to "augment" and "build on earlier works to focus on the economic actions of the Cherokee Tribal Council." The weakest point of the three is the first. There is a marked lack of engagement not only with current economic theory (broadly, as well as specifically Indigenous), but also with a critical number of researchers working in the region, with the EBCI, and in Indigenous economic subfields (particularly historical and anthropological economics). This will limit this work's usefulness, especially in the classroom. Engagement such as this would have also helped to avoid inaccurate statements, such as Arris-Oakley's claim that the homeland of the Cherokee people, in what are now called the Appalachian Mountains, was "unwanted land"—a claim that the EBCI nation (well before it was federally recognized as such) and its citizens have refuted for over two centuries (p. 10). The second goal of incorporation consists of two unstated parts: to place this material within southern historical literature and, conversely, to incorporate southern history into this study. As...

Traditional Knowledge and Health: Lessons from the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians

Traditional Knowledge and Health: Lessons from the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians

Christopher Arris Oakley. New South Indians: Tribal Economics and the Eastern Band of Cherokee in the Twentieth Century.

Christopher Arris Oakley. New South Indians: Tribal Economics and the Eastern Band of Cherokee in the Twentieth Century.