Cherokee Stories of the Past

The Cherokee Indians of western North Carolina have endured both good times and bad times in a world that changed dramatically around them. During the 1970s, Roy Cantrell lived and worked among these Native Americans, collecting stories of the people he knew and loved. Artisans like Pauline Junaluska, Hayes Lossiah, and June Welch kept alive traditional skills like making baskets, bows and arrows, and blowguns. There are colorful characters like Sara Bradley, a feisty elderly lady who fought off dogs, bears, and rattlesnakes, and Amoneeta Sequoyah, one of the few remaining medicine men. Tom Jumper wore an outfit of leather, beads, and a richly feathered headdress, not because that's what Cherokees really wore, but because tourists expected it. Cantrell's subjects frequently struggled to stay alive, but never lost sight of nature's gifts to their people.