Public Indians, Private Cherokees
196 pages, 6 1/8 x 9 1/4
29 Illustrations
Paperback
Release Date:13 Jan 2009
ISBN:9780817355135
Public Indians, Private Cherokees
Tourism and Tradition on Tribal Ground
University of Alabama Press
Explores the major economic industry among American Indian tribes—public promotion and display of aspects of their cultural heritage in a wide range of tourist venues
A major economic industry among American Indian tribes is the public promotion and display of aspects of their cultural heritage in a wide range of tourist venues. Few do it better than the Eastern Band of the Cherokee, whose homeland is the Qualla Boundary of North Carolina. Through extensive research into the work of other scholars dating back to the late 1800s, and interviews with a wide range of contemporary Cherokees, Beard-Moose presents the two faces of the Cherokee people. One is the public face that populates the powwows, dramatic presentations, museums, and myriad roadside craft locations. The other is the private face whose homecoming, Indian fairs, traditions, belief system, community strength, and cultural heritage are threatened by the very activities that put food on their tables. Constructing an ethnohistory of tourism and comparing the experiences of the Cherokee with the Florida Seminoles and Southwestern tribes, this work brings into sharp focus the fine line between promoting and selling Indian culture.
A major economic industry among American Indian tribes is the public promotion and display of aspects of their cultural heritage in a wide range of tourist venues. Few do it better than the Eastern Band of the Cherokee, whose homeland is the Qualla Boundary of North Carolina. Through extensive research into the work of other scholars dating back to the late 1800s, and interviews with a wide range of contemporary Cherokees, Beard-Moose presents the two faces of the Cherokee people. One is the public face that populates the powwows, dramatic presentations, museums, and myriad roadside craft locations. The other is the private face whose homecoming, Indian fairs, traditions, belief system, community strength, and cultural heritage are threatened by the very activities that put food on their tables. Constructing an ethnohistory of tourism and comparing the experiences of the Cherokee with the Florida Seminoles and Southwestern tribes, this work brings into sharp focus the fine line between promoting and selling Indian culture.
Written in a delightful, unpretentious, and lively style and filled with exquisite ethnographic detail, this book makes an outstanding contribution to Cherokee studies and the anthropology of tourism.’
—J. Anthony Paredes, series editor
Anthropologist Beard-Mouse does an extraordinary job examining the role tourism has played in the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI). Highly recommended.’
—CHOICE
Christina Taylor Beard-Moose is assistant professor of Anthropology and Sociology at Suffolk County Community College, Ammerman Campus, in Selden, New York.
