CPFdn’s
41 Spring 2006 Grants Total Nearly
$7 Million
CHEROKEE, NC,
March 17, 2006—Cherokee
Preservation Foundation (CPFdn) announced
today that it has made eight significant
grants to strengthen Western North
Carolina’s ability to attract
and satisfy heritage tourists who seek
to experience the authentic natural,
historical and cultural resources of
the region. The two largest grants— each
valued at more than $1 million—will
benefit Cherokee Historical Association’s
(CHA) outdoor drama and Oconaluftee
Indian Village attractions, the Museum
of the Cherokee Indian, and Qualla
Arts & Crafts.
Overall, CPFdn announced 41 new cultural
preservation, economic development
and environmental protection grants
totaling nearly $7 million. As a result,
since CPFdn began making grants in
2002, it has made more than 300 grants
in the region totaling nearly $25 million.
Unto These Hills
CHA, which is
reworking its long-running Unto These
Hills outdoor drama to make
it more authentic and appealing to
modern audiences beginning with the
2006 season, received a $1,056,000
grant to revise costuming and props,
and to renovate the theatre facilities.
Previous grants from CPFdn have enabled
Cherokee CHA to hire a Native American
playwright/producer who has revised
the play about the Cherokees during
their forced removal from their land
to make the script more historically
accurate and to tell the story from
the Cherokee perspective. The grants
have also enabled CHA to hire Native
American choreographers, musicians,
stage and costume designers and dancers.
More Cherokee actors are in the 2006
production than ever before, and a
plan is in place to train Cherokees
to play lead roles on the stage and
behind the scenes.
Marketing the Cherokee Experience to
Potential Visitors
Most of a new $1,190,000
awarded to the Museum of the Cherokee
Indian will
enable the EBCI’s cultural campus—which
includes the Unto to These Hills drama,
CHA’s Oconaluftee Indian Village,
Qualla Arts & Crafts and the Museum—to
sustain a marketing campaign aimed
at heritage travelers that began in
2005. The 2005 campaign, which was
also funded by CPFdn, helped CHA realize
a 17% increase in visitation to the
drama and Oconaluftee Village compared
with 2004 results.
Museum of the Cherokee Indian
The remainder
of the grant to the Museum of the Cherokee
Indian will be used
to fund a grand opening celebration
of its important new Emissaries of
Peace exhibit, support the Warriors
of Anikituhwa dancers, and develop
a new Southeast Tribes Arts and Cultural
Festival.
For three years, the Museum has been
working on Emissaries of Peace, a traveling
exhibit that contrasts the cultural
perspectives of the Cherokees and the
British in the eighteenth century through
the eyes of an English lieutenant who
visited the Cherokee Overhill towns
and three Cherokee leaders who subsequently
visited London. The exhibit’s
grand opening will feature two days
of demonstrations by Cherokee artists,
tours for school groups and a symposium.
The first, annual Southeast Tribes
Arts and Culture Festival will bring
together the best dancers, storytellers
and craftspeople from the original
five southeastern tribes for two days
of performances and demonstrations
in May 2006.
The Warriors of Anikituhwa dancers,
who have quickly become a significant
cultural attraction on the Qualla Boundary,
will tour internationally as a result
of the new CPFdn grant. The group has
been performing regionally and nationally.
“Through a CPFdn planning effort called Heart of Cherokee, the Cherokee
community has defined the unique experience it wants visitors to enjoy when they
visit the Qualla Boundary,” said Susan Jenkins, executive director of Cherokee
Preservation Foundation. “The significant steps Cherokee Historical Association
and the Museum of the Cherokee Indian are taking with their grants will move
us toward our visitor experience goals. The Foundation is also supporting a number
of other heritage tourism and beautification projects that will increasingly
bring visitors to Cherokee and then to other destinations in Western North Carolina.”
Other Heritage Tourism Grants
Other new heritage tourism
grants from CPFdn will enable grantees
to do the following:
The Blue Ridge National Heritage Area will conduct a baseline research study
to track the economic impact of heritage tourism on the region, provide training
opportunities for regional heritage councils, and add several interpretive
signs in Cherokee at points along scenic byways of historical trails, historical
sites
and State parks.
The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) and the Great Smoky Mountains National
Park will develop a feasibility study for an interpretive center that would
benefit multiple parties — including the Blue Ridge National Heritage Area, Smoky
Mountain Host, the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Friends of the Smokies, Swain
County Government, the Kituwah Cherokee Heritage Area and the new Cherokee Chamber
of Commerce. An interpretive center could heighten awareness of the entire Western
North Carolina region.
Qualla-T, a program developed by the EBCI and the Western Carolina Partnership
(Southwestern Community College, Haywood Community College and Tri-County Community
College) with CPFdn funding to raise customer service of the Qualla Boundary’s
hospitality industry to a new level, will utilize a new CPFdn grant to develop
and expand into the seven-county region in westernmost North Carolina.
The EBCI will follow up its initial, very successful Festival of Native Peoples
in 2005 with a 2006 rendition in which the Eastern Band and up to 11 other
Native American tribes will share their cultures with visitors.
Using a previous CPFdn grant, the EBCI has been creating a river greenway in
connection with its downtown revitalization efforts. A new grant will enable
the EBCI to develop interpretive signage that will be placed along the greenway
to inform visitors about Cherokee history, fish that are native to the Oconaluftee
river, and Cherokee stories and myths associated with the river.
The Cherokee Reservation Cooperative Extension Service will conduct a feasibility
study concerning the possible restoration of Cooper’s Creek Mill. If restoration
is possible, the mill could become a processing facility for local corn and a
historic tourist destination.
The Sequoyah Birthplace Museum in Vonore, TN, will upgrade its existing exhibits
and facilities, plan future exhibits and activities, and develop lesson plans
for school trips to the museum.
About Cherokee Preservation Foundation
Cherokee Preservation
Foundation was established on November
14, 2000, as part of the Second Amendment
to the Tribal-State
Compact between the EBCI and the
State of North Carolina. It is an independent nonprofit foundation funded
by the EBCI from gaming revenues generated
by the Tribe. CPFdn is not part of
or associated with any for-profit gaming entity. Since CPFdn’s inception,
it has made over 300 grants totaling nearly $25 million.
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