532 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1956 



Studies of Cherokee art motifs and basketry types show that these 

 were indubitably of southern origin and traced back to the lower 

 Mississippi River area. The evidence would seem to point to the 

 Cherokees as hangers-on and pupils of better developed cultures of the 

 southeastern area. The danger of inferring racial movements from 

 cultural evidence is likely to be present here, however, and we must 

 hold in reserve our final judgment as to the origin of the Cherokee 

 and his civilization. 



Today the traveler coming into the Qualla Boundary may approach 

 from Asheville on the east or from Knoxville on the north. Coming 

 from Asheville by car he will be impressed by the memorable mountain 

 scenery and by the carefully engineered road by which, through a se- 

 ries of magnificent curves, he proceeds over the ridge through the 

 Soco Gap and down into the valley of the Oconaluftee River, where 

 the Cherokee Indian Agency is situated. Here he is impressed by the 

 many tourist courts. Approaching the reservation from Knoxville 

 he proceeds first through Sevierville, through the fine curves upward 

 to Newfound Gap, where a magnificient panorama of both Tennessee 

 and North Carolina is to be viewed. Proceeding down the road he 

 follows a lively and beautiful mountain stream, the Oconaluftee River, 

 which dashes over rocks and through glades of delicate and sylvan 

 character. Further on as he enters the reservation he passes the fine 

 Boundary Tree Tourist Court built and maintained by the tribe. At 

 length he arrives at the great outdoor amphitheater built into the 

 mountainside for the annual summer-long performances of the spec- 

 tacular drama of Cherokee life, "Unto These Hills." After the amphi- 

 theater then he arrives at the modern and well-kept Agency buildings 

 and the Tribal Council Hall in the center of the reservation. 



To rescue and preserve for posterity the unique cultural and other 

 contributions of the Cherokees to the world's resources in ways of liv- 

 ing a typical tribal village of 1750 has been reconstructed in recent 

 years near Mountainside Amphitheatre, called Oconaluftee Village. 

 Inside the village during the summer Cherokees carry on the ancient 

 way of life, practicing basket weaving, aboriginal cooking, beadwork, 

 pottery and weapon making. Dug-out canoes are hollowed out of 

 poplar logs with primitive ax and fire, and other arts are pursued. 



Near the Tribal Council Hall a Museum of the Cherokees has been 

 established since 1948, in which are housed tools, household utensils, 

 ornaments, primitive money, and weapons. Household and daily- 

 used artifacts made of cane, stone, bone, shell, and wood are on dis- 

 play. Other items to be seen include an ancient rifled blowgun with its 

 poised dart, a large bow which could hurl its arrow more than 400 

 yards, grotesque hand-carved masks of the medicine men, arrowheads 

 of quartz and flint, stone axes, celts, chisels, stone hammers, and ritual 

 pipes of stone and clay and catlinite. Here, too, are pictures of the 



