Chris Watty, Janet Owle, and Frieda Huskey, along with other members of the Fair Committee, review the theme submissions being considered for this year. (ROBERT JUMPER/One Feather)
By ROBERT JUMPER
ONE FEATHER EDITOR
The second Cherokee Indian Fair meeting for the 2015 Fair took place on Monday, May 18. Those present for the meeting included: Angela Hernandez, Chris Watty, Angela Hull, Josie Long, Nikki Nations and Janet Owle. Frieda Huskey, EBCI Events and Fairgrounds supervisor, called the meeting to order at 5:30 pm.
The primary item on the agenda for the committee was the selection of the theme for this year’s Fair. During a publically advertised contest this spring, 19 entries were received from EBCI tribal members with their ideas for the theme. All 19 were reviewed by the committee. The theme has to be appropriate for the Cherokee Indian Fair marketing, fair parade floats, community and individual art and displays. Important to the committee is that the theme represent the culture and people. The committee voted to use the theme “Weaving Dreams and Traditions Into Our Future”. The winning theme was submitted by Ernestine Lossiah, and she will receive $100 for her effort.
Also discussed in the meeting was the selection of grand marshal or marshals for the Fair. A few possibilities were considered and the committee finally chose to recognize the crafters of the Tribe. Having identified who they wanted to be grand marshal, the committee set about finding crafters to represent the many crafters of the Qualla Boundary. Janet Owle, EBCI Cooperative Extension Office director, will be working with Qualla Arts and Crafts Cooperative to get a list of crafters together for the committee to consider. A representative group of crafters will be asked to ride on the float in the Fair as grand marshals.
Huskey told the group that she and Mollie Grant, EBCI Pageant Committee, had discussed the Fair schedule for the junior pageants, and the plan is to have the pageants on the following days: Tuesday at 7pm, Wednesday at 6pm and Thursday at 6pm.
The meeting concluded at 6:30 pm. The next scheduled meeting of the Fair Committee will be Monday, June 15 at 5:30 pm at the Exhibit Hall. Everyone is invited to attend and be a part of the planning process.
