By BROOKLYN BROWN
One Feather Reporter
CHEROKEE, N.C.— With help from the International Women’s Media Foundation’s Fund for Indigenous Journalists: Reporting on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, Two-Spirit and Transgender People (MMIWG2T), the Cherokee One Feather is detailing each of the 35 documented Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) cases in a monthly article.
Magdalene “Maggie” Calhoun-Bowman was 48 years old when her partial remains were found under a peacoat and leaves in the winter of 2006. Maggie, a member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI), was a daughter, sister, mother, and grandmother. Her sister, Bernice Bottchenbaugh, says her and Maggie were so close, people thought they were twins.
Magdalene “Maggie” Calhoun-Bowman with her son, Bobby Raines (Photo courtesy of family)
“She was a very kind, sweet-hearted person. She loved babies and kids. She had two kids, Bobby and Walker, and she got to meet her grandchildren,” Bottchenbaugh said.
“When she passed, there were flowers galore because everybody loved her. She was a kind soul. It hurt the whole community.”
Maggie’s death remains unsolved, though the circumstances of her case lead her family to believe she was murdered.
“She went missing right before Thanksgiving. I felt something in my heart, and I think my Dad probably did, too, but we were kind of in denial or hoping, having faith that she would appear or come back,” she said.
“It was right before Christmas, we had been missing her for that long, and some of her friends got together and started doing their own search, and eventually the police got involved through that. They had a search party even using the cadaver dogs looking all over. They finally found partial remains. She was covered up with a peacoat and leaves over her in a rain gully, close to the tree roots. Deliberately hidden, that’s why we say murdered and missing.”
Bottchenbaugh said Maggie’s body decomposed quickly due to heat and moisture. “That November, it was kind of really warm. Her body had decomposed pretty fast. Plus, it was in a wet area. The heat and the moisture she was covered up in probably caused her to decompose faster.”
Bottchenbaugh said Maggie had been in a lover’s quarrel with her boyfriend in the days preceding her death.
“When I look at her children, or grandchildren, I just know she would’ve spoiled them and loved them and been there for them. I know how precious my grandchildren are to me, and she was good with all kids. I could just imagine her being with her grandchildren and loving them and looking at their futures, hoping and praying for their futures as I do.”
Maggie’s mother, Evelyn “Babe” Hornbuckle Calhoun, had already passed, but her father, Walker Calhoun, was still alive at the time of her death. “Somebody was interviewing my Dad and asked him what was his most dreadful thing in life that he feared the most. He said, ‘losing another of my children before I go.’ That’s how much it affected him.”
Maggie’s family participates in the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) movement, attending the annual Qualla Boundary MMIW Walk and Vigil.
Bottchenbaugh believes strongly in the movement, “Say her name. They won’t be forgotten.”
