By SCOTT MCKIE B.P.
One Feather Asst. Editor
CHEROKEE, N.C. – Mariah Hill is a talented artist with an eye for color and a mind rooted in traditional Cherokee teachings. For the past two years, her entry has been selected as the theme for the annual Cherokee Indian Fair hosted by the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI).
This year’s theme by Hill, an EBCI tribal member from Kolanvyi (Big Cove), is “Ways Have Changed, but Our Values Remain”.
“I got a corn bead necklace as a gift…I got to thinking about how a corn bead necklace a long time ago was just strung up beads and random colors that didn’t really go together. And how jewelry has just come a long way. Then it got me thinking more about baskets – baskets now have colors – and just now we’ve modernized a lot of things. Now we have 3D printed stuff in syllabary, basket designs, and pottery…I do the hair for the fashion show. Looking at their clothes and how they’ve taken some of our patterns and designs and modernized them.
Mariah Mahan, a member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians from Kolanvyi (Big Cove), poses with one of her paintings which shows one of her favorite subjects – Bigfoot. Her entries for the theme contest for the Cherokee Indian Fair have been selected the past two years (2025 and 2026). (SCOTT MCKIE B.P./One Feather photo)
I was just thinking about how we kept our culture and our designs, but it’s modernized now. I just thought that was really cool.”
In her submission for the 2026 Fair Theme contest, she wrote, “We strive to maintain our heritage while adapting to this modern-day society. By continuing to emphasize our resilience, sharing our community values, and preserving our traditions, we can show how we’ve managed to keep our identity in this changing world. We have evolved by enhancing our values, modifying our practices and integrating innovation. From arts and crafts, clothing and events, to keeping our language, we have found ways for our culture, traditions, and Tsalagi ways to remain relevant and vibrant!”
Hill works at the EBCI Cooperative Extension Office, a program literally rooted in Cherokee agriculture. She developed last year’s theme, “Connecting Our People, Plants, and Culture”, through her work there.
She commented, “I work with agriculture and we’re trying to educate people about food sovereignty.
Last year I went more towards how we use plants and stuff for medicine…the corn bead necklaces, we use that for jewelry. We use gourd rattles. They used those for stomp dances and ceremonies. So, I wanted to incorporate the core values with the land – we’re connected…we should respect our land and be thankful for what we have.”
Seeing the theme used throughout the various aspects of the Fair – from the parade to the community and exhibit hall displays – makes Hill happy.
“It’s awesome, especially during the parade and I see the floats coming by and I see the theme marked on the clothes. It just makes me proud.”
She added, “Everybody looks forward to the fair because that’s where you’ll see pretty much everybody. It brings the whole community together…it’s just a fun atmosphere. It’s just an exciting time for the community to come together and just enjoy everything.”
When asked what advice she would give to those trying to come up with a Fair theme, Hill noted, “I guess just trying to think of something that no one has done before. Try to match up something that’s personal to them and that way it’ll mean more. Then, also, make it not so broad – simple to where the communities, or whoever is entering things, can understand what you’re wanting to get out of it…make it clear.”
For the past few years, Hill has found a passion in painting.
“It started during COVID, pretty much. We couldn’t really do anything and I kind of just picked it up looking for stuff for us to do while ww were stuck at home…I do like to draw and I was like, ‘I want to try painting’. So, we just got the little canvas, the small ones, and my daughter would tell me something she wanted painted and I would just paint it. It just grew from there. Then, I got to doing team logos but I would add syllabary or basket designs into them.
I’ve been a Bigfoot fanatic for as long as I can remember and I just started doing Bigfoot with different cultural aspects, putting syllabary to that. It just got picked up.”
Hill finds peace and solace in her painting – something she sought during the COVID time period. “In that time, I also went through a mental depression and that kind of took everything away. It just took my mind off of a lot of things and the end result of my paintings would make me happy. Some paintings, I would be up until two or three o’clock in the morning. I couldn’t start a painting without finishing it. I couldn’t put it away because I wouldn’t ever pick it back up again.
It gave me joy to see what I’d done. But, also, when people would buy my paintings or order paintings, it made me feel even better knowing that I made someone else happy too.”
This year’s Cherokee Indian Fair is scheduled for Oct. 7-10 at the old Cherokee High School site in Cherokee, N.C.
