By ANN TOINEETA
One Feather Intern
Cherokee Water has revealed its exclusive water can for the 2026 Cherokee Cultural Celebration at Red Clay State Historic Park in Cleveland, Tenn. The event will take place from 10 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 8 to 5 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 9. Admission is $5 cash only.
The design of the can was created by Taylor Young, a park interpretive ranger II, and was originally made for shirts sold at Red Clay Historic Park. The design features a chickadee sitting atop a guitar with a thistle on either side. The chickadee and thistle are native to Tennessee and the guitar represents Agalisiga Mackey Music, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation who will be performing Cherokee songs at the event. The can also features a short history of Red Clay and explains the park’s cultural ties to the Cherokee people.
Cherokee Water has revealed its exclusive water can for the 2026 Cherokee Cultural Celebration at Red Clay State Historic Park in Cleveland, Tenn. (ANN TOINEETA/One Feather photos)
Pamela Sneed, EBCI director of enterprise development, explained that their relationship with Red Clay began after they brought Cherokee Water cans to last year’s Cultural Celebration as a new way to promote them.
“We took a lot of canned water down there and they bought every bit of it. We only took cans, we didn’t take any bottles because we’re trying to promote the sustainability of aluminum. It’s better for the environment,” she said. “You can recycle aluminum as many times as you want. You can barely recycle plastic once and it starts losing its integrity. We’re not trying to take away from the bottled waters, but we’re trying to offer another item for the tribe.”
Inspired by Red Clay’s cultural significance to the Cherokee people, they decided to make a specialty can exclusive for this year’s Cultural Celebration. It was important for this design to be on a can because it has more space available to display the historical information.
“We can put our stories, our legends, our history on these cans so it’s not just that they’re pretty, and that they look good, and that it’s cool to have a can of water, but it also tells our story,” Sneed said. “You can’t put much on a water bottle as opposed to a can.”
After last year’s success, Sneed hopes that this can will inspire both locals and tourists to visit Red Clay and learn more about its history.
“We got a really good reception from everybody and they invited us back and we’ll continue to go back,” she said. “We need exposure, we need to let people know that we’re here, and that this is a product of the Eastern Band. I’m excited to see everybody’s reaction over this one.”
Sneed is extremely proud of the work they’ve done on this can and is looking forward to expanding the business in the future.
“It’s so much fun when we get the cans back because you can have the artwork, but when you get it on the can, it’s just so much better,” she said. “It lets our visitors read about us when they’re drinking a can of water. What we want them to do is collect them and then they can have the history on the side of the can. A lot of people hear about Red Clay, but do they really know the significance of Red Clay? Maybe if a local gets one, they can read about it and say, ‘let’s go check out Red Clay.’ It allows more people to be aware of us and these Cherokee people in our history. It kills a lot of birds with one stone- It looks good, it makes money for the tribe, it’s a marketing tool, and it’s a history tool.”
Any leftover cans from the Cultural Celebration will be sold to the ranger station at Red Clay.
