Tommy Cabe, left, forest resources specialist for EBCI Natural Resources, and Mary Thompson, a Cherokee basket-maker and potter who is also a part of the Elohi Dinigatiyi (Earth Keepers), start a fire using a traditional Cherokee fire pot in a river cane patch at Gibson Bottoms on the afternoon of April 9. (BROOKLYN BROWN/One Feather photos)
By BROOKLYN BROWN
One Feather Reporter
FRANKLIN, N.C. – On the morning of Wednesday, April 9, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) Natural Resources team gathered with members of the Nature Conservancy, Mainspring Conservation Trust, the Junaluska Museum, Cherokee Fire & Rescue, the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, and more, at Cowee Mound in Macon County to discuss the cultural significance of burning river cane to promote healthy cane. The day ended with a live river cane burning at Gibson Bottoms, an area of Mainspring Conservation Trust.
Tom Belt, an elder of the Cherokee Nation and a fluent speaker, discusses the history of the Cowee Mound and the ancient Cherokee town of Cowee on the morning of April 9.
Tom Belt, an elder of the Cherokee Nation and a fluent speaker, led a prayer at the mound and then gave a history of the town of Cowee, discussing the diplomacy and trade of the ancient Cherokee town.
Tommy Cabe, forest resources specialist for EBCI Natural Resources, introduced the fire starter of the day, Mary Thompson, a Cherokee basket-maker and potter who is also a part of the Elohi Dinigatiyi (Earth Keepers), an advisory group of Cherokee elders, speakers and cultural practitioners.
Thompson gave a brief history of the Cherokee fire pot, which can be used to carry fire. Thompson also discussed her connection to basket making. “The more I learn and make, the more I connect to the river, the river cane, the mountains. You can’t help but have this sense of place,” she said.
After lunch at the mound, the crew headed to Gibson Bottoms for the live burn of a river cane patch.
Cabe discussed the significance of the river cane burning specifically for Cherokee artists who make blowguns and baskets. Belt prayed before the burn, and helped Thompson prep the pot. Thompson carried the fire pot across the field to the cane patch, where Cabe helped Thompson start the fire. Payton Bradley, forestry technician for EBCI Natural Resources, helped feed the flame. Onlookers sat in the field and watched the flames carry through the patch. Cows at a nearby farm mooed wildly when the fire first started.
“Today’s Indigenous Burning Initiative is an expression of trust in partnerships, participation, and support that allowed our Indigenous values and relationship to land relatives to be expressed and embraced,” Cabe said.
Onlookers watch the river cane patch burn at Gibson Bottoms during a cultural burning on the afternoon of April 9.
