Joyce Dugan, former Ugvwiyuhi (Principal Chief) of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI), cuts the ribbon to officially open the new pavilion at Kituwah – the Mother Town of the Cherokee – on the rainy afternoon of Thursday, May 29. During the event, Ugvwiyuhi Dugan spoke about how Kituwah came back to the EBCI almost 30 years ago. (SCOTT MCKIE B.P./One Feather photos)
By SCOTT MCKIE B.P.
One Feather Asst. Editor
KITUWAH – An American bald eagle was perched in a nearby tree checking out the festivities as members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) gathered at Kituwah, the Mother Town of the Cherokee, to open the new pavilion on site. The event was held on the rainy afternoon of Thursday, May 29.
Joyce Dugan, former EBCI Ugvwiyuhi (Principal Chief), cut the ribbon to open the pavilion. She told the crowd how Kituwah came back to the EBCI in the 90s. “Every time we’d go by there (the mound), I remember my mom saying, ‘look, there’s the mound’. At the time I had no clue what that meant and don’t know if she knew, but she knew it was important. She may not have known the history, but she knew it was important. She was from that generation that didn’t get taught about our culture and about our history and our traditions – neither was I. I was not in the boarding school at Cherokee, but it was during a time for a number of years that the Bureau of Indian Education didn’t allow for the teaching of tribal knowledge and tribal culture.”
When the EBCI was approached to purchase the Kituwah site, Ugvwiyuhi Dugan, who was in office at the time, said she felt compelled to see it through. “I felt in my heart that this was something that we needed to do. I went back and talked to some of the Council members – Jack Gloyne, Billy Brown – and I remember being fearful that, as much as we needed it, I was afraid that Council wouldn’t approve it because of the cost…This was at a time when we had just begun to realize profits from the gaming operation. We needed roads, and we needed houses, and we needed all kinds of things, and I thought, ‘how are they going to approve the purchase of land this big and this amount of money?’…but there was something that led them to approve the resolution to purchase this property.”
Pre-K students at New Kituwah Academy dance during Thursday’s event. This wide angle photograph shows the pavilion structure.
She said that getting Kituwah back spurred a cultural renaissance for the EBCI. “It was then that we began to learn about it. We didn’t know about it. We didn’t know the history. We didn’t know how important it was. We started hearing from our brothers and sisters in Oklahoma, who had heard stories about it, that it was known as the Mother Town of the Cherokees, from whence we all came. Then, we began to learn and study.”
Ugvwiyuhi Dugan added, “But, I think the most important thing that came of this was people all of a sudden began to recognize our history and realize that we needed to do more to promote our history and to learn…I think it was meant for this to come back to us. We had lost it for over a hundred years. Next year will be 30 years that we’ve got it back, and we will continue to keep it from now on, into eternity.”
Ugvwiyuhi Michell Hicks commented, “As we think about this project and where we ended up, it took a lot of input from the community, the vision of previous administrations, and, of course, really trying to figure out what we wanted to go back. And, I think we’ve done a pretty good job of listening. The input that we had was to keep this simple. We want to keep it so folks can use it for multiple events. There may be times in the colder months where we maybe put some temporary walls up to make sure we can use it 24/7 because it’s important that we do.”
He also spoke about the history of the EBCI getting Kituwah back. “Going back to when this land was originally being contemplated, I was a young finance officer. Chief Dugan had recruited me back, I was working for a company in New York City, and it wasn’t far into her term that we started looking at this opportunity…I didn’t know a lot about it. In our generation, we just weren’t told a whole lot about the importance of this land. So, the direction was ‘I need you to find some resources’. And, at that time, it was a significant amount of resources that we were asked to put together…we found a way without much resources. The key was that we knew how important and what this meant to the future of our tribe, in addition to the historical aspect. So, I’m just glad to be a small part of that history of getting this back into the name of the Eastern Band of Cherokee. It’s very important.”
Taline Ugvwiyu (Vice Chief) Alan B. Ensley, who was a Dinilawigi (Tribal Council) representative when legislation was passed to purchase Kituwah, commented, “This is a very special day…I was on that Council back in 1996.”
He went on to say, “Chief Dugan came in and told us the importance of this property…those were some good days, but some hard days, for the Tribal Council. We knew the Tribe was growing at a rapid pace with the gaming coming on and a lot of opportunities. We’ve done a lot of good projects over the years that I’ve been involved in…this is probably one of the best projects that we’ve done.”
Taline Ugvwiyu Ensley spoke of the importance of the site. “This is a place that we all own and need to come down here an enjoy…we all need to learn to come down here and relax and enjoy our hometown.”
Dinilawigi Vice Chairman David Wolfe said, “Thank you to the former leadership who had the foresight to do this and make this a special place…to bring it back into our hands and our ownership.”
New Kituwah Academy Pre-K students performed several dances during Thursday’s event, and all four EBCI Royalty attended including: Miss Cherokee Moira George, Teen Miss Cherokee Dvdaya Swimmer, Junior Miss Cherokee Misha Slee, and Little Miss Cherokee Faith Panther.
George commented, “The Kituwah Mound is the heartbeat of our people, and we’ve been coming together for 13,000 years and we’ll continue coming together for 13,000 more.”
The event concluded with the Cherokee Friendship Dance led by Bo Taylor, an EBCI tribal member, who noted prior to beginning the dance, “It is important that we come together. It is important that today we are not Wolftown, Big Cove – we are Kituwah. We have come here to celebrate a lot of hard work by a lot of people who a lot of them don’t get noticed or recognized. Today, we want to remember that we are one people.”
