Marie Junaluska and Roger Smoker, both elders of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and first language Cherokee speakers, cut the ribbon to open the Cherokee Speakers Place (kalvgviditsa tsalagi aniwonisgi tsunatsohisdihi), located adjacent to the New Kituwah Academy in Cherokee, N.C., on the morning of Friday, Feb. 16, 2024. (SCOTT MCKIE B.P./One Feather photos)
By SCOTT MCKIE B.P.
One Feather Asst. Editor
CHEROKEE, N.C. – Marie Junaluska has served her community in various capacities for decades and continues to this day – working tirelessly to help others learn the Cherokee language. An elder of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI), Marie is a first language Cherokee speaker who can also read and write the language.
She served in Dinilawigi (Tribal Council) as the Aniwodihi (Painttown) Rep. for 1997-2008 and 2015-16.
According to information from the Blue Ridge National Heritage Area, “Growing up in the Wolftown community of the Qualla Boundary, Marie Junaluska spoke only Cherokee until she attended the Soco Day School at age seven. She spent her high school years at boarding school in the Riverside Indian School in Anadarko, Okla., where she met people from many Indian nations.”
Marie Junaluska, an elder of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and a first language Cherokee speaker, is shown during Elder’s Day at the 113th Cherokee Indian Fair in Cherokee, N.C. on Oct. 9, 2025.
For the work she has done in the community with the Cherokee language, it was fitting that Marie, along with Roger Smoker, a first language Cherokee speaker from Tutiyi (Snowbird), would cut the ribbon to officially open the Cherokee Speakers Place (kalvgviditsa tsalagi aniwonisgi tsunatsohisdihi) in Cherokee, N.C. on Feb. 16, 2024.
As part of the Cherokee Speakers Council, Marie helped develop the official motto of the EBCI which was approved with the passage of Res. No. 498 (2021) on June 1, 2021. The motto is “Our hearts are and continue to be as one” (Ꮠ Ꮙ Ꮔ Ꮝ Ꮧ Ꮧ Ꮞ Ꮝ Ꮧ Ꮧ Ꭶ Ꮣ Ꮕ Ꮩ Ꭹ)”.
During the June 1, 2021 Dinilawigi session, she spoke about the motto, “This has long been coming. We needed this. We didn’t have one, and now I think these are the perfect words for the Tribe.”
Marie is featured in a book, edited by Dr. Barbara R. Duncan, entitled “Living Stories of the Cherokee” that features Cherokee stories from herself and other noted storytellers including Davey Arch, Robert Bushyhead, Edna Chekelelee, Kathi Smith Littlejohn, and Freeman Owle.
She was quoted in an article from the Swannanoa Valley Museum entitled “15th-century Cherokee of the Swannanoa Valley: Town life in the Mississippian Period” that encapsulates her love of the traditional lands of the Cherokee. She commented, “In the spring, we have wild greens. All the different kinds. And then the berries start– strawberries, and then blackberries, blueberries, raspberries. And then when the berries are done, in the fall, the nuts come in– hickory, walnut, butternut– all the kinds you could want. And if we plant a garden, the land gives us so much–corn, beans, squash….Being a Cherokee Indian, that’s what I was raised with, living off the land.”
Over the years, she has received awards for her work including the Frell Owl Award (1995), Friends of Sequoyah Award (2004), and the Peacemaker Award (2008).
The late Douglas Adams, English author, once said, “To give real service you must add something which cannot be bought or measured with money, and that is sincerity and integrity.”
Marie Junaluska embodies both of those attributes.
