The Museum of the Cherokee Indian (MCI) is expanding its leadership with the appointment of two new directors.

The culmination of this year’s program occurred via Zoom on Thursday, Dec. 2 with over 100 community leaders and volunteers from 13 western North Carolina Counties and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI). Eight EBCI community centers were honored with cash awards and recognition, and seven won Best in Class awards.

The Cherokee, whose homeland once covered the Southern Appalachian mountains, consider Kituwah hallowed ground. Today, fittingly, it is also a conservation centerpiece for scientists with the tribe, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), and other agencies.

Each year, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians recognizes the Friday after Thanksgiving as a tribal holiday known as Tsali Day.  This year, a group of tribal members are organizing an event honoring Tsali Day and acknowledging the importance that the Tribe recently achieved federal trust land status for Kituwah – the Mother Town of the Cherokee. 

Following are the winners in the Wolftown Community Club Art Show held on Saturday, Nov. 20: 

The year was 1972. A group of 45 public television stations, primarily from the western United States, were brought together with the help of a Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) grant for a three-day meeting at historic Wingspread, the Lloyd Wright House at the Johnson Foundation in Racine, Wisconsin. Frank Blythe (Eastern Cherokee/Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakota) was one of the participants. He was one of just six Native attendees who were working in public television at the time.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park officials announced on Friday, Nov. 12 that Superintendent Cassius Cash was recently awarded the Walter T. Cox Award for conservation excellence by the Clemson University Institute for Parks.