Cherokee Heritage Center
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Cherokee Heritage Center is a historical society and museum campus located in Tahlequah, Oklahoma sponsored by the Cherokee Nation that seeks to preserve historical and cultural artifacts, language, traditional crafts, and culture of the Cherokee People in Oklahoma, and also hosts the central geneaology database and geneaology research center for the Cherokee People. The Heritage Center is located on the site of the mid 1800's Cherokee Seminary building, and was constructed near the old structure.
The Cherokee Heritage center hosts an extensive collection of historic documents, art, cultural objects, and relics from the march on the Trail of Tears. The mueseum exhibit hosts an extensive collection of ancient artifacts from the Cherokee culture from ancient to modern times.
The Heritage center also hosts a complete reproduction of a mid-1700's Cherokee Township on the site, complete with traditional crafts, hunting techniques, religious and cultural practices, and a traditionally constructed Cherokee Council Lodge.
[edit] History of the Cherokee Heritage Center
Retired Army Colonel Marty Hagerstrand is credited as the founder of the Cherokee Heritage Center. The Center was founded by Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation William Wayne Keeler and Marty Hagerstrand. Chief Keeler supported preservation of Cherokee culture and heritage.
The concept behind the Heritage Center was economic development combined with cultural preservation. Marty recognized the cultural value of the Cherokees in Tahlequah, and Chief Keeler helped him to understand and appreciate more. The first newspaper in Oklahoma was the Cherokee Advocate, published Sept. 26, 1844. The college library had a small museum and the two men wanted a more formal way to present the history
The first four years the Heritage Center was in the basement of Mr. Hagerstrand's home. In 1966, a formal design contract was negotiated with the architectural-engineering firm of Hudgins, Thompson, Ball and Associates, Tulsa, Oklahoma, which included a provision that Charles “Chief” Boyd would be the designer of the project. Mr. Boyd and his family then moved to Tulsa from Colorado and joined the firm.
Col. Hagerstrand had begun research in Cherokee history and culture, first as a hobby in the late 1950’s, and on a more serious basis as early as 1962. Resource materials were available in the Cherokee Collection at Northeastern State College Library, the collection of papers and pamphlets at Gilcrease Institute in Tulsa, and pertinent reports of the Bureau of American Ethnology of the Smithsonian Institution. The late Dr. Jack Frederick Kilpatrick, a noted scholar of Cherokee heritage and student of Cherokee history, then Professor of Music at Southern Methodist University, offered substantial guidance and technical advice during the planning period and during construction of the village. Date and descriptions developed by Drs. Kneberg and Lewis at the University of Tennessee were also helpful. Architect Boyd also researched the Cherokee past, with particular attention to structures, and arrived independently at a “format” for the ancient village which corresponded basically to previous concepts developed by Hagerstrand and Kilpatrick.
Actual work commenced on the site of the future Heritage Center on February 23, 1966, under the supervision of Col. Hagerstrand who had agreed to terminate his private business interests and work full-time on the project as General Manager. The Cherokee Foundation, a private charitable foundation organized and largely maintained by Chief Keeler at Bartlesville, Oklahoma agreed to underwrite his salary and expenses during the construction period.
Starting with a work crew of twelve full-blood Cherokees, the initial effort involved selective clearing of the jungle of vines, bushes and trees which covered the entire site, and filling the sink holes that had a century before been a small basement under the old Cherokee seminary building, as well as excavating and salvaging foundation rock from the old seminary for later use. The force soon grew to four crews with up to 52 Cherokees employed. Village construction actually started in May, 1966 and continued for over a year. Hand labor, native materials and ancient methods were used in order to create the most authentic atmosphere possible.
A three-month “villager” training program, conducted in cooperation with the Bureau of Indian Affairs and Northeastern Oklahoma State College, was instituted in the late Spring of 1967 using Sequoyah High School facilities. Fifty to sixty Cherokees were trained for the village cast and as guides.
The village at Tsa-La-Gi was dedicated and opened to the public on June 27, 1967, by Society President Keeler before an audience of over 5,000 people. He was assisted by a number of state dignitaries including Oklahoma Governor Dewey Bartlett, Sen. A. S. “Mike” Monroney, Congressmen Ed Edmondson and Page Belcher, and others. State Senate Pro-Tem Clem McSpadden, of Cherokee descent, participated as Master of Ceremonies. The village cast and guides showed the results of the training in the practices and history of the 17th Century culture which they depicted.
