Unto These Hills
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Unto These Hills is an outdoor historical drama staged annually at the 2800-seat Mountainside Theatre in Cherokee, North Carolina. It is the third oldest outdoor historical drama in the United States, after The Lost Colony in Manteo, North Carolina, and the second- longest-running outdoor drama in the United States. The first version of play was written by Kermit Hunter (who is also credited with writing the scripts for many other outdoor dramas), opened at the Mountainside Theatre on July 1, 1950. Famous alumni include Michael Rosenbaum, best known for his portrayal of Lex Luthor on Smallville, and Morgan Freeman.[citation needed]
The play follows the story of the Cherokee of the Eastern region up to their removal, via the Trail of Tears, in 1838. The drama includes many famous Cherokee figures including Sequoyah, Junaluska, Chief Yonaguska or Drowning Bear, and William Holland Thomas (adopted son of Drowning Bear and the first and only white chief of the Cherokee), Selu the Corn Mother, and Kanati the Great Hunter.
The drama is operated by the Cherokee Historical Association which also operates the Museum of the Cherokee Indian, the Oconaluftee Indian Village--a re-creation of an authentic Cherokee village circa 1750, and Qualla Arts & Crafts, the oldest Native American Arts cooperative in the United States[1]. All these operations are located within the Qualla Boundary (Cherokee Indian Reservation).
[edit] History
In 2006, the EBCI Tribal Government hired playwright Hanay Geiogamah to give the drama a new lease on life. Under the direction of this renowned playwright, “Unto These Hills” experienced the first complete rewrite in the play’s history. Geiogamah is a Kiowa Indian and accomplished writer/director/producer of Native American dramas, as well as the founder of the American Indian Dance Theater and Professor in the Department of Theater at UCLA. He was selected to address a number of issues with the previous script, historical inaccuracies and a lack of Cherokee tribal participation in the cast. Geiogamah accepted this challenge, wrote a new script and produced a show. However, Many tribal members are reportedly not fond of the new play version, as it removes a lot of the story telling and history of the Cherokee, and leaves it to more interpretive dance. In addition, one of the key elements many tribal members feel is missing is the story of Tsali, whose life was given so that the rest of the Cherokees may remain in their homes in North Carolina.
The 2007 script was written by Pat Allee and Ben Hurst, with the 2008 script written by Linda West.[2] Rumors have surfaced of an anonymous playwright known only as "KANASTY" to be commissioned as the writer of the 2009 script.
