When October paints the countryside with variegated hues of
autumn, and the proverbial “horn of plenty” is brimming over with the garnered
harvests of farmers, there comes the thought of Fairs where are proudly
exhibited the result of summer labor. Then cattle and fowl are in right
condition to be shown the admiring public, also the contributed share of
housewives taken from the store of jars and crocks on pantry shelves and from
the piles of hooked rugs and other hand work done through long summer days.
Of all the fairs staged in the Carolinas, none are more
intensely interesting, more unique, than the one sponsored by the Cherokee
Indians each October for nearly 20 years. It is a revelation to attend one of
these affairs.
About 40 miles west of Asheville are the Great Smoky
Mountains which have to be seen to be fully appreciated, for there is about
them a primitive wildness that sets them apart from the other ranges that cross
that section of plateau and hills so aptly termed “The Land of the Sky.” The
last stand of the Redman in the hills of North Carolina is within the Qualla
boundary, touching in an irregular circle that of the Great Smoky Mountain National
Park. There could be no more beautiful setting for the homes of these first
Americans; people who have preserved their own blood and customs intact.
Here in the little settlement of Cherokee has been held the
Indian Fair which begins the first part of each October to last for one week.
This fair has gained such wide-spread renown that people flock there from every
quarter of the country. Access to fair is to be had by turning off from State
Highway just east of Bryson City into a sand-clay road that hugs the hills as
it wanders along the winding course of the Ocona Lufta River. Five or six miles
back in the mighty hills the road comes to the stone walls inclosing the
Government School plant in whose grounds and buildings is held the fair.
A natural basin forms a stage for the fair grounds, on which
a small midway with miniature ferris wheel and merry-go-rounds introduce an
incongruous note into the atmosphere of primitive wildness. And there is
provoked a smile to see queer, tiny, rickety wagons with dejected looking
horses parked along enormous cars, many bearing these foreign license tags. The
banks of the Ocona Lufta hugging the edge of the grounds are brilliant with
autumn foliage that reflects in the clear waters of the stream; back of this,
rounded hills are jumbled into lovely contours glowing with crimson and gold
that contrasts vividly with the dark green of spruce and balsam pines.
There is a general misconception of the Indians as a
non-agricultural race; so, with this in imind, it is amazing to see the
variety, completeness, and perfection of their agricultural displays which goes
to prove Carrier’s writing of many years ago asserting that: “No people in the
world ever made greater strides in plant breeding than did the American
Indians. Their tillage was entirely different from the methods used in Europe,
where field crops grown were mainly broadcast. Whereas practically every crop
the Indians grew required intertillage. Indians who engaged in agricultural
pursuits had a marked influence on the development of agriculture in America;
but their greatest single contribution to mankind was the gift of maize.”
Unlike wheat, rice, or other food products, maize never
grows wild; it can’t grow free, because of the heavy kernels tight on the cob
and encased in thick shucks, no wind can scatter the seed broadcast. Indians
carefully planted and tended the maize, or Indian Corn, which had been the
Redman’s most important agricultural product. The Indians had made such
progress in the culture of maize that, when the white man reached America,
there were strains suitable to every climate and soil. There was the flinty
corn of New England, the dent corn of the middle west, and the prolific corn of
the south. There were corns which would mature in less than 90 days, and which
grew but four or five feet in the far north, and other corn in the south which
attained a height of 12 feet. There was corn for bread making, popping, corn
for parching, and sweet corn for roasting ears. The Indians even learned to
grow corn in the desert country.
From the Indian comes ash-cake, the hoe-cake, succotash, and
hominy. Indian foods and dishes made with corn are much the same as we use
today. Maize, squash, peas, and beans were often put in the same hole, and the
Colonist followed the Indian method of planting, but when they neglected the
weeding they were ridiculed by the squaws as being idle.
Harriott who visited this country in 1586, wrote the
following: “The Indians put four grains in a hill with care that they touch not
one another. And when the maize is at the height of a finger or more they plant
in each heap three or four Turkish beans which then grow up against the maize
which serves as props, for the maize grows on stalks similar to sugar cane.”
Tobacco was quite generally grown in both Americas, nearly
all Indian tribes using it. It was the only cultivated plant over which the men
would labor, the other crops being worked by the squaws. Harriott thus
described tobacco: “There is an herb which is sowed apart by itself and is
called uppowoc. In the West Indies it hath several names, according to several
places and countries where it growth and is used. The leaves thereof being
dried and brought to powder, they take the fumes or smoke thereof by sucking it
through pipes made of clay.”
Sweet potatoes were another contribution of Indian
agriculture, and were known by their Indian name of batatas and padadas. These
edible roots became popular with the Spanish and Portuguese, who took them to
Europe, Asia, and Africa, where their culture spread rapidly. These three main
crops . . . maize, tobacco, and the sweet potato, were eventually worth more to
Europe and the world in general than all the gold the Spaniards looted from
Mexico and the South and Central Americas. But they were only a few of this
wealth of the new vegetables given t the old world by the Redman of the vast
new world.
In spite of the age-old cultivation of corn by the Indians,
general agriculture is comparatively recent among them, which makes their
achievement in such lines especially noticeable, and peculiarly so when one
sees the majority of their fields as if set on stilts up on the rocky hillsides
at acute angles. Their homes are nestled in the coves and valleys of the
Smokies, and around the little log cabins are pens in which hogs are fattened,
droves of chickens and other fowl wandering over the entire premises and,
always, a cow. Sometimes the cattle graze so high up on a hillside it seems
only a chamois could gain a foothold there. Close by the cabins are vegetable
gardens, potato patches, and off to one side a jumble of log houses for barns
and stables. Some fields lie along the water courses but many of them run up
the steep hills and crown rounded tops with waving grain and tobacco.
Altogether the Cherokees practice the live-at-home slogan and make good livings
from so doing.
Among the four general exhibits of the Fair there are shown
scores of different grains, fruits, and vegetables…all varieties sometimes
shown as the product of a single farm. There are home-cured hams . . . hams
cured over a slow hickory fire from shoats fattened on acorns, than which there
is no better meat . . . every species of domestic fowl, honey, syrup, dairy
products, which include home-fashioned cheese, and a wonderful display of
home-canned fruits and berries and vegetables.
It would be difficult to mention a fruit or vegetable grown
in the mountain section which the Indian housewives have not canned, preserved
or pickled and jellied in some manner. Their variety of dried fruits and
vegetables is remarkable . . . apples cut into long strips, dried and tied in
bundles; dried sweet potatoes and de-hydrated beans, spinach, etc. And all
exhibits compare favorably, or even excel, such showings in other fairs.
It is really marvelous to see how these Indian women and
girls have mastered the culinary arts within a comparatively few short years,
when one considers the primitive, outdoor methods used by mothers. The cakes,
pies, and variety of breads shown at the Cherokee Fair are masterpieces of
their time. Practically all the housewives have adopted our method of preparing
food, though some of the original native dishes are still popular. A favorite
one is made from ground beans and chestnuts mixed with corn meal and either
boiled or baked.
Equally creditable is the handiwork, particularly that done
by the girl students of the government school. There is exhibited crochet,
knitting, embroidery on linens and wearing apparel; old fashioned hand-pieced
quilts, and artistic hooked rugs. Naturally, there is shown the typical Indian
bead work such as strings of beads, amulets, belts, handbags, and moccasins.
Also, hand-woven grass baskets. The men and boys exhibit cleverly executed
carvings, many pieces being objects of art, in various designs. The Indian
pottery is unique and lovely with designs as only the Indian can execute on the
pieces.
All exhibits are Indian grown or made, as only Cherokees are
permitted to compete in any exhibit shown at the Cherokee Fair, though the
exhibits are admired by thousands of white people who annually go to this
attractive affair staged in the mighty mountains of Western North Carolina.
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