Smokies
Goingback Chiltosky
Woodcarver
Qualla Boundary
Cherokee tribal elder Goingback Chiltosky was a master woodcarver who influenced several generations of carvers. His work includes carvings of animal and human subjects, often in native woods such as cherry, walnut, holly apple, and buckeye, but he also carved request orders from exotic woods. In addition to freestanding pieces, he carved large bas-reliefs. He said he always thought of his own "trademark as being a smooth finished piece of wood with a minimum of fine detail."
Read more about Goingback ChiltoskyHighlands Historic Village
Read more about Highlands Historic VillageHighlands
Read more about HighlandsBrevard
The historic small town of Brevard is the county seat of Transylvania County, also known as "the land of the waterfalls." The community is surrounded by nature and the Pisgah National Forest.
Read more about BrevardRobert Bushyhead
Storyteller and language preservationist
Qualla Boundary
Cherokee tribal elder Robert Henry Bushyhead called his native Kituhwa dialect a gift of the Great Spirit. With the help of his daughter Jean Blanton, a teacher in the Cherokee schools, he devoted years to documenting this legacy. The preservation process began years before that, however, when he not only developed a love of his native language but also a gift for telling the stories of what it means to him and to the Cherokee people.
Read more about Robert BushyheadSamantha Bumgarner
Banjo player
Jackson County
Samantha Bumgarner of Sylva was one of the first women and first traditional Southern banjo players to record old-time mountain music. Best known as a banjo player, she played both fiddle and banjo on her 1924 recordings with Eva Davis which were among the earliest Southern string band records to be released.
Read more about Samantha BumgarnerNancy Bradley
Basket weaver
Qualla Boundary
Nancy Bradley, remembered as a master basket weaver, represents an earlier era of craftsmanship and daily life in the Cherokee community than many of the other great basket makers of the twentieth century. Like many basket makers, Bradley, who only spoke Cherokee, would bundle up her baskets in a blanket, which she would carry on her back to town to barter for groceries and other staples.
Read more about Nancy BradleyCarroll Best
Banjo player
Haywood County
Carroll Best, from Haywood County, was a master of the melodic or "fiddle" style of picking the banjo. He perfected an intricate finger-picking technique that allowed him to perform a variety of tunes—from complex hornpipes to breakdowns—with great precision and beautiful tone.
Read more about Carroll BestHighlands
The town of Highlands was supposed to become a hub of commerce in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, had its founders had their way. In 1875, two developers in Kansas drew two lines--one between New York and New Orleans, the other from Chicago to Savannah. Where the lines crossed, they believed would become a crossroads of trade.
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