Cherokee Artisans

FREE Programming and Demonstrations at the Orchard at Altapass:

Butch and Louise Goings, of the Eastern Band of Cherokee, have spent over 50 years of marriage, art and living cultural practices of the Cherokee people in the heart of the Great Smoky Mountains in western North Carolina. They stay balanced in life through teaching and by the way they live.

Butch is a carver. He started craving in high school, and carves figurines in buckeye, cherry, butternut, holly and black walnut wood. Later, he added stone carving. He studies a stone for awhile, and eventually sees the shape of an animal, object or person, and he knows what that stone will be.

Louise is a Basket weaver.  Louise’s mother taught her and her seven siblings the Cherokee way by taking them into the woods and showing them how to harvest materials needed to make baskets. Her mother always emphasized finding a straight white oak with no blemishes, cutting it down, making splints, gathering the dye plants, dying the splints, and weaving the basket.

Too often, there is a focus on the tragic aspects of Cherokee history, but this is only a small representation of the true story. When children ask about past injustices, prejudices and pains, Butch and Louise teach the positive that has come from their Cherokee roots. The Cherokee people are strong, intelligent and resilient.