Even though it is a bruising sport, Blythe Winchester, a citizen of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, discovered that roller derby could help her to take better care of herself and others.  Winchester joined the fledgeling Smoky Mountain Roller Girls in 2011. “We didn’t know if people in this area would support roller derby,”…

Michael Slee made a terrible mistake as a teenager that cost him the respect of the community.  Stickball, a traditional Cherokee sport in which there are almost no rules, helped Slee turn his life around. “What a lot of the community sees,” said Slee, “is that once young men can turn that corner… whether they…

Freeman Owle, an Eastern Band artist, uses his craft to remember his father and preserve the culture.  Owle carves soap stone that he gathers from a hill side in South Carolina and hauls to his shop on the Qualla Boundary in North Carolina.  He views his craft as a way to make sure that Cherokee…

Kevin Jackson is raising his children to see the world through Cherokee eyes.  Like many Cherokee, Jackson didn’t have the option to learn the language as a child, but he is working to make sure his children grow up speaking Cherokee..  Fortunately, the Eastern Band has the New Kituwah Academy, a Cherokee language immersion school….

Myrtle Driver has earned the title of Beloved Woman with the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.  Driver is one of a handful of fluent Cherokee speakers who are working to grow the language and a new generation of speakers. Driver works with a group of other fluent Cherokee language speakers from across the nation to…