PLEASE JOIN US to LEARN ABOUT “WAMPUM – THEN and NOW”

        Tuesday, April 12, via Zoom – 7:00 P.M. – 8:30 PM

A Zoom link will be found here a few days before the event.

WAMPUM is made from the purple and white Quahog shell found on the North American East Coast.  It was used by tribes long before European arrival and is one of the few things still in existence that connect to original traditional Native culture.

Our speakers:

General Benjamin Grant, an enrolled member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians has a personal interest in preserving traditional Native values for future generations. In over 40 years as an independent, he worked with different media, creating carvings, sculptures, drums, knives, and Sterling jewelry.  His pieces of jewelry artwork are accompanied by stories, and/or teaching about Native American philosophy and spirituality.

Ute c. Grant, born in 1967 in Germany, came to the USA in 2005 to learn more about Native American ceremonies and philosophy.  Since 2006, she is married to General B. Grant and lives and works with him in Cherokee, NC.  She oversees the business Traditional Hands, where she sells and interprets the background and meaning of General Grant’s and other Native American jewelry and art. 

The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, is a federally recognized Indian Tribe based in Western North Carolina in the United States. Wikipedia

Languages: English Language, Cherokee language

Regions: Western North Carolina

Tribal leadership: Patrick Lambert

Religion: Christianity, Traditional tribal religion

Total population: 16,000

Official website: ebci.com

The story of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians begins – the Cherokees were hunters and gatherers, foraging the Great Smoky Mountains and lowlands of the Southern Appalachians for food while hunting, fishing, and trapping game. By 2000 BC, Cherokee culture had spread over hundreds of miles of mountains, governed by their clan system and town leaders.  They passed on their history and religious beliefs through storytelling, ceremonies, and dances. Their agriculture, medicine, and spirituality sustained them.  The Cherokee tribe was one of the largest tribes in the southeastern United States and controlled a large land base.  Cherokee, North American Indians of Iroquoian lineage, constituted one of the largest politically integrated tribes at the time of the European colonization of the Americas.  Their name is derived from a Creek word meaning “people of different speech”; many prefer to be known as Keetoowah or Tsalagi. They are believed to have numbered some 22,500 individuals in 1650, and they controlled approximately 40,000 square miles of the Appalachian Mountains in parts of present-day Georgia, eastern Tennessee, and the western parts of what are now North Carolina and South Carolina.