Dr. Lance Greene (photo courtesy of Lance Greene)
Looking at a complex moment in American history, when Cherokee were being forced off their land by President Andrew Jackson, Dr. Lance Greene’s research brings to life a nineteenth century plantation in North Carolina, where Cherokees, whites, and enslaved Africans lived and worked together. Dr. Greene pieces together life on a Cherokee/Euro-American plantation through archaeological digs and historical documents, providing insight into both how Cherokee were changing to attempt to fit in to European-American culture and the ways they were resisting it. Dr. Greene walks us through what archaeology on a plantation site can reveal, and how the process of writing fictional stories of everyday life actually helps him fill in the gaps in his research.
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More information on Dr. Greene and the material discussed in this episode:
Academic webpage: http://people.wright.edu/lance.greene
Links to published works: http://wright.academia.edu/LanceGreene
LinkedIn page: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lance-greene-80a0ba9/
American Indians and the Market Economy, 1775-1850. 2010. Edited by Lance Greene and Mark R. Plane, with a foreword by Timothy K. Perttula. University of Alabama Press.
Links to Cherokee Nation websites:
Three exposed cellar pits on the Walshs’ former plantation (photo courtesy of Lance Greene)
As a result of the Removal of Cherokee from their native lands in eastern United States, there are currently three federally recognized Cherokee groups: the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) in North Carolina, and the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma (CNO) and the United Kituwah Band (UKB) in Oklahoma. For more information on tribal issues, see:
Official page of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) in Cherokee, North Carolina: https://ebci.com/
Official page of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma (CNO): http://www.cherokee.org/
Official page of the United Kituwah Band (UKB) in Oklahoma: http://www.keetoowahcherokee.org/
EBCI tourism page: http://visitcherokeenc.com/eastern-band-of-the-cherokee/
Referenced scholars and readings on Cherokee, historical, and fictional archaeology:
Dr. Tiya Miles, University of Michigan professor in American Culture, History, Afro-American & African Studies, Native American Studies, and Women’s Studies: http://tiyamiles.com
The House on Diamond Hill: A Cherokee Plantation Story
Ties That Bind: The Story of an Afro-Cherokee Family in Slavery and Freedom (American Crossroads)
Dr. Circe Sturm, University of Texas at Austin professor in Anthropology: https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/anthropology/faculty/sturmcd
Blood Politics: Race, Culture, and Identity in the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma
Obituary for the late Janet Spector: http://www.minnesotahistory.net/wptest/?p=3299
What This Awl Means: Feminist Archaeology at a Wahpeton Dakota Village
Dr. Greene’s excavations in progress at the Welch site. (photo courtesy of Lance Greene).
