Appalachian History

In days long agone, when the world was new, the Terrapin had a very fine whistle, of which he was quite proud; but the Partridge had none. The Terrapin was constantly going about, whistling and showing his whistle to the other animals, until the Partridge became jealous; so one day when they met the Partridge [...]

Like many locations in Georgia, many of Rabun County’s place names are derived from Indian names. In Rabun County that would be the Cherokees. In most Indian place names, we know the English spelling of how the Cherokees pronounced the word, but no actual translation of what the word means. For example, both Chattooga and [...]

Early one day long ago from time out of memory the people of a Cherokee town awoke and faced east to say their morning prayers to the Creator in heaven (Ca-lun-la-ti). In the distance could be heard the cry of an owl, a sign of death and bad luck. The eastern sky began turning many [...]

Anyone who has been to the Cherokee Indian Museum down here where you buy the tickets to “Unto These Hills” has probably seen some chunkey stones. They are a variety of sizes; they are all nicely polished stones. They all stick out a little bit on the sides like little wheels that didn’t have holes [...]

Please welcome guest blogger Lynn Salsi, author of “The Jack Tales” and “Young Ray Hicks Learns the Jack Tales.” She has received the American Library Association’s Notable Book Award, six Willie Parker Peace History Book Awards for her non-fiction books about North Carolina, and was named the North Carolina Historian of the Year in 2001. [...]