CHEROKEE, N.C. — Shennelle Feather loves to dance.
“Ever since I could walk, I've danced,” said Feather, the Museum of the Cherokee People education program manager.
Feather gathered a group of museum visitors to learn and join in on traditional Cherokee songs and dances.
“It’s where I feel the most like myself,” Feather said. “I think especially with indigenous dances, with our ancestral dances, it even takes that and magnifies it by a million for me.”
This is a tradition she holds on to dearly but also tightly.
“In America, indigenous people weren't able to do that and teach our younger generations,” Feather said. “It was restricted.”
Feather’s identity as a citizen of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians is extremely important to her and what led her to help contribute to rebranding the museum to share their story.
For 75 years, the museum on the Qualla Boundary was called the Museum of the Cherokee Indian. On October 9, Indigenous People’s Day, the name of the museum was officially changed to the Museum of the Cherokee People.
“We're sharing a piece of ourselves with you, and we're bringing you into a sacred place,” Feather said. “And that's exactly what it means here. You're coming into our home.”
The rebranding started with a program called "Disruption" in September 2022.
“We took off things that were on display. The 25% we took off were sacred, ceremonial, traditional and burial items that should have never been on display,” Feather said. “So we've taken those pieces off, and then we replaced them with contemporary art created by Cherokee people and Cherokee artists.”
Disruption was just the beginning of the changes to help give more of a voice to citizens of all three federally recognized Cherokee tribes: the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, Cherokee Nation and the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians.
“The first steps into starting to reclaim this space and allowing the telling of truth from our perspective by saying, ‘this is what we will allow you to see, and we're going to show you the things that we haven't been able to talk about,’” Feather said.
The organization aimed for an inclusive new name, rebranding and programs to show its commitment to serving tribal citizens first.
“It's a really beautiful juxtaposition of displaying how we not only exist in the past, but we also exist today, and we're still here,” Feather said. “Disruption is actually the beginning of the rebranding.”
These changes help encourage Cherokee people to express themselves and their culture today, inside and outside of the museum doors.
“We didn't have power of what was being shown before,” Feather said, reflecting on particular museum displays. “For generations and generations, we've had to be reprogrammed. ‘This is how you should talk, this is what clothes you should wear, you can't wear your hair long.’ Like those different stipulations and standards for indigenous people were set and put upon us for generations.”
Every dance, song and change helps Feather reclaim her own story.
“How our culture exists today, that makes me proud to be able to display that, even if it's just a fraction right now of how we can do that. What we're trying to do here is exemplify who we are regionally,” Feather said.
Museum staff said they hope Cherokee citizens feel proud of the organization and proud of the name.
Feather hopes that visitors will not only take the time to visit the displays of the museum, but to also get to know the individuals who help run it as well.