Robbinsville – The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians is weighing options for a possible new Junaluska museum, replacing the older facility near the legendary warrior and leader’s grave.
The Snowbird Community held a special called meeting on the evening of March 23, to discuss the possible new museum. The original museum – located near Junaluska’s grave – was destroyed when two trees fell on it in a 2015 storm.
Snowbird Community Service Director D.J. Robinson said the tribe was looking at a 32-acre plot of land near Wehrloom Honey on Tallulah Road. If the purchase goes through, the tribe plans to build a $8.5 million museum and cultural center on the land – showing the history of Junaluska, as well as other aspects of the Snowbird Cherokee. The proposed area would also include facilities for stickball games, stomp dances, powwows and other cultural events. The gravesite would also be refurbished and further improved.
Facilities for the tribe’s language programs would be included.
“Our first step was to look at the current space that we had at the gravesite,” Robinson said. “When we got up there, we quickly realized that the space did not meet up; we weren’t going to have enough area.”
The tribe looked at five sites in Graham County before it determined a site near Wehrloom Honey was the best choice for its needs, due to its size and the amount of traffic driving by it.
The price tag for the land is $1.6 million.
“All those spots in town lead into where this location of land is,” Robinson said. “I’m not here today to sell you on a piece of land. I’m here to sell you on the next 50 years. It’s my job to present the best options that we have, and the best option that we have for future growth of the museum as well as exhibition areas.
“We could really bring a lot to the area.”
Robinson gave no timeframe, but said the the tribe hoped to start the process as soon as possible, especially in regards to the language program.
However, some members of the tribe expressed concerns about the plan, especially the fact the the proposed museum would not be physically on the same site as Junaluska’s grave.
“Honor the Junaluska gravesite with those very things that are cultural and that would have made that man honored,” said tribe member Teresa McCoy, from the Big Cove community. “We honor Washington, Drowning Bear. If y’all want that out there for fun, petition the tribe and you get it for fun – and ask the tribe for funds to purchase it, to start that economic development that this community’s starving to death for.”