Snowbird – Members of the Snowbird community of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians have long considered themselves an afterthought among the tribe, receiving just scraps and crumbs – compared to money and effort in Cherokee and elsewhere in western North Carolina.
But on Friday, the Snowbird community celebrated the grand opening of the $19 million, 48,000-square-foot Jacob Cornsilk Complex, a brand-new community center that puts almost all local tribal services under one roof in the largest public facilities project in Graham County since the construction of Robbinsville High and Middle School in the early 1990s.
The grand opening ceremony included Principal Chief Richard Sneed and Vice Chief Alan Ensley, as well as local tribal council members Bucky Brown and Adam Wachacha.
More than 100 people attended Friday’s ribbon cutting, which was followed by a tour of the two-story facility.
“Today is a great day,” said Dale Robinson, director of Snowbird and Cherokee County Services.
He said this new facility will serve the community and honor Jacob Cornsilk, a tribal member who died in a Japanese POW camp during World War II, for the next 50 years.
Sneed acknowledged that while the Snowbird community may have received crumbs, the new complex represents a “beautiful loaf of bread” and the tribe’s commitment to the Snowbird community.
The center includes a gym, elevated running track, fitness center with weight and cardio rooms, expanded library and classroom space, and a health and dental clinic. Office space for tribal police, transit, community health, family support and administration services are also built into the complex.
The new center adopts the name of the previous complex, named for Jacob Cornsilk.
Cornsilk, a member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians born in the Snowbird community in 1914, served in the U.S. Army during World War II and died in a Japanese prison camp in 1942 after surviving the Bataan Death March. He was 28 years old when he died. His remains are buried at a military cemetery in the Philippines.
The land for the center, located near the banks of Snowbird Creek, was the site of the Snowbird Cherokee Indian School attended by generations of tribal members.
Travis Sneed, of Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians project management and planning, said the site was thoroughly examined for archaeological artifacts before construction began. The effort resulted in buttons dating to the Civil War and pottery shards dating back perhaps thousands of years.
Remnants from previous facilities – including wood paneling and a 1976 plaque commemorating Cornsilk – were incorporated into the new complex.
The building cost $18 million, with another $1 million spent to build a wastewater treatment facility nearby. Construction started in November 2020.
Dedication of the Jacob Cornsilk Complex is not the end of tribal investments in Graham County. The tribe purchased 32 acres between U.S. Hwy. 129 and the Cheoah River in Robbinsville for $1.3 million earlier this year and plans to build an expanded Junaluska Museum on the site, as well as housing and other services.