Indigenous Peoples of North Carolina: Cherokee and Coharie

Published Monographs

Crews, C. Daniel and Richard W. Starbuck, editors. Records of the Moravians Among the Cherokees. Tahlequah, Okla.: Cherokee National Press, c2010. C284.6 R311c v.1

Mails, Thomas E. The Cherokee People: The Story of the Cherokees from Earliest Origins to Contemporary Times. Tulsa: Council Oak Books, 1992. FC970.03 M22c

Mooney, James. Historical Sketch of the Cherokee. A Smithsonian Institution Press Book. Chicago: Aldine Publishing Company, 1975. C970.03 M81h

Perdue, Theda. The Cherokee. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1989. C970.03 P43c

Perdue, Theda. The Cherokee Nation and the Trail of Tears. New York: Viking, 2007. C970.03 P43c3

Perdue, Theda, and Michael D. Green. The Cherokee Removal: A Brief History With Documents. Boston: Bedford St. Martin's, 2005. C970.03 P43c1 2005

Ross, Thomas E. American Indians in North Carolina: Geographic Interpretations. Southern Pines, N.C.: Karo Hollow Press, 1999. See chapter four, “The North Carolina Cherokee,” pp. 77-102. C970.01 R826a

Fogelson, Raymond D. The Cherokees: A Critical Bibliography. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, for the Newberry Library, 1978. C016.97003 F65c

Journal and Newspaper Articles

Cherokee One Feather. Weekly newspaper published in Cherokee, N.C. by the Tribal Council of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, 1969 – present. FC970.03 C52e

Journal of Cherokee Studies. Published in Cherokee, N. C. by the Museum of the Cherokee Indian, 1976 – present. C970.03 C52

Bushyhead Family Collection, 1980s-2016

The Bushyhead Family Collection consists of materials relating to the Cherokee language project created by Robert H. Bushyhead and Jean L. Bushyhead Blanton, of Cherokee, N.C. There are audiocassettes, videotapes, and handwritten and typed preschool through twelth grade curriculum materials; notes related to the development of the preschool Cherokee language curriculum in reservation child care facilities; unpublished Cherokee and English language dictionaries; supporting project documentation; biographical materials and clippings about Cherokee language preservation; and miscellaneous items.

Sharlotte Neely Collection on the Snowbird Cherokee Indian Community, 1971-1974

The collection of anthropologist Sharlotte Neely (1948-) contains recordings on open-reel audiotape of musical groups performing at the 1974 Trail of Tears Singing held by the Snowbird Cherokee Indian community in Graham, N.C. Cherokee groups from both North Carolina and Oklahoma featured at the Singing include Lossey Quartet, Snowbird Indian Quartet, Grand State Gospel Four, and the Littlerocks. The 1974 recordings contain interviews in the Cherokee language with Snowbird tribal council members Ned Long, Mose Waschacha, and Jim Jumper and with Gilliam Jackson, the first college graduate from Snowbird. Field notes with narrative description accompany the recordings. Also included are a 1973 recording of the Third Sunday Monthly Singing at Zion Hill Baptist Church in Graham County, N.C., and a 1971 recording of a Cherokee language lesson for children conducted by Goliath George. Acquired as part of the Southern Folklife Collection.

General Resources

Berde, Stuart. Coharie Reemergence: Attaining Religious and Educational Freedom in Eastern North Carolina 1850c – Present. [Pembroke, N.C.]: Lumbee River Legal Services and the Coharie Intra-Tribal Council, 1984. 80 pp. C970.03 B48c

Berde, Stuart. Nowhere to Hide: A Theoretical and Documentary Quest in to Coharie Indian History. [Pembroke, N.C.]: Lumbee River Legal Services and the Coharie Intra-Tribal Council, 1984. 161 pp. C970.03 B48n

Berde, Stuart. Politics and Prayers: The Role of Evangelicism in Coharie Tribal History. [Pembroke, N.C.]: Lumbee River Legal Services, 1982. 69 pp. C970.03 B48p

Butler, G. E. The Croatoan Indians of Sampson County, N.C., Their Origin and Racial Status; A Plea for Separate Schools. [Durham, N.C.: Seeman, 1916]. 65 pp. Cp970.03 B98c. Also available online through Documenting the American South. 

Grady, Don Avasco. “The Coharie Indians of Sampson County, North Carolina: A Collection of Oral Folk History.” M.A. Thesis, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1981. 112 pp. C378 UO2 1981 GRADY, D.A.

Ross, Thomas E. American Indians in North Carolina: Geographic Interpretations. Southern Pines, N.C.: Karo Hollow Press, 1999. See chapter seven, “Coharie Tribe of North Carolina,” pp. 149-161. C970.01 R826a

Wilkins, David (Karonhiawakon). Walking Upright: The Coharie People of Sampson County. Raleigh: North Carolina Division of Archives and History, Research Branch, 1980. Historical Research Reports Series 1, no. 13. 113 pp. C970.03 W68w

Cherokee Indians

Coharie Tribe