Cherokee National Holiday

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Arts and crafts booths on the Cherokee Heritage Center grounds, Cherokee National Holiday, 2007 Cherokee national holiday2007.jpg
Arts and crafts booths on the Cherokee Heritage Center grounds, Cherokee National Holiday, 2007

The Cherokee National Holiday is an annual event held each Labor Day weekend in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. The event celebrates the September 6, 1839 signing of the Constitution of the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma after the Trail of Tears Indian removal ended.

Contents

Origins and activities

Originally begun in 1953, the event has grown into one of the largest festivals in Oklahoma, attracting in excess of 70,000 attendees coming from all over the United States. Many attendees are also tribal members of the "Five Civilized Tribes" (the Cherokee, and also the Chickasaws, the Choctaws, Creeks, and Seminoles). Others who routinely attend the event are the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians located in western North Carolina and also the United Keetowah Band which, like the Cherokee Nation, are headquartered in Tahlequah.

The holiday hosts many different cultural and artistic events such as a two-night intertribal pow wow, stickball, Cherokee marbles, horseshoes and cornstalk shoot tournaments, softball tournaments, rodeos, car and art shows, gospel singings, the annual Miss Cherokee pageant, the Cherokee National Holiday parade, and the annual "State of the Nation" address by the Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation.

Cherokee National Holiday stickball match on the grounds of Sequoyah High School, Tahlequah, Oklahoma Stickball match.jpg
Cherokee National Holiday stickball match on the grounds of Sequoyah High School, Tahlequah, Oklahoma

Celebration themes

Each year a committee chooses a new theme for the annual celebration. Some recent themes have included:

Covid-19

Due to COVID-19 pandemic, the 68th Annual Cherokee National Holiday was a "virtual holiday." [3] Many events still took place and spectators were able to watch online to see the Chief's State of the Nation address, Cherokee art show, Miss Cherokee competition, as well as, demonstrations of traditional games. However, events such as the annual parade, fishing derby, powwow, softball tournament, arts and crafts, food markets and vendors were canceled and initially set to resume in 2021. However, due to the pandemic continuing into 2021, the 69th Annual Cherokee National Holiday was announced as a "hybrid" celebration featuring virtual and smaller scale in-person events, with the expected return to normal delayed until 2022. [4] After two years of purely virtual participation the 70th annual celebration was held in-person. Officials stated that virtual participation would still be provided for some elements of the holiday due to COVID concerns. [2] [5] [6]

See also

Notes

  1. "71st annual Cherokee National Holiday returns on Labor Day weekend". Cherokee Phoenix. Cherokee Phoenix. Retrieved 20 September 2023.
  2. 1 2 Bond, Kaitlyn (6 May 2022). "70th Annual Cherokee National Holiday returning Labor Day weekend". 5newsonline.com. Retrieved 2 February 2023.
  3. "Cherokee National Holiday". cherokee.org. Retrieved 19 August 2020.
  4. "Cherokee National Holiday to be hybrid of virtual, in-person-events". cherokeephoenix.org. Retrieved 17 February 2022.
  5. McCown, Meredith. "EVENTS KICK OFF FOR THE 70TH ANNUAL CHEROKEE NATIONAL HOLIDAY". news9.com. Retrieved 2 February 2023.
  6. Serrano, Sara. "'Record-shattering' crowd predicted for Cherokee holiday". tahlequahdailypress.com. Retrieved 2 February 2023.

35°54′54″N94°58′12″W / 35.915°N 94.970°W / 35.915; -94.970

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