About the Project
Cherokee Heritage Trails is the product of an ongoing relationship between the N.C. Arts Council and UNC Press that now spans three books. The Cherokee Heritage Trails Guidebook was published in April, 2003. Blue Ridge Music Trails was published in June, 2003. Literary Trails of the North Carolina Mountains was published in October, 2007. Each of these books, and their companion Web sites, serves the mission of the N.C. Arts Council by opening a window on our state's unique culture and insuring that it will remain strong and vital. UNC Press, an affiliate of the 16-campus UNC system, complements our efforts through its mission to advance scholarship and to serve the people of the state and the region. Founded in 1922 as the first university press in the South, it has demonstrated a deep understanding of our state's history and cultural heritage as well as a commitment to editorial excellence.
About the Authors
Barbara R. Duncan lives in the mountains of western North Carolina and serves as Education Director for the Museum of the Cherokee Indian. She coordinates the Warriors of AniKituhwa, a Cherokee dance group sponsored by the Museum, and is project director for Documenting Endangered Languages, collaboration between the Museum and the National Anthropological Archives. Duncan is Coordinator for the Yonaguska Literature Initiative, a project with Charles and Katherine Frazier, the Eastern Band, and the Museum, which will publish Cherokee language translations. She currently is researching 18th Century Cherokee clothing and a new structural approach to the Cherokee language. In 2008, she received the Brown Hudson Folklore Award for her contributions to the appreciation, continuation, and study of North Carolina folk traditions.
Brett H. Riggs is a research archeologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.