User:EZEKEATHAN/Walker Calhoun

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Intro Walker Calhoun (May 13, 1918 – March 28, 2012) was an Eastern Band Cherokee musician, dancer, and teacher. He was a medicine man and spiritual leader who worked to preserve the history, religion, and herbal healing methods of his people.

Early life and Education

Walker Calhoun was born on May 13, 1918, in Big Cove, North Carolina. Calhoun Was the youngest of 12 children born to Sally Ann Calhoun and Morgan Calhoun.

When Walker was nine, his father died; around the same time, he stopped going to school to work on the family farm. At the age of 12, Calhoun attended a boarding school in Cherokee, North Carolina, where he learned a little English. Before that time, he had rarely heard English because his mother did not speak it (this was customary in the Eastern Cherokee tribe).

Throughout his childhood, Walker learned Cherokee songs and dances from his Uncle Will West Long. He also taught himself how to play the banjo during these formative years.

Carrier

During WW2, Walker was drafted into the U.S. army. During the war, he served as a Combat Engineer in Germany. After the war, he was sent to California. Walker married Evelyn Calhoun, and together they fed the mouths of 10 hungry children. Walker worked for the North Carolina Department of Highways. After which, “for about 20 years I worked for a plant in Cherokee.” At age 62 Walker retired.

In the 1980’s Walker founded the Raven Rock Dancers. Through this group, he began teaching the Cherokee youth the songs of his uncle Long. Some of these songs are listed below. In the late 1890’s Calhoun recorded some of these songs at the “Cherokee museum.” For this, he won several awards. The “Best folk recordings list” and the “National heritage Fellows award.”

Walker Calhoun was an active member of the eastern Cherokee community. Throughout his lifetime, he opposed the creation of casinos within the reservation, saying, “the young people think it will be our salvation. I think it will be our damnation”. He also took part in some land reclamation involved with the Cowee mound.

Death and legacy

Walker died on march 28, 2012 at the age of 94. He was instrumental in preserving Cherokee Culture and reintroducing Cerokee songs and dances into the cherokee community. Some of Walkers recordings can be found at Berea Colleges Huchens library. Along with the recordings in___.

https://www.arts.gov/honors/heritage/walker-calhoun

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Oakley, Christopher Arris. “Indian Gaming and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.” The North Carolina Historical Review 78, no. 2 (2001): 133–55. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23522800.

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“CHRONICLE.” Appalachian Journal 39, no. 3/4 (2012): 382–87. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43489041.

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“Chronicle.” Appalachian Journal 20, no. 1 (1992): 104–19. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40933506.

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Middleton, Beth Rose, and Clifford Trafzer. “Land Purchases and Fee-to-Trust Considerations: Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (North Carolina).” In Trust in the Land: New Directions in Tribal Conservation, 175–84. University of Arizona Press, 2011. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt181hz3h.20.

OLSON, TED, and Walker Calhoum. “Walker Calhoun: Cherokee Song and Dance Man.” Appalachian Journal 23, no. 1 (1995): 70–77. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40933725.