Elkins Cultural Series Brings Native Voices Home

Much of Appalachia has a deep-seated history connected to the original inhabitants of the land. But often, West Virginia is presented not as a homeland for Native Americans, simply a transient hunting ground and trading path. A series of events in Elkins is working to change that perception. 

In a room of the West Virginia Railroad Museum, a small group sits on folding chairs against the wall while David Locklear sings traditional songs. He is originally from North Carolina and a member of the Tuscarora tribe. They are an Iriqois tribe, although they refer to themselves by different names.

“We do songs of the longhouse people, we call it the Haudenosaunee,” Locklear said. “We were taught to honor the creation and honor what the Creator has given us. So over the years, over time, traditionally we’ve created songs that represent different parts of the creation.”

Locklear was invited to Elkins as a part of “Creating Home: Indigenous Roots and Connections in the Appalachian Forest,” a series of events being presented by the Appalachian Forest National Heritage Area through this fall. The series began in May with a showcase of Seneca artists, including traditional food, baskets and clothing.

Between songs, Locklear explains to the gathering some of the history and meaning behind the songs he’s playing.

“Dancing is very much a medicine to us,” he said. “So these dances that we’re sharing today are social dances for us. We do have ceremonial dances and ceremonial songs, but a lot of times in our communities, we have what we call social events. And it will be an event where we come together, and we just have fun and do these dances. So the dances we’re sharing with you aren’t as serious as some of the ceremonial stuff we do.” 

Locklear had not met his collaborators for the day, dancer Jocelyn Jones and her daughter, before the event. 

“It was nice to meet David through song and dance,” Jones said. “It’s a way that we form a connection without words.”

Jones is from the Allegany Territory of the Seneca Nation in New York. Despite never having met before, she was able to flawlessly coordinate with Locklear through their shared language and culture.

“The Haudenosaunee are comprised of six different nations that have similar languages, similar customs and traditions,” Jones said. “It’s like meeting a long lost friend, we have that in common already in that we can just come together and we can share what we already know. And it went seamlessly.”

Phyllis Baxter is director emeritus and the interpretation chair for the Appalachian Forest National Heritage Area. She said when the area was nationally designated in 2019, a management plan had to be created, which led to building relationships with some of the indigenous folks with ancestral interest in West Virginia.

“We wanted to tell that story of how important indigenous people are to our area, both in the past and now,” Baxter said. “We received a grant from the National Park Foundation to do interpretive products and outreach, to help build those connections and tell that story. This exhibit is one of the primary products coming from that.”

Baxter said with grant funding from the state and some other sources they built out a comprehensive exhibit, available in the Appalachian Forest Discovery Center through the fall of 2024. She said they’re doing more programming to bring in Indigenous artists and culture keepers to share their experience in their art.

Larry Jent is the fiscal sustainability director for the Appalachian Forests National Heritage Area. He said he is primarily of Cherokee and Welsh background, also Shawnee. 

“I have spent my life relearning and reclaiming our family stories,” Jent said. “I have been deeply and personally involved in the 19th and 20th century results of extractive industries as well as the 19th and 20th century efforts to remove Native people, either in a wholesale and physical way, or just simply legislate native people out of existence.”

Jent said he’s spent the last 40 years trying to tell the stories of native people, particularly in Appalachia. He was only hired in November, but said as soon as the National Forest saw his resume they knew he would be an asset for this project.

“Many people are aware that Appalachian culture is a confluence of black and white, primarily Scots Irish mountain cultures co-mingling,” Jent said. “There’s a third stream of culture that has contributed to this, the Native American stream, and that’s often been overlooked or even written out of the history books.”

Eleanor Renshaw is an AmeriCorps member serving with the Appalachian Forest Heritage Area as a museum associate at the Appalachian Forest Discovery Center. She said that overlooked history was a major motivation for the ongoing series.

“What is often, unfortunately, taught in school here is that Native communities were never here,” Renshaw said. “If they were, it was for a short time that was passing through. ‘This was a hunting ground’ is the quote that we often hear. But that’s patently not true.” 

Renshaw oversaw the design and creation of the “Creating Home” museum exhibit currently on display at the Appalachian Discovery Center in Elkins. She said the exhibit hopes to show that there’s many ways to tell the story of native communities here. 

“We’re hoping to tell the stories through personal stories, through stories passed down through generations, through archeology, through art, and using all of these different ways of knowing. We’re hoping to help people connect to a new story that is not often told in formal education,” Renshaw said. 

She said that the project’s title, “Creating Home,” touches on a connection to place that is quintessentially Appalachian, but that has been stripped from the land’s original inhabitants.

“The idea of “Creating Home,” we wanted to kind of get people to start thinking about it, about how these mountains, these forests, have really provided such an important home generationally for so many folks and for indigenous communities, indigenous nations, whether that is representative in schools now or not,” Renshaw said. 

From Locklear’s perspective, the effort is already paying dividends.

“We’re gonna be able to collaborate with the Natives in this area,” he said. “It’s good to be able to come to an area like this and present traditional music, because some tribes have lost a lot. So not knowing the area, it’s good to be able to bring some traditional things here.”

The museum display will be open to the public through November, and symposiums are planned for August and November. More art events will also be announced as they are organized through the fall.