Women of These Hills - 3 Cultures of Appalachia - 2000

[Music] [Music] for more than 200 years the Blue Ridge Mountains of Western North Carolina have been home for people of Cherokee scots-irish and African heritage archaeologists claim that the Cherokee first built villages and grew corn along the creeks and rivers of the southern Appalachian about 1000 AD but the Cherokees believed that their ancestors have always lived here and that the first woman sailu taught them how to grow corn and the first man cannot II brought them hunting in the 18th century some 150,000 Scots came to America by way of Ireland and established communities in Pennsylvania and Shenandoah Valley then migrated into the southern mountains a few of the wealthier scots-irish and English settlers owned African slaves so with them came a third ethnic group to the Blue Ridge generations later all three groups continued to raise their families here today we will introduce you to the stories of three women all in their 80s all native to the region all living independently in rural Appalachia [Music] bird stranger driving through we're some black there's no see [Music] Amanda swimmer lives in the traditional Cherokee community of big Cove adjacent to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park descended from a famous Cherokee shaman Amanda teaches pottery and volunteers regularly at a day care center everyone there calls her grandma swimmer and she is fluent in both Cherokee and English honey old Miss Cardew cub with a noni doing do need the halloumi taja Coleco Kubek - you should be in touch Michelle walking well my grandma was the Louisa Sequoia and my grandpa was jqi supporter she was the loveliest limo I had and I look forward to see her every weekend and then my mother was Molly Molly Davis Sequoia and my father was running wolf supported daddy raised hogs and he performed all - all this life everything they plant they had to be careful why they use it and then they had roots if you get your first corn you don't blow it they have to cool them down for you eat them because they said if you blow your corn the winner coming not for the corn down and running even potatoes she don't blow them when you first eat new potatoes and my daddy wouldn't let us though no Cub cops outside and Ted seven days we had to keep them in until seven days then he said throw them away but that's where his rules was and then we'll have gathered up some corn and then when he dictators we had to have gather up the taters and he didn't and then he raised them Cain make his own surf and we just text around watch what they was doing welcome the boys had to get chopping wood for have Kerry Wood in on the porch and do that and then we had to care water though for our mother when we was small when this from the sprain and we didn't have no water in the house just we just had one room in this log house but we had upstairs and we could we sleep upstairs and downstairs they just had two beds in them in one room and then we just didn't have no stove we had my mother had to cook on the far place and we rolled up in that house right there all together and my mother done all of the sewing on our clothes and she sewed quilts and she crocheted and then she made baskets so that's the way we had to lift through she had a lot of things that she came to put away for the winner she can beans cabbage and I don't she put the taters in the ground and cover him up even cabbage they cover them up well we had to have a mom around in the house and washing dishes and let her do the cooking we didn't have to say no or after one and when she told us to do something we had to do it right then we never did say nothing back to our mother or us back to our mother that it was not easy way back I think when I was growing up all we've done is go out and climb trees and swing on this a grape grape vine make a swing that then that don't a thing we had to play with most do we do stayed outside in the woods and play around they tagged around the other trees and things like that well I was 10 years old remember I ever think what we've done we've played with the boys and we just go around the house and we didn't get no fire not from the house we had starin closed for our parents could watch it and that they we played good and got along good you know daddy's told us to love love our brothers and sisters and when we was growing up and that's where he was growed up we we didn't have too much danger if we just go up and visit some people up the road all we done is play records and they had a record player and you had to wine it with your hand in there well the girls that lives above us they know how to dance what we didn't look we was kind of bashful to do things like that and we just go play with them left the dark and then we'll come home and that's the only place we had to go and we had to walk about full marks to the school and they they wouldn't even let us stay home unless we're sick they made us go and we had to get up and walk on the railroad track all the way to the school and back home and we didn't have nothing to ride with we stayed the wall I was the only smallest one that go to school in like they'd have to drag me down the road broom we all had to stay in one room and they had certain place we had we all had to take certain classes you know like geography and rhythmic taking all that and they didn't teach turkey that time we had to read in English we talked in English they went to the eighth grade mm-hmm I just went to the fourth I didn't finish my school we went to a Baptist Church we went every Sunday and Winston my life we had the wolf and carried lamps and put oil in the bottle and like her lights and put her right in there a piece of Hall and it makes a lot and we carried them when we go to church we went to church snow and rain and that's the way we was raised well we didn't have to go with no horse we said go to church shake it and we just had one store down there that time there wasn't that many we couldn't even go to sell and go to waste were like we do man they didn't have no way getting over there only thing we went to church in back home well that we had to get the medicine from our a medicine man whoever right it's right close to us we had to get them to get us some medicine if he knows what was wrong with see my mother come doctor us it won't take if you doctor your own family it has to be somebody yet and here to talk to the water out there and to get her medicine but made and then we couldn't give nobody our medicine because you given your medicine away if you give it away fever you know always use that we the would and it's good for call the other root for so throat then there you can use some Hickory for your cuts victory bar measles and whooping-cough and chicken pox they told ahead while I had while I was growing up first maybe about a year after I had nine children I've got two grandchildren great thank you and 22 daily sto goal to get to Mary Jane Queens house you have to travel some 30 minutes from Silva in North Carolina that's provided you don't get lost on all the twisting turning country roads although today the route is paved all the way to her house she prefers to leave her home only when necessary for church or groceries but Mary Jane does perform her favorite ballads at local heritage festivals and she remains a loyal gardener good morning this is raging Queen and I was born in the KFOR section well this is Katie fort but all of it together but over on the other side of the mountain from here - Jim Prince and clear sea Nicholson prints in 19 and 14 that's been a few years and my mother was Scott from I think she was Scotch eyes the print is came from England and as well of course compliments for the Scotch Irish pink are lots of the Scotch Irish settled in this area and dad was so I was always told that he was part Indian now whether that's or not now I've gotten away approve but anyway they was 11 of us children you know my grandmother Narcis France she lived in well some in the Kenya Fork section when all Moses Creek and that especially was so even when she passed away but soon Moses Creek I'd go stay a week whether at a time I guess the most in you wanted me to talk about was my childhood we had that living room upstairs in the kitchen but we always had room they had bed three or four beds upstairs had two rooms upstairs and then had beds in the living room one like half of it was like a bedroom and the other half was the living part of it where we stayed all the time of course and then we had a big kitchen we would usually get up around 7 o'clock I mean us children my parents got up earlier than that but children get up around 7 o'clock for me I'd go to school and we walked it we didn't have school buses beckon we had to walk and it was about 8:30 when we would get to the Google house ever afternoon we came home and did chores we had certain things we did we had wood we burnt wood and ever feller knew just exactly what he had to do the boys fix the wood and I was usually the one who had to carry most of it in okay water we didn't have water in the house so we had to carry water we carried in our wood and when we got our work done on that side then we'd get our homework from school and then after we got that done if we got done in time we could get out and play while we got our exercises back when I was growing up because we did our chores then we would get out and run and play and we played ball we played pitched horseshoes we like I told you we would ride the wagon but everybody whatever we wanted to do back then they was preaching at the Methodist Church on the first sunday of the mom and then the lat the third Sunday and the Baptist Church they was serviced on the second Sunday and on the fourth Sunday so we would I would both churches I made no difference to me if there's bad news if there's method they said then that didn't bother me I didn't know nothing about that I went to I went to go to church but we always celebrated Christmas and Thanksgiving more so than now we didn't take very much interest in Halloween back when we was growing up I've had people to ask me if it wasn't very boring when I grew up I said not at all I said there's never a dull moment my brothers would make wag and they made slaves and we would ride those wagons they'd go out the woods they'd find a black gum with a holler in it and then they'd cut him a hickory to make the axles out of and they made the wagons and they made a tone to it that we could guide the wagon any way we wanted and in the summertime we'd ride those and in the wintertime they'd make slaves and we'd write over the ice and snow it just tickled me good to get to get time the peach trees the apple trees and the cherry trees to pick off cherries apples because I got to eat as long as I something that tree peaches apples cherries whatever and we always had the big red plums oh they were good my mother made plum butter I never sat down at our capable and it was a long table I never sat down at that table before it wasn't full of food we always had plenty of vegetables beans corn tomatoes onions whatever you grew in the garden my mother and dad always had a big garden they had sweet potatoes onions beets carrots whatever that we could grow we did then we had chickens we had turkeys we had guineas we had sheep we had cattle and of course always to horses and to do the farm work with and to pull the wagon and all these things that you have to use horses for my dad always grew Malaysia came and we've stripped the father off of it debates and then my brother go through and cut the heads all off of it then they cut the kingdom and hold it to the king meal of course my dad had always keep enough for the family and he went down to silver and the silver supply day is colored God worked in the basement and he bought all kinds of produce you know from people and then he would sell it out so he furnished the SIRT book it's a gallon buckets and put the syrup in and my dad would everybody back then had wagons and they would go after the surplus made he'd load the syrup maybe a potatoes and take them down and sell them and that is how they provided to all the things that we had to buy a lot of people has asked me well where did you get any money you didn't have to have money back then if you wanted anything that they had to sell you just exchanged you didn't they didn't give you the money you just you know kept an account of what you traded they give you the rest of money and you went to whatever story you needed to go and buy clothing shoes whatever we bought material to make clothing at the stores and my mother told us how to me it that's girls and we knit socks for the boys and my dad stockings for us and mittens and caps sweaters we've done a lot of that at home we didn't have to buy that and then of course they had to buy the material to make dresses and back when my mother was growing up my grandmother had a loom and she made material for the men's shirts and further pants and blankets she wove it they was to doctors in silver McDuck nickels and little dark nickels and in color we there was a mr. ed Bryson doctors would come out to your home back then of course they was midwives and so if you didn't have a doctor you had a midwife all my children was born here at home well I was 21 when I got married and my husband was 19 we had eight children four boys and four girls and all of our children is still alive thank the good Lord but my husband passed away in 1909 84 he took emphysema I guess the doctor store him it was from smoking but now I don't know but anyway he passed away in 84 Elizabeth Allen lives in the outskirts of Hendersonville North Carolina where virtually all of her neighbors seem to be related to her in some way in this tight-knit community Elizabeth is known for her clear singing voice and her champion fundraising abilities even at age 82 she keeps the church running I'm Elizabeth Allen and I was born September 6 1920 was born here in Henderson County hey listen bill North Carolina well my grandparents I'm I was about six years old when my grandmother died but I loved her to death she was paralyzed and she couldn't walk but I loved her to death and she always loved me because she didn't want to see mama punish me at all and I love that my grandfather lived on till let me see I'm Helios until I was in my last year in high school but he was old when I had to help take care of him after school but I loved him too both me and my grandmother's Laura she was with a citizen she loved me and then he did the rest of the time my parents my mother met when I was about four years old I don't didn't know my father was just my mother but she married a wonderful man he just took killed me just like I was his child dad we're working on the railroads some and then he worked in a rock quarry and different jobs like that and my mother would go out and do laundry work for people back then they didn't have washing machines so they had to do hand laundry for people and then sometimes they would get cooking jobs she would but that was about it when I was small I kept I kept bringing kin Linda fills a fire fireplace and yep just round in the house little things like that to do of course my mother's let me I wanted to learn to cook and my mother let me start a very young age I had to stand on a box of truth tables to do my cooking since she ordered me a little cookbook and I went by that so oh I really had a really good little good life they would raise the card we'd have potatoes green beans peas all kinds of things and graze on meat pigs and Pete would go to me anywhere I go the pig would go and I just had fun with it all the time and they were raising it you know meat for the head family and when they killed it I could I wouldn't eat meat no they killed my pet we raised our own meats and had careful our own milk I'm brother chickens and some turkeys and Guinness I had to go to the store and get sugar coffee and stuff like that and go to the mill I have grab your corn brown and you'd have to get flour at the store well church real on the way oh it was Sunday and Wednesday night that was the prayer service and unless they were having some kind of some kind of program or something that's chasing them there would be extra but when I was smart we had three searches in the community Baptists Methodists and wholeness and I didn't know until I was a great big child priest wanted my mother belonged to because I went to the mall my mother was strict about me going to church and she looked Church to which she died at a very young age she was by 47 when she died I went to school and I had chores to do after I got home but I never got to play until my school was ready for the next day at school well they'd never let me play and do anything until I had my lessons all the children played together they didn't know sometimes it was just only me that white children all the ones I had to play with being one and the house was so far apart but they weren't produced to me but I did know someone being that way I went to school right here and Clear Creek it's a little one-room building and the teachers had the children we had one teacher and she teach every grade through the seventh grade I finished high school when it was honest to the level degree but I loved school the whole time I went when I finished high school I cried all the others were throw-in the heads and they're jumping in when I was I was crying and after I finished school then I well it was much longer till until I got married but I did work a couple of years I got married when I was 19 my husband's name was Chris Allen we had 10 children we had seven boys and three girls it says overriden where she got older still I said well I just love them and so I said God gave them to me and I said I'll do my best was trying to reason and he provided for me we got them all grown and I think they're all going very well that was always important to me I thought we should put their family before the other things at the end of Elizabeth Mary Jane and Amanda's childhoods the mountains began a major shift toward a tourism driven economy first opened in 1934 the Great Smoky Mountains National Park would be in just two decades the most heavily visited park in the United States by World War two the Blue Ridge Parkway connected the mountaintops between Shenandoah National Park in Virginia and the Smokies Hendersonville has become a popular location for second homes and one of the top retirement spots in the country tourism has clearly shaped the adult lives of all three women we didn't have no choice instead they build this road when they fix the dirt road then we seen some cars coming up there and that was I guess I was back 13 years old then they start coming around the first tours I had the range of rope wrote them up here we bring them up it was Sunday sometimes they just be riding around and they stopping you that's when I started making pottery I just burned them outside and I just made some small pottery and they'd bond so I didn't know I don't need it or not but they oh well I suppose Theresa once the red covered in here ever since I was big enough annoying about it customers they would be when I remember sometimes there were strange people would come you know get acquainted at church can come to my visit with my mother and they would be up here with tears they tourists at that time would bring they help with it it's time for the serious one you know in the summer when this starts seeing more cars on the road now you know now I went along cries Custer people it's coming here to retire and it's just I was grown they wasn't very many seriously killed they got the park we're here but after they got the Parkway of course they was some theorists you know in silver and through the community from the time though the Parkway was finished until now it's thousands eight year comes through especially in the spring of the year when everything is a blossoming and then in the fall of the year when the leaves all change first went up then worked there's some I guess it was 1930 32 or 33 something like that and when I first went up there I went dumb just started down to them relieving people for lunch and then now after that but a year after that then I went to the corn pounding at the cabin hep them and then they moved me over to the finger wave and I worked at the Fang weaving and then year after that then said at the pottery two years after that then I said they're total [ __ ] working 35 years sir when I retired in a way hits real good and in another way it's not her at least I don't think so because when they the terrace comes in and they want to buy a home they pay a [ __ ] some of the people here in the community calls a small fortune for it then when they get ready they don't keep it always and when they get ready to set if they ask too much for it none of the people that was raised in the community here can afford to buy it back despite the fact that amanda has worked for the tourism industry and mary-jane participates in heritage festivals none of the women see their own lives in terms of a modern tourism driven economy they are simply Mountain women who have endured with the changes around them whereas they don't see major differences between each other they are quick to point out major changes between then and now between their own and their grandchildren's lives times have certainly changed since I grew up back when we grew up there was no face food places to eat and I think that has a vast big thing to do with the younger generation because they all eat at them and they drink an awful lot of these soft drinks and I don't think it's good for children that's the reason there's so many overweight children because they drink so much of these soft drinks and eat all of this paste food and then they can go to the store and buy anything they want and what they do they come in and said or lean from the TV and watch it they don't have anything to work like we did we worked when we come in from school we had it's like I said we had our chores to do and we did them but children don't do anything there same time not many of them maybe a few but but they're not many I can say everything has changed for me I just don't know what if what else could be it has changed a lot since I've grown up it's not like you used to when I was a little kid it was more happy I was more happy when I was growing up and like it is now I don't have nothing to be happy about except for from just happy well the Lord just saved me for that for another day so lots of changes yes changes in the way of living and the change of dress and changes we just lots lots and lots of things have changed from it I never you know thought I would see when I was younger yes some of them feel the good and so on for the bad you don't have to keep such close watch on your kids down days the third that keep them from doing the things you don't want them to do I think you have to watch someone closely keeping them big and most now that I see my children know what that children is trying to keep their children busy so that they don't get into things like let's do with the drugs and smoking and things like that back then people had time to visit other people but today people don't have that time they don't take the time to visit people they hardly take time to throw their hand up at you much less visit they don't care nothing about the old people and they don't care how they go along and don't try to have them around they just passing by and like ain't nothing there and that's one thing I just always think a lot of people don't care nothing about for each other you stood women wouldn't have jobs like they do now you see women driving truck so everything else any other kind of job man do what we can do it nowadays surprisingly to us all three women see themselves in terms of similarities rather than differences they did not make sharp distinctions between Cherokee scots-irish or african-american experiences they are all proud to be Mountain women yes I like to be in the mountains I told people that I don't think I could ever need to live in a town or a city where the hazards was like your fingers because I said I've always had this freedom and I still enjoy that I'd rather be right here than to be in the big city in the town away from everybody and that's all I'm happy about that I'm I'm right here and I don't want to go no worse or move out of here I always did like to stay in the country bye I had a knob that died it lived in town and she left me her house but I looked and the people asked me you want to move into it I said nope I said I don't want to be where I have to be as I said my children my small laughed and they were small and I said I don't want to have to be sitting on the porch just standing out with them in the street keeping them from getting robo's cars I said I live live in the country I can tell her loose and let him go and play with Joey they want to our Mountain the heritage means an awful lot to me it always has all I can say I'm proud that I'm I'm ending in and I'm proud of it and I said I'm proud to see the people be friendly with him yes ma'am very proud I'm just proud of my heritage and I'm proud they live free and these men in the beautiful mountains of North Carolina where I spent my happy childhood days roaming these mountains valleys and dales on the head of Johns Creek I met and married my true lover and here in this valley I'll spend the rest of my days in this valley our eight children have a home it was a pleasure to watch them grow but one day my true love had to go now I walk this beautiful valley alone yet I am NOT alone for Jesus my Lord is with me and he will leave me home [Music] bird stranger driving through is where some land there's no see it missed all the dangers in that brothel and I'm going there to see my mother I'm going there no more Tirol only go Oh George I'm just go Oh [Music] I know dart class we'll get around I know of a way we'll be rough Anstey beauteous bee is like just before for God's ready [Music] I'm going to see my father I'm going there no more Tirol only go [Music] Oh Jordan I'm just go [Music] I'm going up to see my Jesus he said he needs me when I come I've only gone oh no George I'm just go I'm just gonna when over Oh [Music]

Channel: Suttlefilm

Views: 1,361,454

Rating: 4.8871551 out of 5

Keywords: googlevideo, Appalachian Culture, Women, Indian, Cherokee, Scots-Irish, North Carolina, Appalachia (Location), South, History, Documentary, women history, americana, american history, oral history, Museum, Culture (Type Of Museum), Culture Of The United States (Quotation Subject), Native Americans In The United States (Ethnicity), Native american, Full Documentary

Id: 6cOtlWYzMPo

Length: 42min 16sec (2536 seconds)

Published: Fri May 04 2012

Reddit Comments

[u/Kujo17]

Coming from a long line of Appalachians through and through I'm always happy when I see it being discussed outside of niche forums. Appalachian history, culture, folklore etc. Is something I love sharing with people never exposed to it past the stereotypical view of us 'mountain folk' one usually sees. Theres so much more I wish people knew. Cant wait to watch this!

[u/yodatsracist]

There’s a great documentary called Voices of North Carolina made by people in the UNC-Chapel Hill linguistics department and it just goes through all the different regional accents within just North Carolina.

Here’s the full one hour documentary.

Here’s it in playlist form. I don’t know if it has all the segments, but there’s segments on the Outer Banks accent (“Hoi Toid”, used on islands off the coast and sounding almost Irish or Scottish; sadly dying out), Lumbee (if I remember correctly, the Lumbee are a triracial isolate, meaning they are a defined ethnic group having mixed Native American, White, and Black ancestry), Mountain Talk (up in Appalachia), Cherokee (which is a separate living language), African-American (called by many scholars African-American Vernacular English/AAVE or just Black English), Spanish/Hispanic English in North Carolina, and Urban Southern (unlike a somewhere like Texas, a lot of people even in the big cities do not have a General American Accent).

Even more language documentaries by the same group here (a lot of them are just longer looks at one of those seven groups).

[u/lorencsr]

I watched it all and thoroughly enjoyed it. Thx for posting.

[u/DevOpsFu]

I think the second lady also appears in this video about Appalachian English:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03iwAY4KlIU&feature=youtu.be&t=330

(Another fascinating watch, by the way)

​

Edit: the full documentary that the above clip is taken from is here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHIJfbYhQFg

[u/wildidle]

This is awesome. Thanks for posting. I’m fascinated by the people of Appalachia but especially the working classes. I’m Scottish so I have that connection, but I grew up in areas similar to the region. The doc on Harlan County could’ve easily been made where I grew up!

[u/rookerer]

Lived in rural Eastern Kentucky my whole life.

Will have to watch this when I get more time, thank you for sharing.

[u/Echoboxcar]

This a brilliant population of people. I'm from deep, deep, in the mountains around Perry County Kentucky. Proud to be from there. Hope some day I can give back. The communities there deserve a lot more than narcotic dependency and poverty.

[u/agent-oranje]

Completely unrelated, from the small thumbnail on my phone, I thought it was Prison Mike

[u/[deleted]]

This was wonderful. I wish I had grown up that way.