Interview with Betty DuPree

Interview with Betty DuPree

Arts

Cherokee art -- Economic aspects

Cherokee Indians -- Attitudes

Community organizations

DuPree, Betty Craig, 1929-2012

Indigenous American reservations

Indigenous American tourism

Qualla Arts and Crafts Mutual, Inc.

Tourism

Tourists -- North Carolina -- Cherokee Indian Reservation

Betty DuPree of Cherokee, the manager of Qualla Arts & Crafts Mutual, begins by discussing the history of Qualla Arts & Crafts, which began in 1946 and has been important in preserving traditional Cherokee crafts and has had a great impact on the local economy. She began working with the organization in the 1970s, and she talks about the administrative and organizational structure of the organization and its dealings with individual craftspeople, as well as its trade with other Indian tribes. DuPree addresses some issues with fraudulent crafts and compliance with federal laws about Indian crafts and the importance of authenticity, and then talks about the importance of tourism to the Cherokee economy and her perception of the tourists who come through the area. She then discusses how crafts are sold through the mail, and tells some anecdotes about some of the more unusual things that the shop has sold and discusses how she promotes the cooperative and what it offers. The interview then shifts to the growth of tourism in Cherokee and how the cooperative’s business has grown along with it, and she talks about the increasing numbers of people claiming Indian heritage and her attitudes toward them. Tourism is then discussed again, and DuPree talks about how tourists are perceived in the Cherokee community as well as the attitudes of tourists themselves, and their expectations and lack of knowledge about the Cherokee. DuPree also offers the interviewer suggestions of people he should speak with about tourism, and she spends some time talking about foreign perceptions of the Cherokee and other American Indians and the demographics of American tourists in Cherokee and how it changes over the course of the tourist season.

DuPree, Betty Craig, 1929-2012

WCU Mountain Heritage Center Oral Histories

Hunter Library Digital Collections, Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, NC 28723

1940s; 1970s; 1980s; 1990s;

1996-03-04

Mansfield, William

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/

audio/mp3; application/pdf;

sound recordings

transcripts

interviews

eng

Sound

Text

35637

https://southernappalachiandigitalcollections.org/object/35637

2015-05-22

All rights reserved. For permissions, contact Hunter Library Digital Collections, Western Carolina U, Cullowhee, NC 28723;

Qualla Boundary

Appalachian Region, Southern

North Carolina

01:18:37 (sound recording)(duration)

21 pages (transcript)(duration)

Oral Histories of Western North Carolina