Cherokee stickball players

Cherokee stickball players

Athletics

Cherokee Indians

Cherokee Indians -- Children

Cherokee Indians -- Games

Children

Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians

Portraits, Group

School grounds

Students -- North Carolina -- Cherokee

A group of Cherokee stickball players stand on the grounds of the Government Indian School on the Qualla Boundary holding ball sticks. Ball games were once referred to as “little brother of war” because it prepared players for war, and because it was sometimes used to settle disputes that could otherwise lead to war. Over time stickball has become a much less violent game but remains socially and culturally important. The photograph was taken by “Doc” Kelly Bennett (1890-1974), a prominent pharmacist in Swain County, NC. Owner of the Bryson City Drug Company, Bennett served as alderman and mayor of Bryson City, on the Swain County Board of Education, as well as several terms as NC State Senator and NC State Representative. He participated in numerous other initiatives and organizations. Known as the “Apostle of the Smokies,” Bennett was an instrumental figure in the movement to create the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. He was also an avid photographer, skillfully documenting a wide variety of people, places, and events in Swain County and the surrounding area.

Bennett, Kelly, 1890-1974

Kelly Bennett Collection

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

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

jpg;

negatives (photographs)

portraits

eng

StillImage

42575

https://southernappalachiandigitalcollections.org/object/42575

2021-05-21

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

Qualla Boundary

North Carolina, Western

Appalachian Region, Southern

Cherokee (N.C.)

3.5" x 5.75"(dimension)

Picturing Appalachia