Founding
Retired Army Colonel Marty Hagerstrand is credited as the founder of the Cherokee Heritage Center in 1962. Col. Hagerstrand had begun research in Cherokee history and culture, first as a hobby in the late 1950s. Joining him in this endeavor was Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation William Wayne Keeler. Chief Keeler had publicly stated that he supported preservation of Cherokee culture and heritage.
The concept behind the Heritage Center was economic development combined with cultural preservation. Hagerstrand recognized the cultural value of the Cherokees in Tahlequah, and Chief Keeler helped him to understand and appreciate more. The first newspaper in Oklahoma was the Cherokee Advocate, published September 26, 1844.
The first four years the Heritage Center was in the basement of Mr. Hagerstrand's home. In 1966, a formal design contract was negotiated with the architectural-engineering firm of Hudgins, Thompson, Ball, and Associates (of Tulsa, Oklahoma), which included a provision that Charles “Chief” Boyd would be the designer of the project. Mr. Boyd and his family then moved to Tulsa from Colorado and joined the firm.
Resource materials on Cherokee culture and history were available in the Cherokee Collection at the library of the local college – Northeastern State University (NSU). There was also a collection of papers and pamphlets at the Gilcrease Institute in Tulsa and pertinent reports of the Bureau of American Ethnology of the Smithsonian Institution. The late Dr. Jack Frederick Kilpatrick, a noted scholar of Cherokee heritage and student of Cherokee history (then Professor of Music at Southern Methodist University) offered substantial guidance and technical advice during the planning period and during construction of the village. Date and descriptions developed by Drs. Kneberg and Lewis at the University of Tennessee were also helpful. Architect Boyd also researched the Cherokee past, with particular attention to structures, and arrived independently at a “format” for the ancient village which corresponded basically to previous concepts developed by Hagerstrand and Kilpatrick.
Read more about this topic: Cherokee Heritage Center, History of The Cherokee Heritage Center
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