DATE:       11/1/05

CONTACT: Karen Hall, (864) 656-0721

WRITER:    Diane Palmer, (864) 656-4741

New garden at Clemson takes direction from the Cherokees

CLEMSON – The Cherokee say that to know who you are, you must first know where you are.

This philosophical outlook is the reason the entrance to a new Cherokee Garden at Clemson University faces east, according to Karen Hall, lecturer with S.C. LIFE and the Biological Sciences Department.

“All good things come from the East,” said Myrtle Driver, tribal cultural traditionalist with the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.

The idea for the garden came from Hall’s dissertation studies with the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians. A grant from the Provost’s Innovation Fund in 2002 permitted Hall to bring it to life.

“I am focused on how Cherokees use plants, particularly for medicine,” said Hall. “While interviewing Cherokee elders about how they use plants, I discovered that they have a significantly different view of the natural world than we do.”

This viewpoint stuck with Hall, so she decided to design the garden to speak to the Cherokee worldview.

Translating worldview in a garden is much harder to do than simply showing a group of plants and how they are used, according to Hall.

“The Cherokee worldview encompasses things like direction, water, significant numbers such as 4, 7 and 12, and balance,” she said.

The Cherokee have a ceremony called ‘going to water’ that emphasizes the importance of water to daily life, according to Hall. So the dry creek bed implies the presence of water.

Hall said that medicine for the Cherokee has a much wider meaning than mainstream American culture. Medicine is physical, spiritual and mental. Being out of balance in any of these areas implies illness. On the site, a circular structure is meant to represent the connectedness of things like medicine and balance.

Plants are placed on the site with respect to number -- planting sometimes in groups of 4 or 7. Flower color can be significant.

“I hope that balance, or the right way, is implied, and that people, as a result of a visit to this garden, will look at nature with new eyes,” said Hall.

She said that in addition to the Clemson students, who have built the garden; the Cherokees have been involved from the very beginning of the project.

“We held a meeting in April last year and invited them to see our progress,” said Hall.

Driver mentioned that when she visited the site of the gardens that it felt like a “place of comfort.”

“Though we are trying hard to be respectful and reflective of true Cherokee culture, this garden is our interpretation of their culture,” said Hall. “I have made this point to the Cherokee, and it is one that is important. As we move forward with the project, we hope to continue to be honest to the culture that inspired this garden.”

Throughout the development of the garden, students have been involved in every aspect -- from design, transplanting and growing plants to development of interpretive products, site preparation, site clearing, grant writing and other fundraising.

On October 25th, students, professors, botanical garden personnel and community members volunteered their labor to install the garden, located close to the Campbell Geology Museum in the South Carolina Botanical Garden.

“As we move forward with the project, we are working on finding funding,” said Hall. “This will enable us to buy more plants for the garden, install more garden features and work with the Cherokee on high tech video interpretation of the garden.”

Numerous departments and organizations on and off campus have been involved with this project.

For more information about the garden, contact Hall at (864) 656-0721 or carlson@clemson.edu.

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