Cherokee Fiddle: A Study in Cultural Hybridities

Despite a rich tradition of North American Indigenous fiddle playing, there is a severe lack of scholarship on the topic. This thesis works to mitigate that by highlighting marginalized voices among the Cherokee. To do so, I combine ethnographic fieldwork with an examination of archival materials to demonstrate how fiddling within the Cherokee Nation and Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians serves a wide variety of interrelationships that 1) forge a connection for Cherokee peoples to their sense of history as it relates to their music making; 2) create a focal point for Cherokee community events and expressions of identity; and 3) offer various bridges between Cherokee and non-Cherokee peoples through joint music-making practices, styles, and gatherings.

This argument draws on the concept of cultural hybridity as well as the lenses of identity, location of culture, and third space. I employ the work of Homi K. Bhabha (2003), Néstor García Canclini (1995), and Peter Burke (2009) to set a framework for analyzing hybridities in Cherokee fiddling, and I trace a network of contact zones (places where different cultures meet), convergence (the act of combining various cultures), and transculturation (a flow of information between cultures) that reveals how hybridities have supported a lasting tradition of Cherokee fiddle.

In establishing the foundation of Cherokee fiddle, I explore players past and present from both the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indian, in North Carolina, and the Cherokee Nation, in Oklahoma. Cherokee fiddling was deeply influenced by interactions between European settlers and Indigenous people, as well as by the displacements caused by the Indian Removal Act and Trail of Tears. Speaking to the role that diaspora has played in the development of style, I share stories of such fiddlers as Manco Sneed (1886-1975), Osey Helton (1879-1942), and Sam O'Fields (1934-2020), demonstrating their influences on fiddle traditions. Further, relying on contemporary collaborators, including Jerry Bigfeather and Regina Scott, I position activities at the Cherokee National Holiday Fiddle Contest in Tahlequah, Oklahoma as expressive of Cherokee identity, community, and homecoming. Overall, this research contributes to an underrepresented section of fiddle history and propels the Indigenous fiddle narrative forward.