Native American Cultural Sites Project

Organization Information:

Organization Name:
Wild South
City & State:
Asheville, 
North Carolina
Organization Website:
http://www.wildsouth.org
Organization's Mission Statement
Our Mission: Wild South is a non-profit grassroots organization whose mission is to inspire and empower people to protect and restore the native ecosystems of the Southeast!

Submission Information

Impact Essay
Our submission is a brochure designed to educate private landowners in the identification and preservation of cultural heritage sites found on their land. Western North Carolina was inhabited for thousands of years by the ancestors of the Eastern and Western Band of Cherokee Indians. The brochure is designed to gain current landowners trust to and inspire them to implement conservation easements as a tool to preserve their family farms, lands and important cultural sites . Lamar Marshall, Cultural Heritage Director with Wild South, designed the brochure using adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop. The project was donated at no cost to the Native American Cultural Sites Preservation Project which is sponsored by the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. While cultural heritage work may seem unrelated to environmental issues, Wild South has found that most Americans are deeply passionate about the environment and conservation when it relates to their cultural heritage and history. When Native tribes migrated across the American continent, it was a paradise of intact wilderness ecosystems. It was a land of clean water, clean air, rich topsoil and vast forests. The journals of Euro-Americans like Daniel Boone are filled with vivid descriptions of buffalo herds and lands filled with wild game. Our American heritage is an ecology of history that serves as a baseline for land conservation and restoration of impaired ecosystems. Our cultural heritage, history, national pride, freedom and conservation cannot be separated. Protecting culturally significant resources and historic districts on the landscape is a unique strategy that can protect the environment and wildlife habitat under in a manner consistent with the values of most Americans.
Submission Category
Environmental Impact Other Media
Supporting Work Files