"the People's Paths!" Cherokee News Path - Cherokee Nation Contributes $10K

Photo: (left to right) Tina Glory Jordan and Bill John Baker, Cherokee Nation tribal councilors representing Cherokee County, Shirley Pettengill, Murrell Home site manager, Belinda Burnett, secretary, Friends of the Murrell Home, Veronica Gaston, Murrell Home Cherokee interpreter, Jennifer Sparks, president, Friends of the Murrell Home, Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chad Smith and Cherokee Nation Deputy Principal Chief Joe Grayson, Jr.

TAHLEQUAH, Oklahoma - Cherokee Nation recently contributed $10,000 to Friends of the Murrell Home, a support group that helps raise funds for preservation and education projects for the Murrell Home Museum in Park Hill.

“This contribution will make it possible to have an interpreter for the Murrell Home projects,” said Shirley Pettengill, site manager for the Murrell Home. “We wouldn’t have the ability to do what we do without the help and partnership of the Friends of the Murrell Home.”

The ability to have an interpreter on site at the museum helps to educate students and other visitors about how some Cherokee families lived in the 1850s and the daily tasks and activities that took place back then. Several hands on activities are available for learning and participation for all visitors.

“When the school kids go through you can just tell them something and it only stays with them for a while, but when you teach them and allow them to do hands on activities they learn more about Cherokee culture,” said Belinda Burnett, secretary of Friends of the Murrell Home. The Murrell Home has 20 to 25 schools booked for this April and May.

The contribution will allow the Murrell Home to have more hands on activities for all visitors and will help support its Cherokee living history cultural program, the Daniel Cabin, which shows how a typical Cherokee family lived in the 1850s. The cabin is open to the public Wednesdays through Sundays from April to October.

The Murrell Home is the only remaining antebellum plantation home in the present-day Cherokee Nation. Constructed in 1845, it was owned originally by George Murrell, whose wife Minerva was the niece of then-Principal Chief John Ross. The home and 45-acre grounds contain original and period artifacts, and provide visitors a glimpse into the well-to-do lifestyle practiced by some Cherokee citizens during that time period.