Amanda Sequoyah Swimmer (October 27, 1921 – November 24, 2018) was an
Eastern Band Cherokee
The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI), (Cherokee: ᏣᎳᎩᏱ ᏕᏣᏓᏂᎸᎩ, ''Tsalagiyi Detsadanilvgi'') is a federally recognized Indian Tribe based in Western North Carolina in the United States. They are descended from the smal ...
potter. Swimmer's career focused on coil-built Cherokee pottery, and she worked to determine the name and function of these vessels. She was recognized in
North Carolina
North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and ...
for her contributions to the state's artistic and mountain heritage, and in 2018 she was named a Beloved Woman by the
Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians
The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI), (Cherokee: ᏣᎳᎩᏱ ᏕᏣᏓᏂᎸᎩ, ''Tsalagiyi Detsadanilvgi'') is a federally recognized Indian Tribe based in Western North Carolina in the United States. They are descended from the smal ...
.
Early life and education
Swimmer was born Amanda Mabel Sequoyah to Molly Davis Sequoyah and Runningwolf Sequoyah on October 27, 1921 on the
Qualla Boundary in North Carolina.
[ Amanda was the youngest of 12.] As a child, she lived with her family in a log cabin in Big Cove, a community of the Qualla Boundary. Her family was self-sufficient and grew all of its own food.[ As a child, she attended Big Cove Day School.][Swimmer, Amanda. Interview with Susan Gardner. Personal Interview, 13 October 1995, UNCC. Qualla Boundary, North Carolina. https://nsv.uncc.edu/interview/nasw0015.html]
Pottery
Swimmer taught herself to form and fire pots after discovering a deposit of clay near her home in the Big Cove community. She sold her first pots to tourists brought to her home by a park ranger familiar with her work.
At the age of 36, Swimmer began working at the Oconaluftee Indian Village
The Oconaluftee Indian Village is a replica of an 18th-century eastern Cherokee community founded in 1952 and located along the Oconaluftee River in Cherokee, North Carolina, United States.
History
The Cherokee "living museum" founded by the Ea ...
, where Mabel Bigmeat taught her Cherokee pottery-building methods. Swimmer demonstrated pottery making at the village for more than 35 years, often building more than a thousand pots in a summer season. Swimmer was one of the first individuals to propose different uses and names for traditional Cherokee pottery.
Swimmer was instrumental in reviving historic Cherokee pottery techniques that had fallen into disuse in North Carolina after the disruption of the mass Cherokee removal from their homelands to Indian Territory
The Indian Territory and the Indian Territories are terms that generally described an evolving land area set aside by the United States Government for the relocation of Native Americans who held aboriginal title to their land as a sovereign ...
west of the Mississippi River in 1839. lands in the American West. Swimmer did not use a potter's wheel to create any of her work. Instead, she built all of her pottery by shaping it only with her hands. She used various types of wood to fire it, and the final color of her pottery was determined by the type of wood that she used in firing.[
]
Legacy and honors
*In 1994 Swimmer received the North Carolina Heritage Award
The North Carolina Heritage Award is an annual award given out by the North Carolina Arts Council, an agency of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, in recognition of traditional artists from the U.S. state of North Caro ...
.
*In 2009 she received the Mountain Heritage Award from Western Carolina University
Western Carolina University (WCU) is a public university in Cullowhee, North Carolina. It is part of the University of North Carolina system.
The fifth oldest institution of the sixteen four-year universities in the UNC system, WCU was founded ...
for her work in traditional pottery.
*In 2018 the federally recognized Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians
The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI), (Cherokee: ᏣᎳᎩᏱ ᏕᏣᏓᏂᎸᎩ, ''Tsalagiyi Detsadanilvgi'') is a federally recognized Indian Tribe based in Western North Carolina in the United States. They are descended from the smal ...
honored Swimmer as a ''Beloved Woman'', the highest award it bestows on a member. At the time, Swimmer was one of three living recipients of this honor.
Personal life and death
Swimmer (née Sequoyah) was 16 when she married Luke Swimmer. Luke was eleven years her senior, a widower and a father. After marriage she became a step-mother to his daughter, Mary Ellen. She said that they met at church: “Well, he used to stay over there across on the other side of the mountain; we went to church and we just got together, I met him there.” Together the Swimmers had nine children together, six boys and three girls.
Swimmer was quoted as saying "I wouldn't take nothing to leave out of here. I'm 81. I've been here since I was born, and I don't tend to go nowheres. I just want to leave this world right here where I was born."
Swimmer died at her home in Big Cove on November 23, 2018 at the age of 97.Beautiful Soul: Beloved Woman Amanda Swimmer Passes Away
'' Cherokee One Feather'', November 2018
See also
* Jeremiah Wolfe
* Myrtle Driver Johnson
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Swimmer, Amanda
1921 births
2018 deaths
Cherokee artists
Eastern Band Cherokee people
Native American potters
People from Swain County, North Carolina
Artists from North Carolina
American women ceramists
20th-century Native American women
20th-century Native Americans
21st-century Native American women
21st-century Native Americans
20th-century American ceramists
20th-century American women artists
21st-century American ceramists
21st-century American women artists