Cherokee exhibit opens at Fort Necessity National Park
FARMINGTON — An 18th century British officer spoke of his time among the Cherokee tribe on Saturday at the Fort Necessity National Battlefield’s visitor center.
The park’s latest exhibit, “Emissaries of Peace: The 1762 Cherokee and British Delegations,” opened on Saturday.
A historic re-enactor, Travis Henline wore a tri-corner hat, white gloves along with a red and blue uniform common to a colonial officer in the 1760s. As Lt. Henry Timberlake, Henline never broke from character.
“The Cherokee carried themselves with an air of dignity — a strong people,” said Henline, director of the West Virginia Independence Museum in Wheeling, W.Va.
Barbara Duncan is the author of “Emissaries of Peace Exhibit Catalogue” and “Culture, Crisis & Conflict: Cherokee and British Relations 1756-1765.”
“The Cherokee played an important but little known part in American history during the early years of our country,” said Duncan, education director for the Museum of the Cherokee Indian. “Visitors can learn about Cherokee clothing, warfare, dances and traditions through this exhibit. We are very excited to get to tell the Cherokee story in Pennsylvania.”
Jeff Reinbold, superintendent for Western Pennsylvania’s National Parks, said about 85 people attended the presentation and toured the exhibit on Saturday.
“This is fantastic,” he said. “It’s great to see so many people come out to learn about the Cherokee and Fort Necessity.”
Speaking with a blended British and colonial accent as Timberlake, Henline explained that the British had been at war with the Cherokee, but a shaky peace had been restored. Timberlake’s mission was to meet and greet with the Cherokee to ensure that as hostilities ceased, peace prevailed.
Timberlake had a journalistic bent who would later write his memoirs about this Native American tribe, words that still echo today among historians wanting to know about these people and their times.
During Timberlake’s travels, Henline said, he smoked the peace pipe quite a bit with Cherokee leaders, though he never acquired a taste for tobacco. Henline said the Cherokee were fond of dances. They loved their children and parents were more inclined to chide than punish with a rod.
Unlike divorce today, Henline said, Cherokee women just kicked their husbands out of their homes. These men had to move back to their parent’s home.
Henline said the Cherokee valued personal cleanliness more so than the Europeans who the Cherokee saw as a dirty people because they rarely bathed.
To find out how Timberlake died, one must check out the exhibit and ask questions. The exhibit is a kick-off for summer festivities and National Park Week which began Saturday and ends Sunday. Park admission is free this week.
Many school children filled out little coloring and worksheets as they listened intently to Henline’s speech.
“It’s nice to see so many young people checking out the exhibit,” Reinbold said.
Seneca Hager, 10, of Farmington is a fourth-grade student at Wharton Elementary.
“I learned how the Cherokee were educated and what they ate. I didn’t know that before,” she said.
Hager’s mother, Susan, described the exhibit is “a good family activity.”