Lia Waldrum and Levi West harvesting clay. Photo by Chris Reed
By Emma Castleberry
Access to raw materials for his craft can sometimes be a challenge for Levi West, a potter and member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI). “Our clay deposits were stolen long ago and a lot of what’s left today is owned by private landowners who probably don’t want you digging around on their property,” says West. He uses the example of the Kaolin clay deposits in Sylva. “I’m sure that was a great source of clay for my ancestors,” he says. “Some of the blue clay deposits we know of have been used up or lost because their location died with the person that knew about it.”
Blue clay, a mineral-rich, fine-grained soil, is favored by elder Cherokee artisans for making pottery. “Our grandparents and even some people my parents’ age talk about finding good blue clay and miss having it,” says West. “Not all blue clay is the same and there were favorite spots to get it because of the quality.”
Levi West harvesting clay
During a restoration project at Pleasant Grove, a site where nonprofit land trust Conserving Carolina is working to restore the natural floodplain of the French Broad River, contractors discovered a large amount of clay and alerted the nonprofit. “Sometimes clay is used in restoration projects to line the bottom of waterways and I imagine that’s why they even let us know in the first place, in case we were interested in using it in the project,” says Lia Waldrum, cultural resources and restoration coordinator at Conserving Carolina.
Waldrum knew through conversations with Cherokee artisans and partners that clay was a needed resource. “Oftentimes artists were driving hours to buy clay from specific sources,” she says. “When I heard the news, I went out to the site and there were huge mounds of soil everywhere, taller than me, in small hill formations all around the property, in varying colors and textures. I had no idea what clay looked like or felt like or what exactly Cherokee artisans were looking for.”
It was a near-miss: Waldrum almost left the site with an empty bucket that day. But she persisted and eventually found a pile of soil that looked different than anything else around the site. “It was a rich dark gray with streaks of black and the slightest bluish hue,” she says. “It was smooth and pliable to the touch, unmixed with the other soil around it.”
Road to Soco pot. Levi West, artist
She took a bucket of the clay to show Adam Griffith, the then-director of Revitalization of Traditional Cherokee Artisan Resources (RTCAR), a program connected to the Cherokee Preservation Foundation. Griffith called West. “I went and held the clay she brought and said I needed some,” West remembers. “It was great clay with minimal debris in it.” Waldrum and West traveled out to the Pleasant Grove site together, where West was able to harvest the clay with his friend Chris Reed. Waldrum asked for West’s input on the property and how else it could be used. “I saw an opportunity for an oasis of native plants and resources,” says West.
This sharing of resources, space and knowledge is the basis for a yearlong project funded by the Cherokee Preservation Foundation. Through this project, Conserving Carolina is partnering with the EBCI to plant and manage important Cherokee resources on preserves and restoration sites, expand access to those resources through long-term sustainable harvest agreements and collaborate on educational programs that focus on preserving Cherokee culture and heritage.
This partnership is demonstrative of a more holistic approach to conservation, one that not only centers plants, animals and the land but also the preservation of culture, history and people. “These things are intrinsically intertwined and when we try to separate culture and history and people from the ecosystem, we end up amputating the whole,” says Waldrum. “Historically, the conservation movement excludes humans from the land in the name of preserving ‘wild spaces.’ But in many Indigenous cultures, humans are understood to be a part of the working ecosystem and in relationship with the land. This Western separation of humans and nature means land has defined terms of use—hiking is okay but harvesting a white oak or edible plants is not.”
Kananesgi show. Levi West at art show. Photo by Bear Allison
Waldrum adds that the conservation movement itself must be founded in an acknowledgement that the lands we endeavor to protect are stolen. “Because of the role we play in our community as a land trust, it is our responsibility to utilize the direct and indirect influence we have over a significant amount of land to support the sovereignty of the Indigenous peoples of that land,” says Waldrum. “One of the ways we can do that is by expanding access for artisans to harvest—a form of Indigenous land management, tradition and relationship to the land.”
With the clay from Pleasant Grove, West threw a bowl with a design by Kevin Tafoya, which he fired in a traditional pit with an open fire. West studies under potter Tara McCoy and other community members and is relatively new to the craft. The bowl he made with the Pleasant Grove blue clay was the first project he completed from start to finish. “You will find a lot of designs used by all peoples of the southeast because there was so much contact and trade among each other,” he says. “But then you will notice a similar design or pattern on a pot that is specific to the area. I believe the people that lived in that area were using the landscape or something important about the area to create those designs and give their pottery an identity.”
For West, the partnership with Conserving Carolina allows better access to the raw materials he needs for his craft, but it also provides something more meaningful. “For Conserving Carolina to reach out to the people who have been stewards of this land since humans have inhabited this area speaks volumes about the intention of their work and the people involved with the organization,” he says. “Cherokee people are still here working with the same clay their ancestors did since time immemorial. If it was important to the ones that kept the art alive, then it is my responsibility to learn about it and share that with the next generation.”
To learn more, visit ConservingCarolina.org and CherokeePreservationFoundation.org. See more of West’s pottery on his Instagram, @j_l_west.
