The area known today as Charlotte was inhabited pre-contact by various tribes, predominantly the Catawba. Today, however, Native Americans make up only about 0.5% of Charlotte’s total population (according to a 2010 census), we are dealing with a rather different situation compared to other ethnic minorities. Rather than a direct focus on living conditions or social inclusion, it makes more sense to devote attention to their culture and history and how these inform the present. Hence, the two main types of proposals we would like to make concerning Native Americans have to do with their contributions to Charlotte’s history on the one hand and their continued presence on the other, in order to avoid reaffirming the settler-colonialist notions of Native Americans as something of the past.
First and foremost the focus should be on demonstrating to people that Native Americans are still very much alive and kicking so to speak and one major way to do this is by organizing events that celebrate the cultural richness and diversity of the tribes, not just in the Charlotte area, but also in North Carolina at large and in the area more generally. The latter is particularly important because Charlotte is right on the border with South Carolina and not only is there a big population just across the border, these borders do not determine the Native American experience and it is therefore important to go beyond the local context and look across these artificial manifestations of space. One important first step toward the creation of such an event has already been taken and this is where existing organizations come in, such as the Metrolina Native American Association, a non-profit organization based in Charlotte. These have made important first steps in organizing events like this, but thus far they have not done a very good job of getting the message across to a more general audience. To achieve this, they may need to receive more funding to help draw attention to what they do, as well as to actually organize these events. One area of improvement in particular might be there online presence, as the website looks outdated and their Facebook page has only a little over a thousand followers; even though they post regularly, they are out of sight. Improvements in these areas might help raise awareness and help them promote events that could end up benefiting the Native American community of Charlotte and anyone else involved, even beyond the city limits.
Even though an organization that can function as a platform that facilitates communication between different groups is vital, especially with these kinds of events, another important step would be to firmly incorporate the historical achievements of Native Americans in Charlotte into the present. This way, Americans can actually take up space and thereby receive a place in the everyday lives of Charlotte’s population, year-round. To achieve this, there are a number of fairly straightforward measures that can be taken. This can include monuments and historical markers, or even (a series of) murals displaying important events in which Native Americans have played a role and to show people what life was like in the area before European settlement. Another development that might be worth considering is the direct ‘addition’ of a layer of history through the creation of a historical route, not unlike the Freedom Trail in Boston. These could potentially follow the trade routes that crossed at the site that is now Charlotte and made it such an appealing place for settlement. With the presence of such sites and spaces, education can also be facilitated through field trips that take school children from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg area uptown and have them interact with and reinterpret places that they are likely to be familiar with. This should go hand-in-hand with changes in the curricula, perhaps as part of a larger overhaul of the education system that incorporates local history. Finally (if this is not already the case), it might be worth considering to create a permanent exhibition on the local presence of Native Americans in the Charlotte Museum of History.
[sources: ]
http://www.census.gov/quickfacts/table/PST045215/3712000
http://www.metrolinanativeamericans.org/
https://www.facebook.com/MetrolinaNativeAmericanAssociation/?fref=ts
Vision for Charlotte 