Southern Appalachian Digital Collections

Western Carolina University (20) View all

Cherokee ball game: audience

  • wcu_cherokee_traditions-670.jp2
  • This photograph shows a group of Cherokees who have gathered to watch a traditional stickball game. Ball games were social occasions in the Cherokee community and provided recreation for the tribe. The photograph was made on the Qualla Boundary for the Smithsonian Institution's National Anthropological Archives, circa 1900, and was taken by an unknown photographer. Women wear traditional dress and head coverings and carry their babies in wraps on their backs.