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In
1989, Rodrick Beck, Phyllis Beck-Williams,
Gale Blue-Jones, Wenonah Haire,
Georgia Harris, Elizabeth Plyler,
Fred Sanders, the then assistant
chief, and Roger Trimnal decided
to form an entity for the preservation
of the Catawba Nation's culture.
These and other tribal members
felt that something needed to
be done about the state of the
Nation's culture. During the years
prior to the Nation's federal
re-recognition, they occasionally
worked out of the old school house
during the day because it had
no power or heat. In 1990, they
met in Chief Gilbert Blue's house
and incorporated the Catawba Cultural
Preservation Project. In that
same year, the old school house
was donated by the LDS Church
to the Tribe for one dollar, moved
to its present location and was
scheduled to be torn down. The
CCPP petitioned the Tribal Committee
in 1991 to lend it some money
for the restoration of the old
school house. It sat unusable
for another year or more until
the Catawba Indian Nation regained
its Federal recognition in 1993.
The building was renovated through
a grant from the Tribe, volunteer
labor from the Career Development
Center at York Technical College,
and additional help by tribal
and non-tribal volunteers for
use as shared office space for
the CCPP and the Tribal Government
until the Longhouse was finished
in 1996.
The CCPP is a non-profit organization,
whose all tribal board members
worked on a volunteer basis until
1993. From 1993 to 1995, the CCPP
grew from one employee to five
full-time employees. With the
growing public interest in the
culture and heritage of the Catawba
Indian Nation, the CCPP now employs
people in seven departments and
a craft store. The seven departments
are: Administrations, Programs,
Language, Archives, Archaeology,
Exhibits, and Maintenance. In
addition to these main departments,
several sub-departments function
under Administration; these are
Public Relations and Information
Technology and the Tribal Historic
Preservation Office.
After the departure of the Tribal
Government, the old school building
at one point housed all seven
departments. In 1995, a new maintenance
building was added to the grounds.
In 1996, the Archaeology department
moved out of the basement it shared
with Archives and into its own
building beyond the new maintenance
building. Finally, in 1999, the
Exhibits department received its
own building leaving the Administration,
the Craft store, the Programs
and Language Departments in more
comfortable shared spaces.
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©
2004 Claudia Y. Heinemann-Priest
& Catawba Cultural Preservation
Project.
Eedited for the web and updated
by J.R. Rice
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