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The People:
Gilbert Crowe
Gilbert Crowe (1938-2005) was born and raised in the Big Y community of the Qualla Boundary along Wright’s Creek. He remembered being “intrigued with wood” since he was ten years old while watching his father, Albert Crowe, make bows and arrows, blowguns, and ball sticks. At that time, his main opportunity to handle wood came as he cut sticks for his family’s wood stove. “I had fantasies about what I could do with wood. The best I can remember, I made little animals out of sap knots on trees.” Inspired by nature, he recalled that even as a child, “I could look at an old laurel root and see a cat or a mountain lion.”
Read more about Gilbert Crowe on the Cherokee Traditions website.