Traditions: Ohio Heritage Fellows; 102; Edwin George interview, part 3 of 10

Q:

Edwin: Yea, first I just... my daddy just brought me down there I couldn’t speak no English... I speak in my own language and that’s... it’s called Cherokee. And uh... they put me in there... I don’t know how I learned it. I still remember my teachers but I don’t... I couldn’t figure that how did I learn the English. I still get mixed up my own words both of ‘em.

Q:

Edwin: I’m from Cherokee.

Q:

Edwin: And then um, this one guy moved to... to Oklahoma, that’s the one leftover. My... my ancestor, I guess. They said they were just... few people who hi—hid in the mountain, I guess they kill a couple soldiers that’s why they took off and that’s all uh, on uh, and the rest was already travelling out West, uh-huh... that they... they about eighty thousand Indians out west. We just (inaudible) few. About thirty thousand Cherokee that when we started had a few of ‘em that came down from the mountain. Then we had to join with the white people, see to get along with. That’s how today we are. That’s why you can’t get Indian just for ever you speak my language, I’m the only ones... four hundred, they said out of nine—thirty thousand and uh, speak in Cherokee. And uh, I’m one—I’m one of ‘em uh, then we loosen their language with a lot I’m trying to teach. But I’m trying to help a little bit, but uh, I ain’t doing any good to me, uh-huh, so... it’s to uh... they rarely speak English I think, just tell the truth, they really speak English. I got grandkids. The one right here he don’t speak English. In Cherokee he speak English right now... the ones walkin out there. And they got four grandkid, they speak English. And my daughter speak Engl—my son speak English, so...me and my brothers only speak it when they come to see me, so that’s where it is. And (inaudible) the ones... the old ones...living it... they speak oh, our language, uh-huh. I still wish they’d get to meet some of ‘em. And some of ‘em I talk—I talk to my kids would stand there confused by it, start talking in Cherokee. They said, I don’t understand what you said I only speak English. Then I just laugh. My own people... my own (inaudible).

Q:

Edwin: Well... I learned a lot uh, mostly food, you know, mushrooms and uh, how to get food in the mountain. And uh, almost forgot (inaudible) see, I’ve been away so much. I still remember few I eat in summertime, like a pork salad, I can eat that and... we call (inaudible) it’s a corn flour and uh, well, I eat that and... and a few mushroom, I can still think of it... not all of ‘em. See as you get old you forget uh-huh, so... but I still fry meat, eat cornbread and uh... but we ate... I know we ate fish, we ate red horse. I guess you had to buy red horse... we didn’t eat... we didn’t eat no trout. We caught plenty of trout but they’d been stocked. (inaudible) we love... minnows... I loved those, uh-huh... red horse and minnows... and perch they were down loved those, uh-huh. And uh... we ate a lot of things. We ate uh, (inaudible) locusts. They’re good to eat, locusts. And uh, daddy we’d look—pick ‘em up uh, while they’re quiet. And roast ‘em, they’d turn like uh, like uh, hollow... it’s not hollow, but they do, what was that...we’re used in a... and we ate uh, yellow jacket... baby yellow jacket. You could do the same thing with them. Not... not hornets, but yellow jackets. And rabbit and squirrels and uh, but the deer w— we didn’t see, we mm, are... we didn’t eat no bear meat so, but uh, to tell the truth and uh, we’d eat rabbit squirrels, I guess mostly. And sometime we shoot couple of quails and uh, pheasant, you—and um, and a lot of things uh, crawfish, I love crawfish. Put ‘em in deep fried grease, they turn red and then uh, just uf—you can just crunch... they’re crunchy. For the south (inaudible) I love those uh-huh... that’s what we ate, uh-huh.

Q:

Edwin: Not really... I just learned from different people. Time I go home I ask somebody be telling me them sit down and tell story, then I learned a couple of from him. Lou... you’d be surprised, each year they knows different stories. It’s not theirs. You’d think... when they didn’t do, I don’t know all the stories really. And daddy, maybe he just taught me once in a while. You just... really... and the momma, that will tell you a couple of ‘em and that’s it. Really daddy and um, old days they didn’t allow to tell stories, so it’s just what I heard and what I’d done that’s what I’d do from uh, I do daddy’s uh-huh. And um, when the Indian deaths they had, they didn’t let kids see... to do the dance, to go in there, so... and today you see Indian dancing that’s different, uh-huh, along with their tribe, that didn’t last. Kids would get in there. But fig—kids figured out how they did it, probably. And um, really I did learn an older story from my daddy. Really, daddy and I once sit down tell stories uh, not mantra, maybe some do, uh-huh. That’s what I learned from my daddy, said we don’t tell stories. He said to keep it going and just hear it somebody be talking about it. He had to talk about himself. He can’t say, I’m gonna tell you a story. So, that’s the way I learned, uh-huh.

Q:

Edwin: Uh, I didn’t... you mean from the start uh, ok? I was really I wasn’t artist and uh, I just started my own that self taught artist. And um, before I was working in the construction company and uh, sometime we didn’t work all—all the winter and we did best we can to eat what mother... mother and daddy canned in the summer. And cornbread, we had to walk seven... seven mile called (inaudible) North Carolina, there’s a mill over there and we carried all the men on our shoulders and we made it through corn (inaudible) and sometime we had three times a day cornbread, so we couldn’t afford flour and uh, and uh, later on you just get... as we grew up I found I’d be a dishwasher at a bus station and later on my two brothers they found it so (inaudible) and they changed... they changed, uh-huh... we didn’t eat all day. We ate like a hog kill and chicken been killed. It’s pure, it’s not binge all (inaudible) been done uh-huh. And they’d... it changed just a whole lot. And we start buying hot dogs and bologna, then uh, really... and uh, and hamburgers. We didn’t eat no hamburgers. And uh, I growed up with no hamburgers and no hot dog and that’s uh... and anything that... that’s when it’s... it changed our... our body. And uh, that’s why I’m still... I... and uh, I still fry meat completely uh-huh, you know. And, like I said fried taters and fried sweet potatoes and everything, I still do that, uh-huh. I really eat that like that, uh-huh.

Q:

Edwin: Not much but, like I s—like I said, not much but few things I learned from her like few myths and like my daddy and momma and uh, and there wasn’t... see why they won’t tell myths is they were serious myth. They said that those are not supposed to be told. But, it does today, uh-huh... somebody... I guess I could just tell the truth and uh, somebody paid ‘em to pay a person. That’s why they come out with. You see myth in a book if you paying somebody, lower, they’re greedy uh-huh, so that’s what happened, they said, uh- huh. Really, they’re not supposed to be told. It just... when you tell one, just like it gives something away... that’s what they fear. Just l-they said just let it go.

Q:

Edwin: Nine... they... they said nineteen eighty... I thought I s—I guess so, I started in 1984 working uh, Kent State University and uh, and later on I was sketching all the time through people were. And my wife was from Akron woman I met from Cherokee... he was working in new uh, Holiday Inn, and she brought me over here and um, I keep sketching people. He picked... I didn’t know he picked ‘em up after... he saved ‘em... then uh, he sent it to somebody else in Circleville, (inaudible) you know, and (inaudible) sent one back. He said tell (inaudible) paint this. You can ask Louis right now. He sent it back to my wife. And I p—I didn’t know enough about paint. And uh, my wife said he knows all about it, see, and he got which one you like, oil, water, uh-huh? I didn’t like oil and the... uh, the other kind, I like the acrylic. So, and then my wife got me acrylic and that’s where I started, my first picture, Dr. (inaudible), Columbus, his wife got the picture now. Dr. (inaudible) died a couple years ago (inaudible). And um, that’s how I started. Louis and Tony really pushed and my wife, all three of ‘em pushed... had to be today. That’s why I’m proud of my wife, I’m proud of them (inaudible)... I stop every once in a while to see them. I supposed to stop this... when I go home and see them and uh, and I really proud of them, all three, they... that’s why my wife died and I haven’t even looked for another woman. I’m proud of her. I thought I’ll s—I’ll see her again one of these days. I did what she did for me, uh-huh. She... I was uh, before she married me they said, I used to smoke three packs a day. He said if you quit smoking I’ll marry you and if you keep drinking, I’ll marry you too. I quit drinking, that’s twenty-four years ago and quit smoking... I quit smoking. It was rough and hard. Anybody can do it if I can do it. I just quit without a doctor.