Joyce Dugan

Cherokee Eastern Band, and

Director of Communications,

Harrah's Cherokee Casino.

Joyce marries education with the paramount task of creating and sustaining economic viability for the Cherokee nation. “We should always be thinking about developing someone who is going to take our place. When you value your work and what you do, you want someone to do a good job in it too.”

Education has been a strong influence in Joyce’s life. As a child, she was taunted with shouts of “half-breed” from her peers. She became timid, shy, withdrawn. A minister’s wife saw her abilities. She encouraged Joyce to attend a girl’s school in Georgia. That experience changed Joyce’s life. For the first time, someone told her she was capable, that she could do better. It sparked her confidence. She graduated valedictorian of her class. She began working as a teacher’s aid and then went on to college, got her degree and became a teacher. Her goal was to give back – to be an advocate for education.

She’s had to play hardball on education, though. “When we established the Cherokee Development Program, it was I who said (candidates) must have a degree. To me, that just meant that someone had the stick-to-it-ness to achieve a degree. That tells me something about that person.” When tribal members complained, Joyce was called before the Tribal Council to justify her education requirements.

It is Joyce Dugan’s voice, heralding the work of her ancestors, which brings Sequoyah to the 21st century Tribal Council decision-making process. “Since Sequoyah, this tribe has stressed education. It’s time to put our money where our mouth is. Education just sets someone apart. It’s time we began to recognize education.” Education requirements stand.

Tribal member entrepreneurship is in the economic development vision Joyce holds. “One of the things the tribe is working on right now is an incubator to help people get started in business. We’re starting to see ourselves as business owners.” She wants to see the money generated on the Qualla Boundary spent in locally owned businesses.

Interview:

Although growth and financial gain now exist for the Cherokee Eastern Band it’s not the only benefit gaming brings to those living in the Qualla boundary.

 With a growing desire to give back to the community, the Cherokee Eastern Band is embracing its heritage by building a legacy of integrity and strength.

Joyce Dugan is a member of the Cherokee Eastern Band and the Director of Communications for Harrah’s Cherokee Casino. Beginning as a special education teacher, she later became Superintendent of Schools in the Qualla boundary; and in 1995 she was elected Chief of the Eastern Band.  She says becoming Chief enabled her to put into practice what she was taught as a child.  

 “It was very important to me even as an educator, I saw our kids moving away from their culture or struggling within it to try to fit into two worlds. Before I left the school system we had required that the culture and traditions be incorporated and integrated throughout the whole curriculum.  We had Cherokee history classes but I always felt in my heart that the school couldn’t carry this by itself that government had to take the lead.  And I strongly believe that.  That, when government said “We are going to put an emphasis on our culture and on our traditions, then it’s going to flow down easily.”

But the children weren’t the only ones who needed to be educated about their cultural heritage.  Dugan says many adults suffered untold humiliations by having to deny their language and their roots.  

“When I was growing up my mother spoke the language. She had been in boarding schools where her language was forbidden.  When she had children, she had in essence said, “You don’t need to learn Cherokee because you need to learn English so you can get along in this world. That’s what she had been taught. So consequently, a whole generation of us was lost to it.”

And now that lost generation has the opportunity though gaming monies to place a stronger emphasis on school programs for both children and their parents by teaching the importance of not only learning the language but using it.  Dugan says,

“The Tribe is putting a lot of money into a total emersion program, that has babies learning it from the time they are able to enter a daycare... because they have gaming they are able to do that.  That’s how critical it is throughout Indian country. That risk of loosing their language, because once you loose the language that’s the core of your culture.”

And although language is at the core of the Cherokee culture, Dugan says placing an emphasis on teaching Native history must also be incorporated into school curriculum.  She says textbooks today just barely touch on Indian history.

“There is a very strong reluctance in the country to tell the real story…it’s shameful.  You know we are judging other countries and taking action against them for doing the very things that this country did.  And I’m not saying that in a bitter way, you know…I think we are moving forward but, let me give you an example. I once was invited to the White House during one of Hillary’s Evenings and Eli Wazel was going to be there speaking about his time in the concentration camp….I could ask a question or make a comment, and I had to send it in.  In my comment I made a reference to the fact that Indians in this country have been subject to our own holocaust in a sense.  When I got up there, I was called aside and told your comments are a little bit lengthy; can we shorten them a little bit?  And I said certainly, I can cut out some of it.  And she handed me my paper and she said could you cut this part out? And it was the part about the holocaust. And I said sure, but I didn’t. So I did get to ask my question. And I recall Elli Wazel was not familiar apparently about Native peoples across this country and our history.  And President Clinton answered the question, that “We have mistreated our own Native people here, and we have a long way to come, to overcome that, and Native peoples are still struggling.  But I think this country is ashamed of that. If they are not ashamed they should be.”

And that’s the reason Dugan says that the schools in the Qualla Boundary work so hard at making sure true Native history is taught by their teachers.  She says,

“So by the time a kid graduates, they know.  They’ve been exposed to the history and the language and they can take language more advance as an elective”

Dugan says this also prepares students later for college.

“I would have hoped that we would have instilled such a strong sense of preservation and protection that they would speak out.  And I think that is happening on campuses where you have a group of Indian students who are speaking out, saying “this is what we want; and this is what is needed.”

Dugan says almost every state in the US has some Native history in it and if each state individually taught the Native history of its state it would go a long way in reinforcing the geographic Native culture and heritage in each region.

“If a Native person is included in a book it’s because they helped save a white man, or they did something for a white man.  Look at Pocahannas, Sacajwajah, and Nancy Ward.  Now think about that…It’s because they were connected and did something for a white woman, or white person or group.  That’s what made them famous. They were not famous in their own right.  Or they fought valiantly against a white army. That’s how they made the history books. But there was so much more to our culture that should be recorded.”

And Dugan says Native history isn’t the only thing that is not being recorded correctly. She says although gaming has made life a little easier for the Cherokee, it has in no way made them wealthy.

“Sometime during the winter unemployment would go to 46-percent.  So when they began to say this would offer year round employment I remember thinking “That’s the key.” If we can get jobs here…forget all this other stuff about making all these millions we might make. Gosh, we need year round jobs.  Because we cannot keep up this dependency on someone else or on an institution like we have been doing. It’s a horrible thing to do to people. And it was just continuing to be past down from one generation to another.”

Although Dugan says there were not many employment options for the majority of the Eastern Band, there were still some who completed college and returned to the territory.

And even though jobs were scarce in the winter the fear of the unknown left some of the community does religious and cultural traditionalist want answers to any problems gaming might bring. She says,

“When I was still in education the discussions began I think it was in 1994. And the Indian game and Regulatory Act that allowed gaming by Tribes was passed in 1988, so we didn’t jump on that. Some Tribes did and they did well. But we were a little hesitant, because throughout our history, anything good could go away tomorrow.  And gaming was scary.”

So as Tribal government looked deeper into the complexities of running a casino and bids were sent out, of the three proposals Harrah’s was selected as the management company. Dugan says,

“They have been a good, good partner with us. And it wasn’t easy.  You are bringing a corporate world into a tribal world. It was kind of a clash in cultures, and still is to some extent. I think the majority of senior management is Tribal members now and I think sometimes we struggle within this culture because it is all about the mighty dollar.”

Although there are many challenges that come with gaming, she says the positive far outweigh the negative.

“The Tribe is able to put more money into higher education. Any child that wants to go to college can go and not have to worry about the next dollar as in the past. We are able to put money into infrastructure needs, add roads. You know we are very confined by mountain territory. Many people had land on those mountains and couldn’t get to it. So the Tribe has established a program to help cut roads to that land, so they can have housing.”

And she says one of the most important aspects of solidifying the Cherokee heritage in the area is putting money back into cultural preservation.

“One of the things I did when I was in office that I led the effort to buy Gaduah back which is the Mother Town of the Cherokee. Before gaming we drove by that and would watch it as that mound sunk lower and lower. We were able to buy that whole piece back and the Cherokee Nation from Oklahoma and the other folks out there, the Gaduah Band were able to come out here and celebrate with us because they remember stories about it.  So there are things that we are able to do, that we could only dream about ten years ago and I am seeing a change in our people and a sense of pride, because now they have jobs. They can provide for their families. They can get those necessities, nice ones that they never could before. Without gaming we could not have done that. And I have to say that all of those concerns we had initially have not come to pass.”

But Dugan says for all the many benefits gaming has given to the people of the Cherokee Eastern Band there are two simple pleasures that make her smile.

“Our people are taking vacations. And our people are buying up our art. See before we just looked at it as something functional. We would have never thought to purchase it ourselves because that was just too much of a luxury. But now, we are buying it more and more. So those things make me smile because I see our way of life changing to some extent for the better.”

And these changes have not only improved the way of life for the Cherokee but have also allowed the Cherokee to give back to others in the surrounding area.  Dugan says,

“We have 1800 employees only about 300 tribal. So 1500 people from the region are working here because of plant closings in their counties. So we have not only impacted the lives of our people, we have impacted a region because of gaming. That also gives me some pride because we always had to depend on others and now we are giving back so much.”

Although the gaming industry is bettering the lives of the Cherokee Eastern Band along with others living in the North Carolina mountain region, Dugan says this is only the beginning.

“I think it’s critical at this point in our history that we preserve and we protect our culture which provides our identity. Our children have to have that strong connection. And we cannot get tied up in material things. We still have to remember those strong roots that held us together for centuries and keep teaching them, and keep reinforcing them of why your culture and your history are so important in this country and why it is going to continue to be important. We have ancestors who had a responsibility and they brought it forward and that’s how we know who we are today.”

Even though gaming may not be the answer to all of the struggles surrounding the Cherokee way of life, Dugan says it is supplying the Eastern Band with the financial resources it needs to preserve their cultural heritage for the generations to come.