The Case of the Wild Onions: The Impact of Ramps on Cherokee Rights: An article from Southern Cultures 18:2, Summer 2012: The Special Issue on Food

By Courtney Lewis

Finally, the defendant was called to testify. The air went from lighthearted post-lunch chatting to dour and intense. Judging from the sudden solemnity, one might have imagined that this trial was for drug trafficking or a violent crime. But it was about something that had much more profound implications: picking plants—specifically, wild onions."

This article appears in the Summer 2012 issue of Southern Cultures. The full issue is also available as an ebook.

Southern Cultures is published quarterly (spring, summer, fall, winter) by the University of North Carolina Press. The journal is sponsored by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Center for the Study of the American South.

• Language: English
• Publisher: UNC Center for the Study of the American South
• Release date: May 1, 2012
• ISBN: 9781469600369

Courtney Lewis

Courtney Lewis (Cherokee Nation) is assistant professor of anthropology at the University of South Carolina–Columbia.

Book preview

ESSAY

The Case of the Wild Onions

The Impact of Ramps on Cherokee Rights

by Courtney Lewis

[T]he Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and Cherokees have been harvesting ramps in this area for over 10,000 years. You’re going to hear testimony, your honor, about this particular land—this land where the park is presently located where these incidents occurred—which was part of the traditional Cherokee homeland . . . And you’re going to hear about the ramps [and] the traditional method that [the Cherokee] use to harvest these particular plants . . . So, your honor, I believe that when we’re through, I’ll be able to make to you the legal argument that the Cherokee have an easement that allows them to take [ramps] and that they have not just a legal right, but a moral right to do so as one of their inherent cultural rights as native Cherokee people.—Excerpt from defense attorney James Kilbourne’s opening statement in U.S. v. Burgess, November 23, 2009¹

One might have imagined that this trial was for drug trafficking or a violent crime, but it was about something that had much more profound implications: picking plants—specifically, wild onions, also known as ramps. At the annual Ramp It Up! Festival in Cherokee, North Carolina, 2009, courtesy of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Travel & Promotion, www.cherokee-nc.com.

INTRODUCTION

We had been sitting on the hard wooden pews at the federal courthouse in Bryson City, North Carolina, for hours on November 23, 2009, the Monday before Thanksgiving. We stretched our legs during the small break we were given for lunch and made sure to leave enough time to get back through the security screening at the building so that we would