Help: Cherokee Bend question

Subject: Cherokee Bend question
From: mkebenn
Date: 29 Nov 01 - 11:38 AM

Does anyone know if there is any historical background for this Lightfoot song? I love playing it, and would use any background to introduce it. Thanks in advance, Mike.

Subject: RE: Help: Cherokee Bend question
From: GUEST,Steven G.
Date: 29 Nov 01 - 01:35 PM

Hello, Mike

A really good spot to get your question answered about the Cherokee Bend song is go to www.dejanews.com, and type in the newsgroup "alt.music.lightfoot".

It is a great newsgroup site that discusses Lightfoot music. I am a regular at this site, and I usually get all my questions answered through this site on any Lightfoot songs I am stuck on.

Hope this helps,

Steven G.

Subject: RE: Help: Cherokee Bend question
From: SharonA
Date: 29 Nov 01 - 02:29 PM

ør go to gordonlightfoot.com where there's a link to the website manager's e-mail for questions.

Subject: RE: Help: Cherokee Bend question
From: mkebenn
Date: 29 Nov 01 - 02:49 PM

Thank you, knew you'd come through Mike

Subject: RE: Help: Cherokee Bend question
From: SharonA
Date: 29 Nov 01 - 02:56 PM

No problem, Mike. Please let us know what you find out!

Subject: RE: Help: Cherokee Bend question
From: GUEST
Date: 29 Nov 01 - 03:08 PM

Steven G.

deja no longer has newsgroups. They were bought out by Google ages ago.

goups.google.com is the place to go

Subject: RE: Help: Cherokee Bend question
From: GUEST,Steven G.
Date: 29 Nov 01 - 03:19 PM

Hello, Guest

I am able to go to www.dejanews.com, get into the Lightfoot newsgroup site, no problems. I have been able to get into the site no problems at all for last 6 months. I understand what you are saying the site, just redirects to the groups.google.com site.

Steven G.

Subject: RE: Help: Cherokee Bend question
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 29 Nov 01 - 03:34 PM

I was re-directed. But the change just required one more click. No useful info.

Subject: RE: Help: Cherokee Bend question
From: GUEST,BigDaddy
Date: 29 Nov 01 - 03:44 PM

I've always assumed it was a "made-up" place, like James Taylor's "Copper Line." I don't know about Oklahoma, where the western band of Cherokee are, but in western North Carolina (home to the eastern band), there aren't, as a rule, a lot of places named after the tribe. Most of the place names were chosen by the white folk who had attempted to evict the Cherokee from their tribal lands. Cherokee, as a word, didn't achieve its mythic "cachet" among white folk until around the late sixties and later. Consequently such songs as "Cherokee" by Cher, and "Cherokee People," by Paul Revere and the Raiders. It was about the same time white folk started claiming a "Cherokee princess" (ouch!) in their ancestry. At any given point from around the time Gordon L. wrote the song, up until now, if there has been or is such a place name in Canada, my guess is that it would most likely be found in an upscale suburban neighborhood. The same would be true for most any place in the USA. or I could be wrong.

Subject: RE: Help: Cherokee Bend question
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 29 Nov 01 - 04:01 PM

The name Cherokee Bend remains as the name of an elementary school near Birmingham, but the Cherokees were driven from GA-AL many, many years before (during the latter slavery days; the Cherokees, good farmers, etc., with THEIR slaves, were shifted west).
The name has been used in several states from Michigan to Texas.
The song seems to be fictional, but Lightfoot may have based it on another time and another place; a common practice among novelists and musicians.

Subject: RE: Help: Cherokee Bend question
From: GUEST,BigDaddy
Date: 29 Nov 01 - 04:08 PM

I've been doing some searching, and it would appear there was never such a place name in Kentucky, where the song apparently takes place. It is also highly unlikely there would have been a Cherokee family living in the hills in a "lodge" in eastern Kentucky in or around 1910. Most of the eastern band had been living in log cabins or frame houses for years, even prior to the removal in the winter of 1838-1839. My maternal great-grandmother, who was a mix of Scots and Cherokee, was teased about her Cherokee blood by some. So were her parents. She never had to hide in the hills, although she and her family and forebears lived in the hills and mountains of the Cumberland region and southern Appalachians. I've never heard of a "government store" in this region in the time frame suggested by this song. there were "company stores," once the coal mines arrived in eastern Kentucky, but that's another story altogether. More to follow...

Subject: RE: Help: Cherokee Bend question
From: GUEST,BigDaddy
Date: 29 Nov 01 - 10:48 PM

Correcting myself: The song "Indian Reservaton" was written by country singer/songwriter John D. Loudermilk. It was a "hit" in 1971 for Mark Lindsay (aka Paul Revere etc.). Two years later the song, "Half Breed," written by Mary Dean and Al Capps was a hit song for Cher in 1973. Apparently (and unfortunately) it was resurrected by Shania Twain, who now claims that she never stated that she was part Ojibway. In the wake of the sixties, it became quite fashionable to be part Native American, particularly Cherokee. I suspect Gordon Lightfoot's song, published in 1975, was just the latest entry in song fiction capitalizing on use of the Cherokee name. If Gord had done a little more homework on history and geography, he could probably have penned a better song.

Subject: RE: Help: Cherokee Bend question
From: Mrrzy
Date: 10 May 17 - 07:38 PM

The liner notes say Fiction. Also, if leaving in the spring got you there in the fall, it coulda been pretty far from Kentucky.

Subject: RE: Help: Cherokee Bend question
From: GUEST,Wayne
Date: 12 May 17 - 04:38 AM

According to Gordonlightfoot.com, it's loosely based on a chidren's novel called When the Legends Die by Hal Borland.

Subject: RE: Help: Cherokee Bend question
From: Mrrzy
Date: 12 May 17 - 09:22 AM

And I forgot to say, I refreshed this thread because I just found this song, despite being a Gordon Lightfoot fan since the 70's.