Christmas Stories

SNOWBIRD

SIXTEENTH ANNUAL CHRISTMAS STORY

By Kirk H. Neely

Sunday, December 18, 2011

8:30 A.M. and 11:00 A.M.

Jim Nighthawk grew up in the Little Snowbird Community on the Cherokee Reservation in the Great Smoky Mountains. He was graduated from Western Carolina University. He earned a master’s degree in natural science from Georgia Tech. During his college years, he worked as a fishing guide and as a whitewater river guide.

Jim has now returned to his community to teach students at Snowbird Cherokee Indian High School in Robbinsville, North Carolina. Jim instructs his students in Native American traditions. He is especially concerned that they learn the language of the Cherokee people and their tribal history. During the summer months, he gives demonstrations in the use of primitive weapons at the Oconaluftee Village within the Qualla Boundary near Cherokee, North Carolina.

Under the leadership of Tsali in 1836, a small group of Cherokee people refused to be removed westward, thereby avoiding the Trail of Tears. They escaped exile by hiding in the steep, rugged wilderness of the Snowbird backcountry in the Smoky Mountains. Jim’s students are among the approximately 300 families who are direct descendants of these sturdy folk. The residents of the Little Snowbird Community are part of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.

When two of Jim’s students, both teenage girls, flee an abusive situation, Jim tries to find them. In the process of searching for the runaways, Jim, the hunter, becomes Nighthawk, the prey. True to his heritage of survival, he must use all of his skill and training to rescue the girls from those who are holding them captive and bring the culprits to justice.