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Cherokee’s
Utlunta Legend T
The massive Village Green sculpture Utlunta is a celebrated landmark that arises from a dark Cherokee legend.
he large stainless steel and concrete sculpture in The Village Green is named Utlunta, a figure in Cherokee legend. The name translates to “the one with the pointed spear,” and this shapeshifting witch is sometimes referred to as Spearfinger. According to Cherokee legend, she lived in Western North Carolina with her favorite home being Whiteside Mountain, a thunder mountain. Several stories are related about Utlunta. She was said to have the power to lift and carry immense boulders and cement them together. To be able to pass over rough terrain, Utlunta built a great rock bridge from Hiwassee, Georgia, to Cashiers. Utlunta was also known for changing
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herself into the form of a grandmother, coaxing children to sit in her lap in order to stab them with her spear finger and then eat their livers. A great tribal council was held to plan her demise before she could destroy everybody. Cherokee hunters dug a deep pitfall, created a brush fire and hid themselves in the laurel. When she approached, a chickadee flew from a tree, alighting on the witch’s spear finger to identify the location of her heart. The arrows flew, piercing her hand-heart, where she collapsed and became a heap of boulders. In 2005 Marvin and Helene Gralnick established an endowment for an outdoor art collection in The Village Green. Because of their generosity, thousands of visitors enjoy
sculpture like Utlunta amid the natural beauty of the park. I recently spoke with Peter Lundberg, the artist who created Utlunta, who shared his thoughts and recollections about this iconic sculpture in The Village Green. AS: You have sculptures all over the world, how did you find your way to Cashiers? Or, perhaps, more pertinent, how did Marvin and Helene Gralnick discover you? PL: [Cashiers artist] Wesley Wofford gave them a stack of sculpture catalogues. They picked out a tiny little photo of mine from out of all of them. AS: How did you choose Utlunta as your subject matter?