My Dads folks hail frm Asheville Appalachia, Eastern Cherokee. Proud of this Heritage.

I have lived 57 years just about where that second P is on that map and the only time I was gone was to join the Army.but when my time was up I got back in these mountains,and the only plans I ever have on leaving again is when The Good LORD calls me Home.

I've been all over this earth and I always end up comming back here. I am not ashamed of being from here and I know if it wasn't for my background. I would of never seen the rest of the world. I don't have no debt, enemies, nor regrets. I don't listen unto the rest of the world. It got itself in a big damn hurry and forgot how to live.

I love that they brought their music from Ireland Scotland Germany and made it there own.

My blood flows in the mountains and hills of the Appalachian my heart crys to go home,

I live in south Florida, but I originally came from the Blue Ridge mountains of Virginia. Very proud of my heritage.

My grandmother told me that Appalachia is the heart of the World. I believe that to this day. Just come here and meet the people that live here. You'll not find a better people on this Earth. If you are destitute and alone you'll not be when you come here. VA and WVA hold the highest caliber of human decency and tolerance.

Hunting deep in the East Tennessee Mountains for weeks at a time we moved deep into the hills , One time we ran into a Cherokee hunting camp so far back in the hills we knew we where the first to see this place in hundreds of years . A deep fire pit was still in the clearing they had cut out with three skin stand's still standing , Arrow heads where all over the grounds . We camped in the site with the utmost respect and the next morning leaving it just as we found it , Each one of us took one arrow head out of hundreds laying all over the place , It took us almost a year to decide if we should tell the Forest service or not plotting it on our map . We never did ! Burning the plotted map it was on one night drinking talking about it ,Now there are just three of us that know of this location along with the Cherokee spirit that we all felt that night that allowed us to enter. I think of this spot almost every night when going to bed . It effected me that much . I bet in one thousand years we could never find the place again . It was like a gift allowing us to witness one time and one time only . We still look at maps wondering if we could find it again when we planning our next hunting trips . We know it will never be seen again , Not by us anyways . Seeing this Video made me spill the beans so to say . Just something I couldn't hold back I thought someone else should hear about

We have our own dialect, our own music that beats like nothing else, we are the people that started this country. The power and wealth has raped and exploited this area and culture. The government does owe us believe it or not.

Appalachian people are more rich than a millionaire. Their hearts & souls are rich that lived off the land self sufficiently.

"This is the story a land shaped by the people and a people shaped by the land" . Isn'it marvellous and so poetic!!!!!!

These people are far from stupid as stereotypes would have us believe. Wisdom comes in many forms.

Appalachia IS the heartbeat of what this country came to become, IN A GOOD WAY! Not in the underhanded way that politics has made this country to become.

Just watched this. I am 1/2 German and 1/5 Swede. I grew up in WV and eventually enlisted in the AF. I served 6 of 21 years in the UK. My wife and I celebrated the new year in Ireland in 2001. I am a die hard Minnesota Viking fan and always wear a Viking cap. When we arrived in Ireland everybody kept saying "viking!" I thought they were Vikings fans not realizing the history of the Vikings in Ireland. Here's the weird part ... we secured a pub for the New Year celebration. When the clock dropped midnight ... guess the first song the Irish folks played in the pub? John Denver's Country Roads. I cried ...

How wonderful to see my land and my people represented in this way.

I am so proud and honored my ancestry and bloodline runs through Kentucky and Eastern Appalachia.

The narrator failed to mention the fact that northern Alabama & Georgia are also part of Appalachia. I live on Sand Mountain in NE AL, an area of Appalachia known as the Cumberland Plateau. For some reason, conditions are perfect for spawning tornadoes here. They're studying this right now. In 1908, a possible F5 tornado destroyed half of my hometown of Albertville AL, killing 35 people just in Albertville alone. Anyway, I'm proud to be a hillbilly. We're extremely resilient because we've had to be.

If an Appalachian is your friend they will be your friend for life. If you ever betray this friendship you will regret it.

My family has been here since the very early 1800’s. Proud Appalachian Mountain family.

Don't forget the Seneca tribe. They are a part of the Iroquois nation and lived in the Alleghenies!

Appalachian life was just fine, until the greedy Corporatists took advantage.

Rebel Yell from Scots-Irish in London. Derry to Virginia via Glasgow. God bless Patrick Cleburne.

I live at the upper end of The Appalachians in New Brunswick, Canada.

I say have the faith means your have meany blessing then gold or any money anyone could buy. I feel rich knowing the Lord Jesus Christ. He gives me the most happiness and one could ever want.Peace of mind and love to all.

My family is from the northern Appalachians. All coal miners. Most died of coal-dust related diseases before the age of 50 and left families behind. Tell me again how terrible socialism is and how mine owners had every right to exploit these people to death and invest absolutely nothing in their communities. I am so tired of people from this region so brainwashed that they unproblematically celebrate the near-slavery of their ancestors and genuflect at the altar of predatory capitalism. Thank God we has the Molly Maguires in Pennsylvania and managed to show at least a little backbone.

Appalachian American I am proud to be.

On my mama's side there are Gibson's, Stewart's, MacRae's all intermarried with Cherokee, On my dad's side it's fully old Irish: Magauran, Maguire, O'Cannon, O'Gallagher, O'Carroll. The clans all get along famously. My mom's side are all southern Baptist preachers, and my dad's side are all Catholic.The music keeps everyone together.

I live in the mountians of tennessee born and raised hear ,and would not have it no other way, Let every thing shout down and me and my family will still trucking right a long.

I went to Washington DC to accept an award from my job in the early 90s. While waiting and wanting to get some history about this part of the country, my brother and I took advantage of our time, traveling through Virginia and West Virginia. What amazingly beautiful country, an amazing part of America. We spent a lot of time visiting many of the recreated Native American villages occupied by actors who lived as these tribes and peoples lived. Interesting and intelligent hard working people. It was one of the most interesting trips about that part of America I ever had to experience many of the tools and artifacts from that time gave me a greater appreciation of the difficult times our ancestors and the native peoples faced, giving also a greater love for nature and the natural beauty of our country and the hardships and courage of our ancestors. I wish archeologists would spend more time with the history of our Country. Although we certainly must be considered blessed to live in America in such prosperous and great times we also have an awesome history to explore with much to learn about and good reason to each back and learn from terrible mistakes that are affecting us all in great but troublesome times.

I want to thank you for posting this documentary. I am really enjoying it. Thanks 😊 again.

Two things ruined my stomping grounds. Railways and tourists.

I purchased this total video program to show my appreciation for it's superb quality.

My Great , great Grandmother was a Cherokee. My Great great grandfather was from Ireland. Appalachia is the only place we can make a connection with them. Story has it that he found our grandmother with a rope around her neck at a trading post. He traded a horse for her. I wish we could find out anything about this. My mother is 83 yrs old and the remaining member of her generation. If anyone knows any stories of the family I would appreciate it. His name was J. W. O'Connor. I assume the name was probably Joseph William. As all of our family is catholic and most of the men were named Joseph, William, Or Patrick. A lot of middle names includes Henry. Mom cannot remember her name as she was always called "Granny" by all. I grew up listening to GRANDPA all his brothers and sisters, cousins playing mountain music. There was not an instrument that wasn't played by one or the other. Grandpa played the harmonica. If ANYONE out there can offer any info, or knows anyone who can, I am on FB . Brenda Sullivan - Worthville/ Carrollton ky. Thank you and Blessings to all.

I thank God every day for my scotts-irish and Cherokee nation we are strong in spirit and hard too keep down !@ we won't give up. My pappy married a beautiful woman a Cherokee woman.

I’m so proud to have just a little bit of Scots blood in me.

Some gr grandfather of mine came from Wales and married a Cherokee lady; my gr grandma. People of mixed ancestry in E. and S. Kentucky are common. My sister married a man who was also mixed. lol, we always rooted for the Indians on cowboy movies.

There are many good people born in this part of the U.S. and if they like you and you are kind and real with them you got a REAL friend, they will help you and share their last piece of food with you.

This four-part series is really insightful and comprehensive, and it addresses the meeting and merging of disparate cultures ("the middle ground" or "the common ground") of Appalachia, i.e. how we came to be who we are. It is especially good in portraying the predominance of Cherokee on the east coast at the time of first contact. You will recognize many of narrators.

My uncle was from w Virginia,my aunt Italian, what awesome home made wine , they made 😎✌️🇺🇸

I am from the Hanging Dog Creek section of Cherokee County , North Carolina, but now live in the Philippines. We were poor people , but we never knew it. I still miss hearing cow bells, and going to a spring for a bucket of water.

The Appalachian people and their way of life I would imagine this is what heaven is like

Lots of rich people here talking about how great it is to be poor.

Imagine buying a big piece of land and start a clan the cherokee way, still have jobs and live a modern life, but doing it in cherokee spirit, that would be awesome

Saw a prize bumper sticker that suits me just fine " At least I'm not a flatlander!" =)

very interesting, a part of american construction, our ancestors were there, we are europeen, we are american; god bless us all Love,Jéhan

Embrace the rich history which intertwined the lives of many. This Appalachian culture still thrives in society at the foothills of those Appalachian Mountains.

Many Appalachian Mountain folk also moved west and settled the Ozarks and Ouachita Mountains Of Arkansas,Missouri,& Eastern Oklahoma. My ancestors came from Northern Georgia before coming to Arkansas.

my parents moved from Appalachia to ohio.l moved back there when l was old enough.still here and aint moving nowhere else.

Born and raised in the hills of Kentucky, I be here till death … and leave a little of my spirt in the hollows of the farm.. I never was ashamed of where I came from, my family work hard and play harder..but it has been a good life, a little hard at times and wasn’t for sure if we eat tomorrow.. but I wouldn’t trade my life for any other… I got a good education and stay here… while most of my family move away…but this is my home and this where I work at…. The hills will always be home for me…

I wish someone would talk about north Georgia .i live in blue ridge ga. I will always love these mountains. I will die here .people call us hillbillies that is something I am proud of.

Ms. Nurse, I have enjoyed your videos very much. I'm stuck in Raleigh, North Carolina where my family is from, but my heart is in the mountains to be sure. I've lived in the Boone area, around Deep Gap and Piney Grove, also in Gilmer County, West Virginia which is really in the hills (though it feels like the mountains). I have to admit that I am from the flatlands, but I feel like that was somehow a big mistake. Now I'm on a government disability and they feed me with a tiny spoon, dispute having worked all my life and now in my sixty's I have a couple of pretty significant health issues and can't see my way to getting out of this part of the country. It really sucks! Politically you and I are on the same page and I wonder, myself how long it'll be before the led starts to flyin', this country being in the shape it's in and a city like this is the last place I want to be if (when) that starts. I came up on a tobacco farm not too far from where I am now and living in the middle of a big city doesn't even feel natural to me. I live in a 37 ft. motor home now built in 1987 (the exact one as was in the series "Breaking Bad") and I'm in a parking lot three years now that I have no permission to be in. It's a huge place and the business that owns it doesn't care one way or another so I feel like I'm pretty safe for the moment, but one day I know I'll have to move and who knows where I'll end up. I'd like that place to be in the southern mountains of North Carolina, perhaps around Franklin or Murphy. It would be a pretty good fit for me. I blacksmithed most of my adult life, I play old time fiddle, plain living suits me best and I'm politically conservative, and I'd say in that regard I'd call myself a constitutionalist so I'd most likely have more then a few things in common with my neighbors if I could just get up there. Sadly, at this late date that doesn't seem like it'll ever happen so l suppose I'll have to continue to watch these Appalachian mountain related videos and derive what contentment I can from them and be as happy as I can be with that. Just wanted you to know that I agree with the things I've heard you talk about and I like the videos. I hope you'll keep them coming. Thanks!

I grew up in West Virginia I'm guessing that I'm a very lucky man to grew up in West Virginia a Hillbilly proud but not stupid

Thank god for my hillbilly roots poor but free

so glad i grew up in the mountains of southwest Pennsylvania. I love these mountains and the people

Though I’m thousands of miles away the music brings me home.

Thanks for sharing this background information on Appalachia. My family traces its roots through this area and eventually on to Texas. When I look back on this fascinating area I am enraged by the acts of Andrew Jackson who used The Trail of Tears to expel the Cherokee and others from their homeland.

There's much left .every one l now loves your music.including hard brokers .they all Ways wind up dancen and talk in

I get madder than hell when people talk about my home then I smile they don't know what's good and pure in life

Checking in from Sand Mountain......love God and country, hunting, fishing and blue grass music.

I am a native West Virginian. My Ulster Scot and German ancestors settled in Appalachia in colonial times. In the old days when somebody met with bad economic fortune they blamed it on themselves. Nowadays it’s fashionable to fall back on class warfare instead. Tourists, “exploiters,” strip miners, etc.are to blame now. Realizing my homeland held limited opportunities I left to attend college and work elsewhere to earn a good living and retire comfortably. I’ve lived around the world, but there are few places that have such natural beauty as Appalachia, and especially West Virginia. I think the people can prosper financially if they would reclaim their heritage by recovering their work ethic, independence and willingness to take risks that brought their ancestors to these rugged and challenging mountains.

Saw a documentary that said the hardest part of the trek west in the early days of the nation was not the Rocky mountains but the Appalachia mountains. The reason is the straight up and down grade you have to traverse.

Us Indigneoous people are rich in spirituality dont forget this our land and always have been and will be our culture is the land we are the true Appalachians.. This is Turtle Island.. Not amerikkka

My name is Sullivan I have always been drawn to the mountains of north Carolina and Tennessee it seems that I have a kinship with the people l know some of my ancestors married Indian women I always feel at peace when I am there I hope the mountains and people never change

Educational Films - an American Classic ! Back in the day, they were actual films, and it was always a challenge for teachers to get the machine working! Clicking and clacking, hopefully it didn't jam or rip the film strip. I wonder if anyone wants to digitize the old Slides too ? Loading up a spool of slide pictures, and playing the audio on cassette tapes, with a 'beep!' or silent beep that advanced the pictures. I would love to see all those old collections preserved for History, digitized and uploaded to the internet.

The Native American...Cherokee, Africans Americans and English are part of my heritage.

Ky is my home born and raised and when the good lord comes to get me I'll be put in the ground where the blue grass grow.s

im a yankee and moved down here almost ten yrs ago.. but i grew up in the woods and once people here got to know me, they call me piney now, i guess thats what i was raised.. and the first song on this vid was one of the first songs i learned on guitar. my family lived up north but our town had no cops, everybody used to make liquor jam out and hunt.. i hate the fkn rat race up north, n rather eat shit than live in a city

Thank you for putting this out there.

I saw some Appalachian musicians play and they were great. I love mountain music and could say at this point in my life drawn somewhat to that culture, simpler, more meaningful life w all its pitfalls in a very demanding rugged country, certainly reckon w God in that sense. I don't know, after a lifetime of struggling for a paycheck and struggling w pointless careerism to get that paycheck, I don't know, I start to look at this lifestyle and think it might just be Allright , rough life though, in a rough country, but if done right ya know , that's the challenge. Other than that everyone else is just a corporate slave these days, pretty bland lives, I don't think these people, although poor, had bland lives just different, but I don't know, the grass is always greener on the other side, for sure

Just as the Cherokee, here in Maine the lower Numbegan Micmac accepted others into our family groups, you did not need to marry in, just agree to live in peace and exchange ideas and skills respectful of our ideas and skills.

The mountain people are much like our Newfoundlanders long days back breaking work. Pants patched worn boots and faces old before their time. Villages separated by miles of sea.

Love the Appalachia people ...i live outside of Lexington Kentucky

It's good to hear Appalachia pronounced right! My family has lived in Northeast Tennessee for 10 generations. 🖋

Wow, Cherokees race-mixed with everyone! No wonder there are no longer Cherokees. Something to learn for those who really understand the meaning of diversity

I've never felt closer to being complete than when I was at a family function with a hillbilly family. They will love you and help heal you in any way they can. But purposely hurt one and your outcome isn't going to be pretty.

Sooo Sad, How Beautiful the United States could still be if the indians had been left to live as they always had lived.

ASHEVILLE NORTH,CAROLINA AND VIRGINIA WHERE I GREW UP BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE AND BEAUTIFUL PLACE

My very favourite place in the world is a small farm owned by old friends outside Asheville. I miss it.

The Cherokee were highly advanced democratic society...highly agricultural...society driven , women and men having equal status...this nations of people was about procreation from earth to human birth... Our society does not do this.... I married a woman of Cherokee descent. Their lifestyle is what I believe in...my religion, my god...Earth and all it offers...

My mother was from South east Tennessee and my father was from Kentucky. I was yankee born, but hillbilly bred and proud of it.

Sad story, the same sad story happened to the place I left behind. Some rich people came to my village, cut all the trees, dig all the golds and copper and leave the people in poverty.

What a beautiful country we had back then.no pollution etc.clean and green. Would of loved to be there then.

Hayesville NC born and raised our family goes bk generations here in clay county wouldn't trade these mountains for anything

My great grandmother was full blooded Cherokee .

I live in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains my mother's Cherokee

We have remnants of this type of culture in remote rural Australia, though it is not the USA, obviously. We even ding and play some of the same music.... Must be the common roots all these types of settlers to places like Canada, USA, Australia, New Zealand etc all originated from. Here, the traditional culture was taught in schools in the Bush, sometimes over the radio or passed down through generations who taught the young people how to do the dances, song the songs etc. I came from a European background but they could relate to this culture readily and enjoy and adopt it, even though they often had language communication problems. They would just jump in and try to dance the dances, play the music etc, sometimes getting it wrong, which then added an interesting new interpretation to it, which became absorbed into the original version. So, the cultures of the existing people blended with those of newcomers wanting to fit into it very naturally and easily. Though some European kids felt very embarrassed watching European parents trying to dance these dances and getting them not quite as they ought to be done.

Southern West Virginia born, southern West Virginia I'll die!

let us look for the good; NOT the bad.

Scottish people were actually, originally, Irish people who emigrated from Ireland, around about the 6th century A.D., to the area now known as Scotland; and then, perhaps, mixed with the then native Picts, to eventually become the "Scots". As well; in blood, culture, and language they, the Scotish and Irish, are Celtic cousins.

I'm from beech mtn North Carolina where I still live today I didn't know we was considered different because we was raised to treat everyone the same

i asked a Kentuckian what is your nationality, he said "American'

I am so proud to be a hillbilly, and proud of my hillbilly ancestors. Best people in the world.

same here in the Adirondacks in NY, and the mountains from here through VT, NH, and up to Maine but people ignore us so that works fine. The state parks contained within the mtn ranges are great in preventing devastation, but still towns have suffered when paper mills , granite, garnet, and rock mines, and logging jobs have decreased. Many towns have one tiny school and lunches come from a local restaurant. The mountains all the way up were settled by Indians, and Scots married into the tribes, as in my family. One thing that is ignored is that inbreeding is a serious problem still in some areas. My husband has Cherokee ancesters. Cherokee had black slaves, and as far as who can be Cherokee, if the surname is not on the old roles from the Eastern Band from those who went into the small rez in NC or the Dawes roles of the Western Band from the Trail of Tears out to Oklahoma, then you have no claim to tribal membership. My husband's relatives escaped the Trail of Tears and hid in the mtns in NC and refused to go into the rez, therefore have no tribal recognition but they know who they are and do just fine, particularly since they were not slaveholders like the rest of the tribe. Over the past few years the Western Band reclaimed tribal land they had been forced to give their slaves after the Civil War. (they brought them out in The Trail of Tears, a part of African American history that few have any knowledge of) .The slaves families had lived there and intermarried into the tribe but slaves were property and not on the Dawes roles, so they were pulled off the land as having no claim.

So, the filmmakers got the pronunciation of “Appalachia” correct (that is, “Appa-latch-yuh”), but in the last part of this segment, narrators talk about the “Scotch-Irish.” That’s incorrect. It should be “Scots-Irish.” Unless you are whiskey, you are not “Scotch.” Come in, y’all. Seriously. That’s a pretty glaring error.

Johnny Cash ♥

I'm so ashamed of my ancestors who brutalized the Natives, but then I realize that humans are just another animal species.

I like this very much. Interessting. And the nature so amazing. Wisch i was born there

Cajun People have this kind of Historic Culture also.

The first to be the inhabitants of the Appalachians were NATIVE AMERICANS and I'm sure that the Europeans learned much from today's natives ancestors. This is really sad. The European immigrants laid the foundation for today's Appalachian people and should be a proud people.

They weren't afraid of sweating and working like a horse.. In their own way they were success-driven just in their own way and not like Americans.. Soft and cushy marshmallow America today----