Cherokee’s Utlunta Legend

Issue: 2020/06 - June

The 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 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?  

PL:  I like ancient mythological creatures.  I did a lot of research about the area and the Cherokee…this character obviously really stood out to me.

I often choose a character that’s mischievous.  And this tie-in with the children, even if it’s gruesome…it just embraces both the good parts and the bad parts.  Something resonated with this character and I loved the name as well.

AS: How did you create Utlunta?  Can you describe this process?

PL: I came with a group of friends to help me.  We stayed in a home on Lake Glenville, which was wonderful. Like with many of my pieces, especially the concrete work, I build them on site.  So the first thing I did was make a site visit.  I usually dig out the earth for a least part of the shape, and that was the case with this sculpture.  This piece because of the stainless steel becomes much more complicated but also by building a piece on site it also allows me to do something I might not be able to do otherwise because the piece doesn’t have to go anywhere. So we built it right there.  

AS: That seems pretty fitting given the stories about Utlunta cementing boulders together. How long was the entire construction process?

PL: So, it took probably a month or so because it is a pretty complicated form.  I had three friends help me.  It was quite a lot of physical work.  Normally I rent a little digger but we couldn’t rent one or find one.  We noticed that there were some [laborers] looking for work and we ended up hiring four of these guys to dig out the sculpture. Then we would have waited a month before we pulled it out of the earth. We would have waited another month to let it cure and then it would have taken a couple of weeks to clean it up because it wouldn’t be very pretty with dirt and mold on it. So it would have been about three months from start to finish.

AS: While you were constructing this piece, I would imagine you drew some spectators to your art.  What was that like?

PL: A lot of people would come by…the kids would come by…and they’d see it.  That’s also always a really important element because even if they don’t understand what’s going on, they see it later and they have some sense of ownership. 

Utlunta is located near the parking lot accessed off of Highway 64 West.  Interestingly, she sits on her man-made berm directly across from the Village Play, the children’s playground. Cherokee legend says that ever since her demise, the chickadee is known as a truth teller.  It is said that when someone is away on a journey and a chickadee comes to perch, his friends know he will soon be safely home.  If you listen closely you can hear their chirping birdsong in The Village Green, so we know that if you’ve been away we will soon be welcoming you safely home.