Cherokee Emissaries of Peace

Celebrating the Cherokee:  Film debuts today on tribe’s cultureA film depicting the Cherokee Indians’ 18th-century efforts to keep British colonialism from destroying their culture will premiere nationwide today and provide an educational opportunity for area classrooms.

The film, “Emissaries of Peace,” parts of which were filmed last spring at the Oconaluftee Indian Village, was produced by a partnership of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and Colonial Williamsburg and is being broadcast via Williamsburg’s award-winning Electronic Field Trip series.What it's about:Central characters of the film are Henry Timberlake, a British lieutenant whose memoirs provide one of the most complete records of 18th-century Cherokee life and Cherokee leader Ostenaco.

In 1762, Timberlake carried a message of peace into Cherokee territory, prompting Ostenaco to travel to Williamsburg. There, Ostenaco persuaded the governor of Virginia that the Cherokee delegation should meet with King George III in London.