(Media release from Chieftains Museum/Major Ridge Home):
Chieftains Museum/Major Ridge Home is proud to present the 2024 Summer Speaker Series. Lectures will focus on the Protestant missionary groups which featured prominently in the lives of the Ridge family.
The second of these lectures will be Thursday, June 20th at 7PM at The Spires at Berry College. Presented by Wanda Patterson, “Spring Place & Oochgeelogy” tells the dramatic story of the first missionary group to be permitted to establish schools and mission stations in the Cherokee Nation- -the Moravians. The lecture will focus on the origins and development of Moravian missionary activity in the Cherokee Nation, highlighting the patterns of cultural exchange between Moravian missionaries and the Cherokee at the Spring Place and Oochgeelogy mission stations in present day Chatsworth and Calhoun, GA.
Wanda Patterson graduated from West Georgia College in 1969 with a Master’s Degree in Secondary Education. She taught English and journalism for 30 years at Sprayberry High School in Marietta. Since retirement, Miss Patterson has devoted much of her tie to research concerning American Indians in general the Cherokee in particular. She is a charter member of the Georgia Trail of Tears Association. On behalf of the chapter, she edited a volume of poetry by Cherokee writer John Rollin Ridge, as well as serving on the Trail of Tears Speakers Staff.
To view the full schedule of lectures, visit the Chieftains Museum website at www.chieftainsmuseum.org/events. Each lecture is free and open to the public.
For more information about the Summer Speaker Series, visit www.chieftainsmuseum.org or call (762) 327-6124.
