Cherokee Booger Dance Mask North Carolina, ca. 1910

This mask is part of the Cherokee culture and it is made out of gourd, fox fur, and cordage. The mask has a long nose and bushy hair all over. Dances to this day are a part of Cherokee social and ceremonial life. In the Booger dance, men wearing ragged clothing and this type of mask interrupt a social event. When they are asked who they are, these wild intruders give foreign names and try to start fights. Each intruder then proceeds to preform a solo (and often lewd) dance. The Cherokees believed that all forms of death and illness came from outside of their settlements so these intruders represented Euro-Americans that often trespassed Cherokee homelands and disrupted their way of life.

The recreation of outsiders interrupting Cherokee social events and these interruptions starting fights suggests that dancing was not only a social event, but also a significant part of Cherokee culture. Also, we can see that the Cherokees held negative views toward the European colonizers since when these intruders came dressed as the Europeans, they were seen as wild men who wore horrid masks, made loud noises, and wore ragged clothing. In fact, the Cherokees blamed the colonizers for bringing any illnesses and deaths into the tribe.