Nathan Bush

Nathan Bush (he/him) practices traditional Cherokee copper art and blacksmithing. He crafts tools such as arrowheads and knife blades, as well as embossed wristbands, armbands, and earrings out of copper.

Nathan began his apprenticeship with Cherokee blacksmith William Rodgers in 2015. “That’s when I first learned that my people worked with metal thousands of years before the first European landed ashore in America,” Nathan describes. “William gave us a very clear history lesson of the relationship between the Cherokee and copper. I was amazed I had never learned this before about my own culture. Then we made our first tools in his blacksmith shop. I was hooked.” Studying historical examples of Cherokee copperwork has also had a strong impact on Nathan’s work.

When Nathan first learned to work with copper, there were very few in his community practicing the art form, but as he and his peers have shared their work, it has led to opportunities to teach others. Nathan now works as a program coordinator at the Oconaluftee Indian Village in Cherokee, North Carolina, where he oversees the mentoring program for youth learning about Cherokee crafts, history, and culture. “There comes a responsibility with being Cherokee,” Nathan says. “You learn what you can, as much as you can, so you can teach others… Now there are dozens of people around the Qualla Boundary that can do this art form, and hundreds of Cherokee now know that our people worked with metal before the Europeans ever landed on shore.”

Nathan will use his Emerging Traditional Artists Program award to further study historical examples of Cherokee metalwork by visiting the archives of the University of Tennessee’s McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture and other museums.