Podcast Summary:

Our Common Nature
Episode: The Smokies: Mountains and Forgotten Family with Yo-Yo Ma
Air date: October 22, 2025
Host: Ana González (A)
Featuring: Yo-Yo Ma (C), Lavita Hill (D), Mary Crow (E), Eric Mingus (B), Marcus West (F), Cassius Cash (F)

Main Theme

This episode of "Our Common Nature" journeys into the Great Smoky Mountains with Yo-Yo Ma and host Ana González. Through live music, personal storytelling, and historical reflection, the episode explores how reconnecting to the Smokies’ landscape can also mean encountering erased histories—specifically those of Cherokee and Black families. By reclaiming place names and bearing witness to sites of memory, the Smokies’ tangled roots become a symbol of resilience and hope for renewed cultural connection.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Rediscovering and Reclaiming Land: The Cherokee Effort to Rename Clingman's Dome

Setting:
Ana and her team begin the episode biking through the Smokies, setting an idyllic tone before introducing Yo-Yo Ma, who plays music unannounced in the park, wanting to reach local visitors.

• "We thought it'd be nice to listen to the birds, listen to some music, and see what happens." (Yo-Yo Ma, 01:03)

Layered Histories:
Ana reflects on the Smokies as a place with deep natural beauty and a dense layering of human history, especially for Indigenous people.

• "I think there's so many layers of history, of people and land and place, and this adds another layer and another chapter to that story." (Ana, 01:46)

Interview with Lavita Hill and Mary Crow (Cherokee community members):

• Lavita describes growing up as Cherokee yet feeling disconnected from the language and traditions, a result of generational trauma from boarding schools.
  • "My sisters and I, we would say, grandma, why don't you teach us how to speak? And that's whenever we learned that it was to protect us." (Lavita, 04:48)
  • "I'm missing a huge part of me and my culture because of boarding school and because of what it did to our people." (Lavita, 07:17)

The Power of Names—Kuwahe / Kuwohi:
Inspired by efforts to rename mountains elsewhere, Lavita and Mary pursue restoring the Cherokee name for Clingman's Dome, the region’s highest peak. Through language speakers and research:

• "This mountain has to have had a Cherokee name. Let's go find it out." (Lavita, 09:29)
  • They find and reclaim Kuwohi (Mulberry Place) through community research and language.
• "For well over 99% of the time, human beings have occupied this place. This mountain has been called Kauahe, the Mulberry Place." (Lavita, 12:37)

Emotional Reclamation:
Lavita shares the anxiety and transformation of leading such an effort, ultimately realizing the act of reclaiming is about grounding herself and her community.

• "It's like you're reclaiming this name for a mountain, but you're also, like, reclaiming parts of yourself that you didn't know that you even had." (Ana & Lavita, 11:30-11:40)

Outcome:
In September 2024, the name change is approved: Clingman’s Dome is now officially "Kuwohi."

• "When Cherokee people look up from the mother town of Katua, they'll see Kauahi again, and they'll know her name." (Ana, 13:29)

2. Untold Histories—The Mingus Mill and Black Family Roots

Transition to Mingus Mill:
Ana visits Mingus Mill, a site with personal and historic resonance, and explores the connection between jazz great Charles Mingus and the region.

• Ana: "The history of this mill holds a lot more weight than a plaque can really tell you. It holds a family history. And, like, you might know, family isn't always comfortable." (20:29)

Interview with Eric Mingus (musician, son of Charles Mingus):

• Eric discusses growing up with fragmented knowledge of his Black and white ancestry, shaped by the legacy of enslavement.
• "When your family's rooted in slavery and the enslaved, it's, you know, you got. It's very American." (Eric, 22:31)

Discovering Family Ties:
Marcus West, local historian and butcher, shares how he grew into his family's story by listening to elders—eventually learning he was related to Charles Mingus.

• "The more research you find out, the more you find yourself." (Marcus, 23:56)

The Mingus Lineage:

• Daniel Mingus (Eric’s great-great-grandfather) was enslaved, later working as a carpenter and builder for the Mingus family, eventually having children with both a Black woman and a white woman (the latter producing Charles Mingus Sr., whose son became the famed jazz musician).

  • "Daniel, my great grandfather, was enslaved, but then freed and stayed on working with the family...He built the Mingus household that they lived in, and we believe he built the mill." (Eric, 25:26)

• The white Minguses tried to obscure the origins of Charles Mingus Sr., resulting in fractured and lost ties—until family research reconnected Eric and Marcus.

Reclaiming Memory at the Enloe Slave Cemetery:

• Eric visits the unmarked graves of enslaved ancestors:
  • "It's an important place to me, but it's also very hard to be there." (Eric, 28:54)
• Both Eric and Marcus describe a spiritual connection to place and the importance of facing difficult histories to find freedom, belonging, and truth.

Correcting the Record:

• Superintendent Cassius Cash explains the myth that slavery did not exist in the Smokies, and the importance of recognizing Black American roots in Appalachia.
  • "The moment that we leave one or two of us out of that story is not letting this country be in her full glory." (Cassius, 30:38)

3. Family Reunion, Music, and Healing

Marker Unveiling and First Family Meeting:
At Mingus Mill, with new plaques honoring Black history, Eric Mingus meets cousin Marcus West for the first time during a ceremony.

• "It was amazing, you know, to shake hands and give him a hug...I'm proud to say family. That's what I'm saying, Eric said. That's family. That's family." (Marcus, 34:58)

Eric’s Musical Offering at the Graves:
Eric performs a deeply personal vocal piece beside the unmarked graves, expressing vulnerability, grief, and hope.

• "From here, I hear. The water, fear." (Eric, 35:59)
• "They forgot who is buried here. Each of us left here alone, Waiting for some distant family to stroll up here and drop a penny on." (Eric, 38:19)

Community Response:

• Cassius Cash: "I felt a sense of freedom at last. I mean, it was like Eric was saying, I'm free now...And it was expressed on that day through that performance." (Cassius, 39:00)
• Yo-Yo Ma: "It was the fact that he had enough trust in the group that this would be respected as a very intimate moment. He could say, this is who I am." (Yo-Yo Ma, 39:47)

4. Communion Through Music

Final Concert in Knoxville:
A concert brings together Yo-Yo Ma, Eric Mingus, Rhiannon Giddens, Cherokee flautist Jarrett Wildcat, and others:

• The group performs "I Shall Not Be Moved," with each musician’s voice and heritage adding a verse, underscoring unity through difference.

• "We put everybody on the same stage to say their truths." (Ana, 43:56)

• "Listening to the different twang in every voice as it echoed over the crowd, it felt like the truth became bigger, like the verses of a song or the mountains in a range. You take one away and it becomes a different thing, less strong and less true." (Ana, 43:56)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Truth and Music:

  • "Each history is part of the truth, and it's not like your truth is better than mine. It's like we have to live with each other's truths...We can do that in music because that's what we do in music. We could put everybody on the same stage to say, tell your truth."
    — Yo-Yo Ma (02:20)

• On Generational Trauma:

  • "That's why we call generational trauma."
    — Mary Crow (06:35)

• On Reclaiming Heritage:

  • "None of this is for me. This work is for our brothers and sisters and for our ancestors. They were so intelligent and that they refused to leave."
    — Lavita Hill (14:16)

• On Family and Grief:

  • "Relationships aren't easy. But if we don't talk about these things and we don't acknowledge these things, what's to stop them from happening again, you know?"
    — Eric Mingus (35:33)

• On Uncovering History:

  • "This country is built off the shoulders of all of us. And the moment that we leave one or two of us out of that story is not letting this country be in her full glory."
    — Cassius Cash (30:38)

• On Healing Through Performance:

  • "I felt a sense of freedom at last. I mean, it was like Eric was saying, I'm free now...his truth comes to him with clarity now. And it was expressed on that day through that performance."
    — Cassius Cash (39:00)

• On Shared Roots:

  • "We're here in the roots, and we're here in the soil. The Smoky Mountains contain endless contradicting histories. But those twisted roots hold the soil together. They bind together the ground we get to walk on, the stories we tell and the songs we sing."
    — Ana González (41:49)

Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:54 — Yo-Yo Ma performs impromptu for park visitors
• 03:26 — Lavita Hill introduced, speaks on generational loss of language
• 04:48 — Reasons for hidden language, impact of boarding schools
• 07:48 — Inspiration to rename Clingman’s Dome; discovery of "Kuwohi"
• 10:49 — Lavita describes confronting insecurities; reclaiming her role
• 12:37 — Public ceremony at Kuwohi, history explained
• 13:29 — Reflection on the power of recovering a single Cherokee word
• 18:51 — Mingus Mill: history and family connections
• 22:31 — Eric Mingus reflects on mixed heritage and lost histories
• 24:29 — Marcus West recalls family stories and discovering jazz royalty
• 25:26 — Daniel Mingus's story; ties between Black and white Minguses
• 28:54 — Eric visits the slave cemetery
• 30:18 — Addressing myths about slavery in the Smokies
• 34:58 — Eric Mingus meets Marcus West at memorial event
• 35:59 — Eric's live performance memorializing enslaved ancestors
• 39:00 — Cassius Cash's emotional response to the performance
• 41:49 — Ana's reflection on roots and connection
• 43:37 — Final concert: "I Shall Not Be Moved" unites diverse musicians

Conclusion

This episode profoundly weaves together music, history, and identity—showing how personal and community healing can come from facing erased or painful stories, embracing complex family ties, and honoring the land’s true names. Through public acts of reclamation, expressions of vulnerability, and a multivoiced concert, "Our Common Nature" illustrates how the truth—like a sturdy mountain—gains strength by holding all its stories together.

Recommended for listeners seeking stories of reconciliation, healing, and the vital role of place and music in American identity.