"The Long House Funeral Home opened recently in the Wolfetown community in Cherokee. Long House is owned and operated by the Bruce Martin family of Cherokee.

The family has been making caskets under the name Native Clans Caskets for a few years and recently expanded their services. Native Clans Caskets builds a quality product by hand and uses Native-inspired design in their works. Tribal members have embraced both the casket and funeral home businesses.

As our community grows, vital and necessary services are undertaken by entrepreneurs from within our community. Our community has been served well by the funeral homes near our lands and those relationships, forged in times of grief, still hold strong. But the time has come when our own people seize economic opportunity afforded by a quality education.

Our people steadfastly come together during times of grief and it remains one of the last community gatherings centered on family. This tradition has been difficult for the business community to accommodate because our people feel a responsibility outside the formal services. Unlike many of our neighboring communities, our expression of grief lasts through days and obligations vary."

Get the Story:
Lynne Harlan: New business in Cherokee another stride for tribe (The Asheville Citizen-Times 8/28)