Forest Botanicals Region Living Monument

Sculpture

ᎢᎾᎨ ᎦᎵᏦᏛ

“Forest Shelter,” or “Inage Galtsodv” in the Cherokee language, is the sculpture created for the Forest Botanicals Region Living Monument by the artist team of William Rogers from Cullowhee, North Carolina and Nathan Wachacha David Bush, a citizen of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians from the Snowbird Community. This sculpture is a celebration of the relationships that Appalachian people have long held with forest botanicals, stretching from pre-colonization to today.

The sculpture is composed of an arching iron frame with copper panels depicting four of the many forest botanicals that are important to the Cherokee People: Uganasdi (Solomon’s Seal), Kanvsita (Flowering Dogwood), Wasdi (Ramps), and Tuyasti (Jack-in-the-Pulpit).

Two men standing in front of an iron-framed sculpture with four copper panels, each depicting a different plant.

William Rogers (left) and Nathan Bush (right) are revitalizing Cherokee copper craft, a tradition that is thousands of years old.

Long before colonization, Cherokee People and other Indigenous groups mined copper and hammered the metal into sheets with stones.They created many items from this hammered copper, including tools, cooking utensils, storytelling art, and jewelry.

Sign in shades of blue and green that discusses the Forest Botanicals Region Living Monument and the sculpture created for the monument. Images on the sign include a forest, the trail map for the Storywalk Trail a logo with a trillium, Solomon's seal, black cohosh, and fiddlehead ferns, as well as photos of the plants included on the sculpture: Solomon's seal, flowering dogwood, ramps, and Jack-in-the-pulpit.
Interpretive sign by Shannon Bell for “Forest Shelter,” the sculpture created by the artist team of William Rogers and Nathan Wachacha David Bush.

The sculpture unveiling celebration took place on June 7, 2025. The celebration featured remarks by the sculpture artists and monument team, talks, workshops, an herbal-focused education and crafts fair, live stringband music, and a guided hike along the Storywalk Trail. The sculpture is on permanent display on the grounds of the High Knob Destination Center in Norton, Virginia.

Site Icon

The Forest Botanicals Region Living Monument is a project of the Forest Botanicals Region Social Ecology Lab at Virginia Tech and Appalachian Sustainable Development, in partnership with the City of Norton, Virginia. This project was made possible by the generous support of Monuments Across Appalachian Virginia.