Cultural Independence

A flag for the Appalachian Culture, whose homeland extends across thirteen states.

Our Oh Appalachia group seeks to enact cultural independence for an Appalachian Identity. This includes:

• • The concept of an Appalachian identity being culturally independent from the American identity. We recognize the political and economic unity of America.

  • The concept that individual human beings in the Appalachian region, and in the Appalachian Diaspora, are free to consider themselves to be both culturally Appalachian and culturally American, or to consider themselves only Appalachian, or to not participate in an Appalachian cultural identity at all. Regardless of our ancestral or chosen cultural identity, we remain citizens of the American polity, and we remain workers, entrepreneurs, and consumers in the American economy.

  • The formation of an Appalachian Folk Council as a non-governmental, free cultural organization.

  • We claim an Appalachian cultural service area encompassing the entire Southern and Central Appalachian mountains and foothills—the Appalachian Homeland. Our cultural homeland freely overlaps with the American Homeland, in the same way that the ecclesiatical provinces of our various religious denominations have been free to overlap since the separation of church and state. Unlike political states, cultural service areas can freely overlap.

  • The development of a Traditional Appalachian written language distinct from generic American English, in a similar way that the Lowland Scots language is distinct from the Queen's British English. The language will be cultivated by an Appalachian Language Council, as an initiative of the AFC. We do not intend to foist the cultural language into government (public) schools, but to leave it for the free development of the individual citizenry within non-governmental contexts.

  • The development of non-governmental, "private" Appalachian Folk Schools which are funded only by freely given monies (not from tax money or from business advertisements), wherein our delicately burgeoning wildwood flowers might unfold in an atmosphere which is not pervaded by government and corporate influence. The priority is Appalachian Child Gardens (kindergartens).

  • The development of Appalachian Heritage Sites, Folk Parks, Community Gardens, and Community Hunting Grounds, through a non-governmental Appalachian Land Trust, using no government or advertising money, as an initiative of the AFC. Unlike the National Park System of the American Government which expelled our Appalachian people from the Cataloochee Valley to make the Great Smokey Mountains National Park, existing residential, agricultural, hunting, and gathering uses will be cherished by our Appalachian Land Trust.

  • The formation of other symbols of cultural independence, such as:

    • The designation of an Appalachian anthem.

    • The designation of Appalachian heritage days (non-governmental "holidays"), honoring key events in Appalachian history.

    • An .apl internet domain for Appalachian Culture, like the .cat domain of the Catalan culture in Spain.

  • The application for Appalachian membership in international cultural bodies, such as:

    • UNESCO, alongside other such non-politically independent cultures which are already a member of that body: Aruba (politically and economically a part of the Netherlands), the Faroe Islands (part of Denmark), Macau (part of China), Tokelau (part of New Zealand), the British Virgin Islands and Cayman Islands (parts of Britain). Unlike some of those identities, the Appalachian Culture does not seek political or economic independence, only cultural independence.

• • We recognize the cultural independence, or potential cultural independence, of the indigenous peoples of Appalachia, including the Cherokee Nation, the Shawnee Nation, the Mingo (Seneca and Cayuga) Nations of the Iroquois People, the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, the Monacan Nation of southwestern Virginia (related to the Great Sioux People), the ancient Yuchi Nation, and others. Their ancestral homelands freely overlap with the Appalachian cultural homeland.

  • We will steward our Mountains as well as the Swiss People, who, through banks incorporated under their law, are financing the destruction of our native landscape. The Swiss would not allow their own industry and government to destroy their own mountains.

• • We aim to transform the entire American political State of West Virginia, in the beautiful heart of Appalachia, into an Appalachian cultural State of Vandalia, as a non-governmental service area of the Appalachian Culture, freely overlapping with American West Virginia.

A flag for the Appalachian State of Vandalia, as a service area of the Appalachian cultural organization.