Welcome to Long House Funeral Home

Welcome to our website.  Long House Funeral Home is first funeral home in North Carolina that is dedicated to serving the specific needs of the Cherokee People along with the greater Western North Carolina communities.

We provide individualized funeral services designed to meet the needs of each family.  Our staff of dedicated professionals is available to assist you in making funeral service arrangements.  From casket choices to funeral flowers, we will guide you through all aspects of the funeral service.

We invite you to contact us with your questions, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

“First Funeral Home of the First People”
Dedicated to all those who died during the removal of 1838-1840 and to the memory of all those who risked their lives to stay behind so that we, their descendants, might be able to remain in our native homeland.

Background Information:
It is the legendary belief of the Cherokee that they were the “First People”. Long House Funeral Home is therefore the First Funeral Home of the First People. Our name, Long House, comes from the ancient time of the Woodland Indian tribes of the Eastern United States who commonly had longhouses as gathering places for tribal functions, such as feasts, dances, and funerals. We have chosen our name carefully as it also serves as a descriptive term for our facility, which is obviously a long house. It was originally built as Soco School in the 1930’s and served in that function until the late 1960’s when it became Soco Daycare.

In 1995 the daycare moved to a new building and the old school stood empty for a time. In 2004 we opened our other company, Native Clans Casket Company in the old school. We reconfigured that company but still customize caskets on a at need and preneed basis. On July 10, 2009, we held our open house and dedication for the new funeral home.

To the best of our knowledge, we are the first funeral home to operate on the Qualla Boundary. We are Native American owned and operated. We are pleased to now be able to care for our own in our own community.