Photograph of Leona Watts

During the late 1980s, Early Fred Sanders and Dr. Wenonah George Haire formed the Catawba Cultural Task Force to begin collecting, preserving, and perpetuating the history and culture of the Catawba people. In 1990, this project was organized into the Catawba Cultural Preservation Project (CCPP), housed in the former Catawba Indian School building, which was donated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and subsequently moved from it's original location behind the LDS Church on Reservation Road, to its current location at 1536 Tom Steven Road. When the Catawba Indian Nation (CIN) regained Federal recognition in 1993, the Executive Committee of the CIN formalized the CCPP as the entity officially responsible for the collection, preservation, promotion, and education of and about the history, culture, arts, and language of the Catawba to both tribal members and the general public. The CCPP operated as an independent, non-profit organization until 2020, when it became a division of the tribal government.