THE INDIAN CARD : SELF IDENTIFYING AS NATIVE AMERICAN : THE CHEROKEE and also MISINFORMATION BY FAMILY : ANCESTRY WORSHIP BOOK REVIEW

THE INDIAN CARD by CARRIE LOWRY SCHUETTPELZ

Excerpt page 2: Self-identifying, though, is just one piece of a very convoluted puzzle. In the United States, there are myriad ways a Native person may be required to demonstrate their identity. That list includes Tribal enrollment. Yet, at the same time that the number of people self-identifying as Native in this country has increased to over 9.7 million, the number of people enrolled in Tribes is much, much lower.

This nuance is particularly pronounced among people who identify as Cherokee.  As of 2023, just over 450,000 people were formally enrolled members (called citizens) of the Cherokee Nation.  That is, 450.000 people have some sort of card, which they applied for and received through the process the Cherokee nation determined.  Another (approximately 14,000 people are enrolled in the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians in Oklahoma. Together, about 480,000 people in this country are enrolled in one of three federally recognized Cherokee Tribes.

Excerpt pages 2-3 : Scholars have written a lot about this phenomenon - that because of  complex issues that includes patterns of disconnection, relocation, and misrepresentation in family lore, the number of people claiming Cherokee heritage is very high. But we see this not just with Cherokee. This same gap, between claiming Native identity and being formally verified as having it, exists for many other Tribes in the United States.

As a note, in my experience a number of persons I've met who self -identify as African-American (Black) have been told there is an "Indian Princess" in their heritage. I've seen photos of ancestors who lived in the South in which some children appear to be "White" and others appear to be ? On the census they are listed as Mulatto, but in fact the family was a mix of Cherokee and Scotts-Irish or British pioneers. DNA tests I've heard about from those person told the "Indian Princess" story have proven that to be just a story. This is admittedly a small sampling of possibilities.

THE CONCEPT OF SOVEREIGNTY

Excerpt page 8 "One of the primary reasons that enrollment, why Tribal membership, exists is because of the underling principle of Tribal sovereignty.  For Native American Tribes, sovereignty is boss.  I's king.  Sovereignty is the key that opens all the doors.  It's the thing upon which all other things rest.  Throughout Indian Country, sovereignty is the shared love language.  To understand any Native person's story, its important to understand the concept of sovereignty.

Over the last 250 years, the U.S. government has ping-ponged between full-scale "termination" of Native peoples to (alleged) protectionism of them to everything in between.  And often what has been at stake - besides the obvious human lives and land rights - is sovereignty. That is, in losing their land and, often, their lives, Tribes have clung to their rights of self-determination for continued survival.

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Book Review and Excerpt selections

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HISTORYGEO.COM GENEALOGY DATABASE REVIEW : THE CHEROKEE ALLOTMENTS IN OKLAHOMA ARE EXCELLENT #2

https://historygeo.com/  The database I used was within a genealogy library. This link may not bring up THE CHEROKEE ALLOTMENT Oklahoma link... If not, do see if your library subscribes to this database!

Ross, Carlisle, Miegs, Newton, Jordon....

Tehee, Rattlingourd, (See Range 22-east)

Walkabout

Bearpaw

Pigeon

Hazelwood

Wood

Star

McClure

(If you know your Cherokee history some of these names will be familiar to you...)

MOST OF THE NAMES ARE ENGLISH - AMERICAN - but that's OK. If you know the surname and you want to check out the Cherokee who were moved to Oklahoma, there is abundant possibility here...

The state map is sectioned into ranges and the land ownership by Cherokee is indicated by parcel size. The boundary is also shown between the Cherokee and the Creek Nation which you will see at Muskogee County  (See Range 19-east)

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HISTORYGEO.COM GENEALOGY DATABASE REVIEW : INTERESTING HISTORICAL MAP COLLECTION #1

https://historygeo.com/  There is a surname function.

There are many tourist maps on the Internet today and various sources for old maps including National and local archives. But I thought I'd give his database a try while at a genealogy library.

Maps made about the time they lived in a city, town, village, hamlet are the best.

I love to take genealogy writing a bit further, to include some understanding of where our ancestors lived, which is a whole lot about how they lived.

The Landowners Project is ongoing and to be honest, the area I was interested in was not (yet) included.

We can see if our ancestors lived near a river, a school, a cemetery, a church, or a factory - maybe where they worked. We can see if they lived in a single family home (house) or a townhouse or rowhouse, or perhaps a hotel. (The name of the school, cemetery, church or factory can link you to school, cemetery, church, or employment records.)

We can link census with address with a map. We can use landowner maps to also seek out deeds and inheritances, land grants, squatters rights.

Sometimes we can link the old map with the new, or an address with a Google Street View or Google Earth.

I used the HISTORICAL MAPS for an area I grew up in. I looked at 1850, 1862, 1890, and 1898.  All in the distant past, long before I grew up there. But I could see the names of the landowners had become the names of the streets and roads. It was interesting when a property was listed as "so and so's heirs" and when the creek showed up with an actual name. Also listed were stores, parsonages, and then where the railroad came through...

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GIVING INTERNET ARCHIVE A TRY : SEARCHING FOR CHEROKEE and CHEROKEE plus GENEALOGY

INTERNET ARCHIVES : CHEROKEE SEARCH  up comes a Cherokee - English dictionary, many books about the culture of this Native American tribe, Compiled Laws of the Cherokee Nation,  mid 19th century Cherokee Baptist booklets

Adding the word genealogy INTERNET ARCHIVES search CHEROKEE + GENEALOGY up comes Cherokee By Blood books.

ROY HAMILTON - CHEROKEE NATION GENEALOGIST - LECTURE

Roy Hamilton, Cultural Advisor, Genealogist, and Project Manager with the Cherokee Nation

CHEROKEE BY BLOOD or BY CITIZENSHIP of THE CHEROKEE NATION?

BIOLOGY DOES NOT MAKE YOU A CITIZEN OF THE NATION.

ARE THE DAWES ROLLS THE END ALL?

NOTES:

1830's began the notion of blood quantum.

For the Cherokee you were or you were not.  The mother is the key, the mother holds the clan.

Trail of Tears - Cherokee Towns in various locations (currently many states).

Nancy Ward descendants.