Nuyagi Keetoowah Society of Pomona NY
« Reply #52 on: Apr 19th, 2005, 2:18pm » Quote Modify
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back for a moment:
AC quotes me:
They don't know anyone [who] exists who isn't a part of the Dawes "collaborator's and criminal's" rolls."
That is downright abusive towards people you are related to by blood and culture. Not to mention paranoid and just plain untrue. Very FEW enrolled Cherokees were "collaborators". The Watie/Boudinot faction was just a tiny fragment of the Cherokee nation, less than 10%. And, playing devil's advocate here, many of them felt they had reason for what they did, that they would be removed anyway from the homeland and so they should get the best deal they can. IMO that does not excuse what they did by signing a fraudulent treaty. But they (and their descendants) mostly did not see what they did as traitorous.
REH:
Al, I believe you don't know Keetoowah history here. In 1883 through the turn of the century it was the traditional people, not the Boudinot faction, that resisted enrollment. In fact Redbird Smith had to be caught, thrown in jail and given a roll number or he would have been in the same boat as over 6,000 traditional people who didn't and don't have roll numbers. At the time of the Trail of Tears Christians were only about 10% and it had little to do with "blood". In fact I was taught that a person who was culturally Tsalagi was a full blood and a Christian was mixed. That is of course lost with the exception of some very conservative communities. Traditional Keetoowahs cannot be Christian, it is a different religion and the Keetoowah faith is the original faith of the Cherokee i.e. Anikituwagi. If Smith had not been jailed, along with the criminals, he would not have had a roll number. Since it is required that the descendant be direct, I suspect that the current Chief would not have been "Cherokee" had not his ancestor been jailed. There is plenty of data about this available in the Cherokee Histories. But remember, because of the "Religious Crimes Codes of 1883" that banned all native religions in America, Keetoowahs basically went underground when confronted by the authorities. For the government the issue was land, especially for the Sundance peoples and their religious land coops (Tiospayes). But as the Dawes commission report makes clear, and I quote:
[In 1883 a small group of Eastern humanitarians began to meet annually at Lake Mohonk, where with an agreeable background of natural beauty, congenial companionship, and crusading motive, they discussed the Indian problem. At their third meeting Senator Henry L. Dawes of Massachusetts, a distinguished Indian theorist, gave a glowing description of a visit of inspection he had recently made to the Indian Territory. The most partisan Indian would hardly have painted such an idealized picture of his people’s happiness and prosperity and culture, but, illogically, the senator advocated a change in this perfect society because it held the wrong principles of property ownership. Speaking apparently of the Cherokees, he said: “The head chief told us that there was not a family in that whole nation that had not a home of its own. There was not a pauper in that nation, and the nation did not owe a dollar. It built its own capitol, in which we had this examination, and it built its schools and its hospitals. Yet the defect of the system was apparent. They have got as far as they can go, because they own their land in common. It is Henry George’s system, and under that there is no enterprise to make your home any better than that of your neighbors. There is no selfishness, which is at the bottom of civilization. Till this people will consent to give up their lands, and divide them among their citizens so that each can own the land he cultivates, they will not make much more progress.
(36)]
(36) 1900, pp. 25-32; Lake Mohonk Conference, Report, 1904, pp 5-6; Department of the Interior, Annual Report, 1900, pp. 655-735.
That was the myth told by the Americans but it was really about closing the Nation down and getting the excess land for settlers. Redbird Smith and the Keetoowahs as well as the Four Mothers and other traditional societies were dead against that. I do realize that some traditional families accepted and even pushed roll numbers. I was told that by an artist descendant, but by and large the "mixed" cultural Cherokees were NOT the ones resisting enrollment, and I'm not talking blood here.
I know a man who lost a huge ranch and was required to take 160 acres, so he shot the Marshalls and spent the rest of his life on the run. He went from Prince to pauper. The ranch was three Oklahoma counties. The argument that it was going to happen anyway is the same argument made by the treaty party in Tenn. I don't accept it and neither did my Grandparents. They just stayed in Arkansas amongst our people there until it was all over. They resolved to keep their community and family as well as the traditions but elected not to get involved in the fights. The Civil War had nearly destroyed the family and they weren't going to do that again.
Ray Evans Harrell
