h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Sorry...figured that would get your attention!

Actually, thats' my point...in a way.

I'm in Alabama, and do have Cherokee ancestry(had a maternal ancestor hidden during "Trail of Tears", I'm told my great grandmother....kinda hard to trace)....but the laws are laughable. Most people claim the liniage for "benefits" around here. Yeah, I got the blood, but IMHO not enough to claim....but the law says I can.

We had a Cherokee Chief here in 'ol 'Bammy back when I was younger who was a blue eyed, blonde haired German dirivitive if I ever saw one....but he had the right %...and qualified.

Then he proceeded to work one of the biggest scams I've ever seen! Mostly for drugs and $. Not good PR for Native interests!

I understand your cause(I also understand it is one of many)and hope your fight is not too "uphill". You have history(real and imagined), government embarrasment and immitating "charlatins" to battle.

The Indian Wars are not over, and it is my hope that the Native Americans will eventually win. No...they will never drive out the evil "white man", but recognition, respect and honor for their contributions to our culture will be the final victory.

NM

I've heard about the blond, blue-eyed Cherokees. It started long before the government got involved with "benefits" of course.

When the whites discovered that the Cherokee held their land through the female line, they quickly lined up to get a piece for themselves, so to speak. That's probably why you hardly ever hear of someone with a Cherokee grandfather.

John Ross, the Cherokee chief who may have been nearly as responsible for the Trail of Tears as Andy Jackson, was all of one eighth blood quantum, for example

Unfortunately, once the land was obtained in this fashion, the women, with the more or less inevitable children, were tossed to the winds in many cases. This is one of the reasons it became a capital offense under the Cherokee law to alienate Cherokee land after awhile.

The Cherokee's attempt to assimilate without giving up sovereignty was doomed because the issue wasn't about cultural differences but about land tenure and title and still is. That's why you are quite correct that the Indian Wars are still going on in Indian Country.

Whether or not you continue to avoid collecting "benefits" personally, I hope you draw closer to your ancestors and their ways. If enough people do that, maybe the rapine associated with immigrant communities of strangers exasperated by corporate greed will finally be defused and we can at least hang on to what we still have.

People from both sides of the railroad tracks in Gallop buy into the lie unfortunately. Don't be too hard on the ones who claim indian blood. It's no vacine against selfishness or greed. It's more how you're raised that matters, but unless you establish meaningful relations with your relations, everybody wants a piece of the action it seems.

That's the problem they have in Hawaii right now with some of the lands being returned. Who do you return it to? The government says people with at least 50 percent native blood. The Maoli say they should decide for themselves. The chance of that being recognized is sort of remote but ultimately that might still be the best solution.

Anyway, it's sort of apparent that the Cherokee would have been no worse at managing things than the TVA. It's doubtful the mess at Tellico would have happened if the Cherokees had had their way, regardless of blood quantums.