Posted on 03/03/2007 9:06:01 AM PST by rabidralph
VINITA, Okla. -- J.D. Baldridge, 73, has official government documents showing him to be a descendant of a full-blood Cherokee. He has memories of a youth spent among Cherokee neighbors and kin, at tribal stomp dances and hog fries. He holds on to a fair amount of Cherokee vocabulary. " Salali," Baldridge says, his face creasing into a smile at the word. "Squirrel stew. Oh, that was good."
What Baldridge, a retired Oklahoma county sheriff, also has is at least one black ancestor, a former slave of a Cherokee family. That could get Baldridge cast out of the tribe, along with thousands of others.
The 250,000-member Cherokee Nation will vote in a special election today whether to override a 141-year-old treaty and change the tribal constitution to bar "freedmen," the descendants of former tribal slaves, from being members of the sovereign nation.
"It's a basic, inherent right to determine our own citizenry. We paid very dearly for those rights," Cherokee Principal Chief Chad Smith said in an interview last month in Oklahoma City.
But the Cherokee freedmen see the vote as less about self-determination than about discrimination and historical blinders. They see in the referendum hints of racism and a desire by some Cherokees to deny the tribe's slave-owning past.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
free dixie,sw
free dixie,sw
MOST families of WOODLAND Indians "took" Celtic or English-sounding surnames. the WESTERN & PLAINS Indians frequently "took" Latino surnames.
that's WHY a Chief Chad Smith.
free dixie,sw
fyi, we Tsalagiyi "assimilated" early (by 1840 essentially every Tsalagiyi had BOTH a Tsalagiyi & a "European-sounding" name.).
free dixie,sw
Thanks for the ping SB
"The hairy faces came among us. They made us many promises;more promises than there are leaves on trees. BUT, of all the promises they made us, they kept just one. They said they would steal our lands."
TRUER words were NEVER spoken!!!!
free dixie,sw
free dixie,sw
Afternoon Stand
You are probably already aware of this, but many of the Stand Watie letters to and from his wife are now online from the Univ. of Oklahoma. They are a great read. They had 5 children, all who died before leaving children of their own.
http://digital.library.okstate.edu/Chronicles/v001/v001p030.html
A snip from a letter from Sarah Caroline Bell Watie (Sally) to her Husband Stand Watie. Lamar Co. Tx.
May 21, 1865.
"I hear that Cooper will not give you any supplies. if he does not I believe that they all are speculating of it and I hope that the last of them will sink. I do not want you to do any thing of that kind I would live on bread and water rather than have it said you had speculated of your people I believe you have always done what you thought best for your people and I want it to die out that bad belief. if I thought you was working for nothing but to fill your pocket it would trouble me a great deal but I know it is not else it would have been filled before this time. I know that you are capable of making a living any where if we are let alone after the war is over."
free dixie,sw
Did you know that this group of Cherokee left the best written record of any ethnic group ever in the USA? Many do not understand the extent of the good education they obtained for themselves. Here's a link to a photo of Sara Caroline Watie, my grgraunt, Stand Watie and others.
www.paulridenour.com/swatie.htm
free dixie,sw
free dixie HUGS,sw
"Sounds like they're taking lessons from Mr Farrakhan and La Raza.'
Actually, they are being the tribal society that they have always been. Tribes tend to be far less tolerant than present day American society.
Add in the possibility of either loss of, or diminuition of , unearned money, and tribal behavior can turn out to be simply "savage".
Think of the bitter fights amongst the members of the smallest of tribes, the heirs at the reading of the will of their "Dearly Departed".
"A joke comes to mind...something about them being tired of looking at those guys and being reminded of their ancestors' long-ago liaisons with bison...but no, it would be wrong."
Quite right, it would be very wrong. DNA (Dang Nab it All) evidence shows that such liasons with buffalo were the origin of Democrats.
It's a way of life I wish I was closer too. My oldest always said that she wished she had been born two or three hundred years ago. As sw stated, 'he WAS Tsalagiyi because he LIVED Tsalagiyi!'
Well said
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