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"as a Tsalagiyi "mixed-blood", i completely AGREE.
i hope the day NEVER comes when i'm NOT considered "RED enough" to remain an enrolled member of the nation!!! (IF the "pins" decide to try that, they will have a FIGHT on their hands!!!)

My wife and children have a tiny percentage of Cherokee blood. AFAIK, not enough to be on the tribal roles, but enough that we thought it cool. My wife is no longer so proud of that blood. I don't think I have any such blood, but can't swear to it. Grandma used to name a dozen or so nationalities we shared, but I can only remember ten of them. She had long, dark, thick blue-black hair that gleamed in the sun when I was a little boy. I do remember that they made a point of stopping by the Cherokee reservation on a trip to Michigan, back in the late '60's or early '70's. I've always wondered why there, and none of the other places.

I also wonder how Sequoya would feel about this new development.

i believe that Sequoya would be HORRIFIED, as HE was also a "mixed-blood"!!! (his mother was also a white woman, as mine is.)

i do NOT understand this at all, as it is divorced from our long-held TRADITIONS. for eons, BEING Tsalagiyi was WANTING to BE a TSALAGIYI badly enough to make the sacrifices to BE Tsalagiyi! (i.e., marrying into the nation,adhering to a band, joining a clan, accepting/inculcating our laws/traditions/culture/etc as one's OWN, etc.).

for example, David "Runs-the-Path" Williams had blond hair & blue eyes & was the son of a Tsalagiyi woman & an English horse-trader. in the 19th Century, NOBODY would have doubted that David (OR his FATHER, for that matter!!!) was an AUTHENTIC Tsalagiyi, as he BELIEVED himself TO BE Tsalagiyi & LIVED the life of a traditional Tsalagiyi warrior ALL of his LIFE.

those ,who have bothered to read this far into my post, will therefore understand why i am HUMILIATED by what the "tribal BIGSHOTS" have done.

forgive me, but i cannot end this writing without quoting an OLD proverb:

"Before a man puts away as valueless his people's beliefs of life & his traditional way of being, he had better assure that he was something of worth, with which to replace them."

free dixie,sw