Citizen of Cherokee Nation here. Thank you for your efforts, but things in Indian Country are confusing. I'm mentioning a few corrections:
1) Cherokee Nation does not have a blood quantum requirement at all. As with most nations worldwide, citizenship is based on descent. If you can show you are a direct descendent of someone on the Dawes Roll (and maybe some other rolls), you are eligible for citizenship. Blood quantums on the Dawes Roll were often based on appearances or simplified from a single ancestor. Most Cherokees are complicated fractions of mixed Cherokee, Choctaw, other tribes, white, Black, Latino, and other ancestors going back along multiple family lines. This is certainly the case with my heritage. During the Cherokee Trail of Tears, Principal Chief John Ross was 1/8th Cherokee, but all thru moms. As the Cherokee were still matrilineal at the time, he grew up with the tribe.
2) Cherokee women married to white men at the time of the Trail of Tears - and there were a lot of such marriages - were allowed to stay in Georgia/Tennessee with their white husbands. There is one example of that in my family, though many who stayed behind ended up moving to Indian Territory decades later. I don't really know their stories, just that many stayed back but then, years later, their death location was Indian Territory.
3) MarkWayne Mullin says very little about his Cherokee-ness and seems to keep it low profile. It is very awkward having a Cherokee in charge of an agency involved in ethnic cleansing. That's the most gentle way I can put it.
4) The Native American Studies dept at Univ of Minnesota just hosted a conference on pretendianism. There were quite a few panels, each over an hour. The Cherokee-focused one is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGNyU7bS4os While there are only 3 federally-recognized Cherokee tribes (which are in regular communication with each other), there are about 400 faux-Cherokee tribes, which is rather overwhelming. One of the panelists says that more white people claim to be Cherokees than there are actual enrolled Cherokees, which says a lot because Cherokees are one of the largest tribes.
Hi Stephen, thanks again for helping out. I have revised the article to clarify that it is the Eastern Band of Cherokee and the Keetoowah Band who have a "blood quantum" requirement, NOT the Cherokee Nation. Clarity and accuracy are extremely important. I totally realize that the Dawes Rolls are flawed records, with estimated "blood quantum" fluctuating over related family records. Apparently this could have an impact on the right to make certain land transactions? All the best, B.
ah, okay, that makes sense. Note that Cherokee Nation has over 450,000 members while the other two are much smaller. The Keetoowah Band are also in NE Oklahoma, generally within the Cherokee Nation reservation, but have a different history how they got there (they went before the Trail of Tears). The Eastern Band are in NC and are those who managed to hide and stay back. Certainly tribal status impacted land transactions in the past (read By the Fire We Carry by @RebeccaNagle), but I don't think so much in the present. Non-tribal members own plenty of private property within reservation boundaries; it's not all owned by the tribes. Like many Natives, my family sold all our land after the Allotment Act.
Thanks Stephen! I thought you might have something valuable to add here. One question: Why does the PDF application for citizenship found online state a blood quantum requirement? Perhaps I pulled up an out-of-date web page? I will certainly make a correction if that is the case. Thanks again.
I have a little different story. My father's genealogy has been traced (by my uncle) but only through the father's in each generation. It stops when a "great-great some-grandfather) came to the colonies in 1769 from Belfast. The line ended up migrating through Virginia and ending up in what was or became Tennessee. My father always claimed that there was some Cherokee waaaayyyy back. Nobody ever claimed to be Indian of any kind. I never gave it much thought other than the possibility that somewhere along the way there was some intermingling, probably in the late 1700's. Not a given, just a possibility.
Citizen of Cherokee Nation here. Thank you for your efforts, but things in Indian Country are confusing. I'm mentioning a few corrections:
1) Cherokee Nation does not have a blood quantum requirement at all. As with most nations worldwide, citizenship is based on descent. If you can show you are a direct descendent of someone on the Dawes Roll (and maybe some other rolls), you are eligible for citizenship. Blood quantums on the Dawes Roll were often based on appearances or simplified from a single ancestor. Most Cherokees are complicated fractions of mixed Cherokee, Choctaw, other tribes, white, Black, Latino, and other ancestors going back along multiple family lines. This is certainly the case with my heritage. During the Cherokee Trail of Tears, Principal Chief John Ross was 1/8th Cherokee, but all thru moms. As the Cherokee were still matrilineal at the time, he grew up with the tribe.
2) Cherokee women married to white men at the time of the Trail of Tears - and there were a lot of such marriages - were allowed to stay in Georgia/Tennessee with their white husbands. There is one example of that in my family, though many who stayed behind ended up moving to Indian Territory decades later. I don't really know their stories, just that many stayed back but then, years later, their death location was Indian Territory.
3) MarkWayne Mullin says very little about his Cherokee-ness and seems to keep it low profile. It is very awkward having a Cherokee in charge of an agency involved in ethnic cleansing. That's the most gentle way I can put it.
4) The Native American Studies dept at Univ of Minnesota just hosted a conference on pretendianism. There were quite a few panels, each over an hour. The Cherokee-focused one is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGNyU7bS4os While there are only 3 federally-recognized Cherokee tribes (which are in regular communication with each other), there are about 400 faux-Cherokee tribes, which is rather overwhelming. One of the panelists says that more white people claim to be Cherokees than there are actual enrolled Cherokees, which says a lot because Cherokees are one of the largest tribes.
Hi Stephen, thanks again for helping out. I have revised the article to clarify that it is the Eastern Band of Cherokee and the Keetoowah Band who have a "blood quantum" requirement, NOT the Cherokee Nation. Clarity and accuracy are extremely important. I totally realize that the Dawes Rolls are flawed records, with estimated "blood quantum" fluctuating over related family records. Apparently this could have an impact on the right to make certain land transactions? All the best, B.
ah, okay, that makes sense. Note that Cherokee Nation has over 450,000 members while the other two are much smaller. The Keetoowah Band are also in NE Oklahoma, generally within the Cherokee Nation reservation, but have a different history how they got there (they went before the Trail of Tears). The Eastern Band are in NC and are those who managed to hide and stay back. Certainly tribal status impacted land transactions in the past (read By the Fire We Carry by @RebeccaNagle), but I don't think so much in the present. Non-tribal members own plenty of private property within reservation boundaries; it's not all owned by the tribes. Like many Natives, my family sold all our land after the Allotment Act.
Thanks Stephen! I thought you might have something valuable to add here. One question: Why does the PDF application for citizenship found online state a blood quantum requirement? Perhaps I pulled up an out-of-date web page? I will certainly make a correction if that is the case. Thanks again.
I have a little different story. My father's genealogy has been traced (by my uncle) but only through the father's in each generation. It stops when a "great-great some-grandfather) came to the colonies in 1769 from Belfast. The line ended up migrating through Virginia and ending up in what was or became Tennessee. My father always claimed that there was some Cherokee waaaayyyy back. Nobody ever claimed to be Indian of any kind. I never gave it much thought other than the possibility that somewhere along the way there was some intermingling, probably in the late 1700's. Not a given, just a possibility.