Legal Genocide
Around the early 1800’s is when the wholesale kidnapping of Indian children, including Cherokees, by the U.S. Government and most states, began. They were sent to ‘schools’ to educate them and teach them how to act in White society. Sadly many thousands died while in these schools. The ones that did not perish under these circumstances returned home only to find that they had lost their tribal identity and were neither Native nor White. They no longer could remember or speak their own language and did not know their culture. The U.S. government policy of removing Indian children from the 1800’s and 1900’s to ‘educate them’, and thus destroy their culture, came to a head in the 1970’s when a report was submitted by the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry to the United States Congress, resulting in the passage of the Indian Child Welfare Act in the mid-1970’s and subsequent enforcement to allow all Indian children to remain with or be placed with their own people. Also many states have stopped putting Indian or Native American on birth certificates, (Genocide by paper!!).
“In the United States, one in every 200 children lives outside of his home of origin. In North Dakota, South Dakota and Nebraska one of every nine Indian children are in foster homes, adoptive homes, institutions or boarding facilities. Indian children in these states are withdrawn from their homes at a rate of 20 times the national average. In Minnesota during 1971-1972, one in every seven Indian children was in placement outside of their own homes (there were about 1,413 Indian children under 18 in adoptive placement which there were 241 Indian children under 18 in foster care). Ninety-one percent of the adoptions were in non-Indian homes. In a survey of 16 states, approximately 85% of all Indian children in foster care are placed in non-Indian homes." *3
By 1995, the Northern Cherokee Nation (Official name changed in 1978 by vote), had been through many traumas, almost permanent loss of identity, loss of citizens through natural and man-made disasters and laws and had almost completely lost hope of ever being a people who could be proud of and celebrate their culture as a united people. Through the election of Elva Beltz and soon after the election of Chief Carl ‘Grey Owl’ Griggs in 1995, a new page was turned. His non-stop dedicated efforts to establish the Northern Cherokee Tribal headquarters in Clinton, Missouri and to promote our culture once again started a new chapter for the NCN. When he crossed the river in 2005, Phil ‘Hawk Gazer’ Glasscock tried to continue those efforts, even in ill health. With Chief Hawk Gazer’s passing, in 2007, the torch was taken up by our present Chief, Kenn ‘Grey Elk’ Descombes. The Green, Sac and White River bands were united once again and a concerted mutual effort was made to ‘bring the children home’, and obtain Federal Recognition.
“In the United States, one in every 200 children lives outside of his home of origin. In North Dakota, South Dakota and Nebraska one of every nine Indian children are in foster homes, adoptive homes, institutions or boarding facilities. Indian children in these states are withdrawn from their homes at a rate of 20 times the national average. In Minnesota during 1971-1972, one in every seven Indian children was in placement outside of their own homes (there were about 1,413 Indian children under 18 in adoptive placement which there were 241 Indian children under 18 in foster care). Ninety-one percent of the adoptions were in non-Indian homes. In a survey of 16 states, approximately 85% of all Indian children in foster care are placed in non-Indian homes." *3
By 1995, the Northern Cherokee Nation (Official name changed in 1978 by vote), had been through many traumas, almost permanent loss of identity, loss of citizens through natural and man-made disasters and laws and had almost completely lost hope of ever being a people who could be proud of and celebrate their culture as a united people. Through the election of Elva Beltz and soon after the election of Chief Carl ‘Grey Owl’ Griggs in 1995, a new page was turned. His non-stop dedicated efforts to establish the Northern Cherokee Tribal headquarters in Clinton, Missouri and to promote our culture once again started a new chapter for the NCN. When he crossed the river in 2005, Phil ‘Hawk Gazer’ Glasscock tried to continue those efforts, even in ill health. With Chief Hawk Gazer’s passing, in 2007, the torch was taken up by our present Chief, Kenn ‘Grey Elk’ Descombes. The Green, Sac and White River bands were united once again and a concerted mutual effort was made to ‘bring the children home’, and obtain Federal Recognition.
