The Cherokee Today
Part VI
The present-day Cherokee people are the descendants of those who hid out in the North Carolina Mountains and of some few, who were allowed to stay by the army, during the removal in 1838. For a long time after the removal, the remnant of the once powerful tribe struggled desperately to exist. They could not legally hold land, and actually for a long time were not considered citizens. Their land, such as it was, was held through white friends or was left alone because no one thought it worth having. But gradually, this remnant people began to amass holdings in the Lufty River district. They were aided in this by a white Indian Trader named Colonel William Thomas, who would buy the land for individual Indians and hold it in his own name. He allowed the Indians to live on it and develop it until the time that he became a United States Senator and was able to get laws passed that recognized these people as citizens. Colonel Thomas had amassed a lot of land for the Cherokees by the time that the law, allowing them to become citizens, was passed, but he had also amassed a considerable number of debts, so that when he died, the title to the Cherokee lands had not been legally settled. Upon Thomas’ death, his creditors attempted to seize the Cherokees holdings that were still in Thomas’ name. A delegation of Cherokees were sent to Washington to appeal to the Federal Government, to keep the lands from being sold for Thomas’ debts. This delegation was able to get the Government to appropriate twenty-five thousand dollars to clear the title to Cherokee holdings. This twenty-five thousand dollars was appropriated out of money that had not been paid to the Eastern Cherokees for removal to the West. Lawyers were hired and put to work clearing the titles to the lands. When these titles were cleared and some new tracts added to them through additional appropriations to the twenty-five thousand, this boundary became what is now known as the Cherokee Indian Reservation or the Qualla Boundary.
The Cherokees paid taxes on this land and developed it as any other citizen who lived in the state of North Carolina. The only difference in this land and other lands outside the Reservation was, that the Cherokees could not sell any part of it without permission of the Cherokee council and the President of the United States. The status of the land, as far as selling it, remains the same today. The Cherokees cannot sell their land except to other recognized Cherokees.
After Thomas; death, the affairs of the Cherokees for a while had no official guide nor councilor. Although the Government had ordered two official rolls of the people and had requested the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to take over the Administration of the Cherokee affairs, there had been nothing done up through the late 1870’s. The Quakers, being longtime friends of the Indians, realized that they needed schools and religious instruction. They established these facilities in Cherokee in 1881. The school was a contract school, partly supported by the Friends Society and partly by the Government. From all accounts, the Quakers were able to make a great deal of progress in forwarding the general education and welfare of the Cherokee. They worked sincerely and industriously towards their goal and the general effects are to be recognized today. After a ten-year period of Quaker contract schools, the Federal Government was ready to carry on the school work and the administration of the Indian affairs.
The present day Indian Reservation or Qualla Indian Boundary has approximately fifty-five thousand acres of lands in its boundaries and lies in the heart of Western North Carolina in Swain, Jackson and Graham counties on the headwaters of the Oconaluftee River. The other tracts, one containing 3200 acres, near Whittier, N. C. is in Swain County and the other tract lies in a remote section of Graham County near the headwaters of the Little and Big Snowbird Rivers.
There are approximately 5000 people on the present Cherokee roll, out of which between seven and eight hundred are full blood. The tribal government recognizes any resident who has one thirty-second part Cherokee blood. However by the Cherokee Constitution, no member of the tribe can become a council member unless he is of one-quarter blood. He may not be elected Chief unless he is at least half Eastern Cherokee. The council is made up of twelve councilmen; two from each township with the Chief being elected from at large on the Reservation. The council members are elected for two years each, from Paint Town, Wolf Town, Yellowhill, Big Cove, Birdtown and Snowbird townships. The members meet once a year in general council and may meet as many times as necessary at called sessions to settle business of the tribe. They function as eleven voting members and one President or Speaker of the body. The Speaker does not vote except to break a tie.
The Cherokees may lease their lands to outsiders for legitimate purposes up to twenty-five years. All leases must have the approval of the tribal business committee, which is made up of members of the tribal Government and the Superintendent of the Reservation. Although members of the band do not have individual deeds to their lands, they have possessory rights to the tracts they own. These tracts are surveyed and registered in the Federal Agency Office, as being held by these individuals. They may swap, trade or hand down to their heirs these tracts of lands and holdings but their heir, to be legal must be at least one thirty-second Cherokee.
The Government maintains one accredited High School and five elementary schools on the Reservation. These schools are operated by the Federal Government under civil service status. Most of the Cherokee students go to these schools but those who wish, and where it is convenient to the local white school’s system, go to these schools. It is not mandatory for them to go to Reservation schools.
Cherokees may leave the Reservation at any time and may stay away as long as they desire. They may work were they will and vote in local, county and state elections. The Reservation has its own public health officers and police officers. These officers work in conjunction with the local, county and state authorities. Cherokee citizens pay all taxes that ordinary citizens pay except local land taxes. They make their living just as any other Americans so. They do not get a Federal yearly payment, as is the opinion of a great many people.
Some of the older Cherokee people still do not speak English; they may understand the language but refuse to speak it; in fact, only about fifty percent still speak their own language. In the homes where the older people still speak the language, younger ones learn to speak their own tongue and usually continue to speak it all their lives. The young people are compelled to learn to speak English in school. The use of Sequoyah alphabet is fast disappearing. All printing the younger generation comes in contact with is in English. The only time young Cherokee see Sequoyah alphabet any more, is when the older people sing from their hymn books or read from their Bibles.
Although it is possible to see and Indian ball game occasionally, it is not played any more just for the simple pleasure of maintaining the glory of one’s township. The social get-together for the Indian dance is no more. The last of the medicine men are dying and there are no more trained to take their places. Many people do not know the name of their own clan nor the clan of those they marry. The old Cherokee are fast vanishing and the new generation does not cling to or care for the old ways. They are a part of a different world and look forward to assuming their rightful place in its society.
By Tom Underwood
The Cherokees paid taxes on this land and developed it as any other citizen who lived in the state of North Carolina. The only difference in this land and other lands outside the Reservation was, that the Cherokees could not sell any part of it without permission of the Cherokee council and the President of the United States. The status of the land, as far as selling it, remains the same today. The Cherokees cannot sell their land except to other recognized Cherokees.
After Thomas; death, the affairs of the Cherokees for a while had no official guide nor councilor. Although the Government had ordered two official rolls of the people and had requested the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to take over the Administration of the Cherokee affairs, there had been nothing done up through the late 1870’s. The Quakers, being longtime friends of the Indians, realized that they needed schools and religious instruction. They established these facilities in Cherokee in 1881. The school was a contract school, partly supported by the Friends Society and partly by the Government. From all accounts, the Quakers were able to make a great deal of progress in forwarding the general education and welfare of the Cherokee. They worked sincerely and industriously towards their goal and the general effects are to be recognized today. After a ten-year period of Quaker contract schools, the Federal Government was ready to carry on the school work and the administration of the Indian affairs.
The present day Indian Reservation or Qualla Indian Boundary has approximately fifty-five thousand acres of lands in its boundaries and lies in the heart of Western North Carolina in Swain, Jackson and Graham counties on the headwaters of the Oconaluftee River. The other tracts, one containing 3200 acres, near Whittier, N. C. is in Swain County and the other tract lies in a remote section of Graham County near the headwaters of the Little and Big Snowbird Rivers.
There are approximately 5000 people on the present Cherokee roll, out of which between seven and eight hundred are full blood. The tribal government recognizes any resident who has one thirty-second part Cherokee blood. However by the Cherokee Constitution, no member of the tribe can become a council member unless he is of one-quarter blood. He may not be elected Chief unless he is at least half Eastern Cherokee. The council is made up of twelve councilmen; two from each township with the Chief being elected from at large on the Reservation. The council members are elected for two years each, from Paint Town, Wolf Town, Yellowhill, Big Cove, Birdtown and Snowbird townships. The members meet once a year in general council and may meet as many times as necessary at called sessions to settle business of the tribe. They function as eleven voting members and one President or Speaker of the body. The Speaker does not vote except to break a tie.
The Cherokees may lease their lands to outsiders for legitimate purposes up to twenty-five years. All leases must have the approval of the tribal business committee, which is made up of members of the tribal Government and the Superintendent of the Reservation. Although members of the band do not have individual deeds to their lands, they have possessory rights to the tracts they own. These tracts are surveyed and registered in the Federal Agency Office, as being held by these individuals. They may swap, trade or hand down to their heirs these tracts of lands and holdings but their heir, to be legal must be at least one thirty-second Cherokee.
The Government maintains one accredited High School and five elementary schools on the Reservation. These schools are operated by the Federal Government under civil service status. Most of the Cherokee students go to these schools but those who wish, and where it is convenient to the local white school’s system, go to these schools. It is not mandatory for them to go to Reservation schools.
Cherokees may leave the Reservation at any time and may stay away as long as they desire. They may work were they will and vote in local, county and state elections. The Reservation has its own public health officers and police officers. These officers work in conjunction with the local, county and state authorities. Cherokee citizens pay all taxes that ordinary citizens pay except local land taxes. They make their living just as any other Americans so. They do not get a Federal yearly payment, as is the opinion of a great many people.
Some of the older Cherokee people still do not speak English; they may understand the language but refuse to speak it; in fact, only about fifty percent still speak their own language. In the homes where the older people still speak the language, younger ones learn to speak their own tongue and usually continue to speak it all their lives. The young people are compelled to learn to speak English in school. The use of Sequoyah alphabet is fast disappearing. All printing the younger generation comes in contact with is in English. The only time young Cherokee see Sequoyah alphabet any more, is when the older people sing from their hymn books or read from their Bibles.
Although it is possible to see and Indian ball game occasionally, it is not played any more just for the simple pleasure of maintaining the glory of one’s township. The social get-together for the Indian dance is no more. The last of the medicine men are dying and there are no more trained to take their places. Many people do not know the name of their own clan nor the clan of those they marry. The old Cherokee are fast vanishing and the new generation does not cling to or care for the old ways. They are a part of a different world and look forward to assuming their rightful place in its society.
By Tom Underwood
