From: Samantha Atkins (samantha@objectent.com)
Date: Mon Sep 09 2002 - 01:50:22 MDT
Dehede011@aol.com wrote:
> Most folks know that the Cherokee have a group in Oklahoma and
> another on a reservation in North Carolina. I am told the largest group
> was "The Lost Cherokee." My family was among that group. We had no
> right to be anywhere but in Oklahoma so we saw the trend early -- sort
> of like anticipating the singularity -- and went out into the white
> community and went underground.
> We pulled it off by claiming we were Black Irish and everything
> under the sun except Cherokee, that we denied. The oppression, should
> we admit our identity, was so severe that it is only within the last few
> decades our old folks would tell we younger ones who we were. Our best
> source of information has turned out to be the internet.
> After all that we can then talk.
> Ron h.
>
> You put in a good word, Samantha.
Ah. I am from North Carolina. One of my aunts is half Cherokee.
Supposedly I have some small percentage of Cherokee in my makeup. I also
lived in Oklahoma for a while in the 70s. I was shocked to see that
there prejudice toward Indians is still as strong or stronger than any
prejudice I saw even in pre-civil rights NC. It is very wierd. I forget
the tribe but around Tulsa there is this reservation where all the
members got a quite hefty check for oil rights as it turns out the
reservation is very oil-rich. Most of them are so marginalized they
still chose to stay on the reservation and keep what bits of identity
they have left.
- samantha
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