I AM!
I have researched the information available on the internet for months now. If I had enough money, white man's money, I could purchase the proof needed to validate my family's Cherokee Heritage, maybe! I send this not in search of funds, but to make a statement to those who have secured the proof of their claim of Cherokee Ancestry. You have a few documents of written History to attest the fact that certain of your Cherokee Ancestors were real. You have a lineage, therefore to trace your ancestry.
I have verbal history passed down through my family for generations. This is the original way our history was recorded. My grandmother was Cherokee, in a world which wanted to destroy her. Her fore-father took it upon himself to survive. All she knew was her fore~father took the roll as "Chief" in order to lead her small family to safety during the "Trail of Tears", that they would not die or be trapped like animals on some distant reservation which was nothing more than land that the settlers didn't want at the time. There is a strip of land in Kansas known as the "Cherokee Strip", which other Native Americans eventually occupied, but never the Cherokee, as a nation.
Odd, though, that my Cherokee Grandmother ended up living in this very area. My cousin is in possession of a portrait of my Great Grandfather, my grandmother's father, standing in full chieftain robes and headdress. Yet, it seems he never existed. Well, he did, as did my father and his brothers and sisters, as do my brothers, sister, cousins and this photo, as well as records of Cherokee land grants and birthrolls, which are at this time out of my reach.
Since beginning my search in 1976, I have been met with much scepticism and rudeness by those who's claims to their Cherokee Ancestry has been determined. Luckily, they had the privelege of accessibility to records and other avenues of research. Had the government or religious groups, who recorded so many of our people, never have done so, none of us would ever have been validated through the accepted written records they rely upon. That does not mean they would not today be Cherokee, just that they, like myself and mine, would be ignored in today's society.I am proud for them. In the same token, I expect them to respect my family heritage and not invalidate my claim only because my forebearers may have refused to stand still long enough to be slaughtered through inhumane treatment. I respect the opinions of others, always, but the last reality, the last truth, the last fact in all this, is a major fact. Here I stand, before you, proud and determined, in all my humble origins.......Cherokee...............
I AM!
Huddled like sheep,
Stark terror, known,
Holding their children,
Together, alone!
Do I know their names?
Where lie their bones?
No, I do not!
But, my ancestors groan!
As did my Gram!
'Twas their own flesh,
Died by evil hands!
Hiding in caves,
Leaving stolen lands,
Knowing relatives died,
Ran a renegade band!
Those left behind,
They judge me not!
Their blood is mine!
It still runs hot!
You're Cherokee,
I deny you not!
And here I stand!
You know me not!
They died for me!
They walked that trail!
No longer free,
A people lost!
You judge my heart,
You judge my soul!
You've proved your truth,
So you are bold!
"So!" You say.........
"Your Grandmother,
Was a Cherokee Princess!
What a dream to hold!"
"There's no such thing!
Go on your way!
We are beyond your grasp,
Out of our way!"
But, I say to you,
You don't know me!
My truth is real,
I stand today!
They died for me,
On that "Trail of Tears"
They shared their lives,
They shared their fears!
My "Grandma Princess"
Despite your jeers!
Her father led them
Through the years,
Beyond the reach of
History books,
Beyond the "clicks"
and sly, proud looks!
They ran away,
They left their tribe!
He became a chief
So she wouldn't die!
They sneaked away,
In the dead of night!
Across the fields,
And hills in flight!
Ashamed to leave.....
The rest behind,
Ashamed to live
While others died!
But they survived!
I came to be!
So don't pretend
That you know me!
A "Princess"
Who's "Father Chief"
Stood free,
I stand as proof,
You don't know me!
For my Family,
My children,
My Forefathers,
My Spirit!
By Glenda (Vance) Stadley
��written: 12-09-2000
1:45 pm
�2000