Chickamauga History from Beginnings Part 3

Below you will find a small amount of the history we have been able to document over years of research into the historical Identity of the Chickamauga and the differences with the Cherokee. This is a compilation work and intended for the use documenting the Academic Research requested by the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs in 2019.

Georgia Converts Treaty Land to Real Title Via Taxation

There were some very smart people in the Georgia Government of that day. They executed the plan of removal beginning with the compact of 1803. This is where the United States made an agreement with the southern states that they would remove the Indians when it was amenable to the parties involved. In the late 1820s, Georgia began the land lottery with Creek territory. It worked so well that it became the tool to use. Georgia calculated the new tax revenue from its illegal annexation. How does Georgia convert it to a real title? Simple. Georgia had calculated that with the claimed new gold discovery the inrush of Georgia citizens and the need for goods and commodities living expenses would go through the roof. They were correct as with any gold rush. However, Georgia within a few years increased property taxes in strategic locations by seven hundred percent. This in time forced many of those who had won lots to default on their taxes, therefore, their land then becomes the property of the state then resold. Some families still retain their land as well. This is how fraud is perpetrated and profit is made in the conversion of real property. The congress apparently consented as it provided the Federal troops to manage people and remove others. We have never found the Act of Congress that officially annexed the Cherokee territory on to the State of Georgia. Therefore, we believe Congress is complicit in this act of fraud. The other possibility is that Georgia has defrauded the Congress as no article in the Treaty of 1835 confers title to the State of Georgia. While the Worcester decision clearly states that Georgia cannot extend her laws nor enter the country without the Cherokee governments consent. Much of this took place before the treaty was ratified. The exception is the removal aspect of this discussion. 

Georgia continued legislating its laws against Indians. Georgia legislatively abolished the Cherokee government. We understood that to be the right of Congress alone. However, the moment Georgia “rescinded” the law, by definition that means as if it had never occurred. That indicated to us that the State must acknowledge our government now again in full force of law. Many took an oath to the state as noted in Georgia legislative history. The actual ruling Cherokee Government was then forced to hold council meetings in Red Clay Tennessee over the treaty boundary Line. A judge forced us to do the same in 2003 by forbidding any kind of meeting or gathering or be arrested. The Sheriff was indeed, there at the council house doors. Again, violating our civil rights on private property.

Georgia passes legislation on December 19, 1828 “Preempting” All Cherokee claims to national independence previously granted by treaties. Additional legislation prevented the Cherokee National Council from assembling within the state. Georgia also declared that “no Indian or descendant of an Indian shall be deemed a competent witness in any dispute or litigation against a white person.” These acts went into law June 1 of 1830. This made anyone of Indian ancestry subject to the laws of Georgia. While at the same time denied them, protections guaranteed by Georgia Law and the U.S. Constitution. These remained as codified law until1965. Georgia has a proven and continued history denying its native people their rights under the Fourteenth Amendment. Georgia goes to great lengths to prevent its accountability for what it has done to native people. 

Anti-Indian and Segregation Laws

One must consider the culture of the south with its one-drop rule meant that any person of any color was or could be considered property until the end of the Civil War. This was already understood with slavery in the south. By not granting citizenship via treaty to those who remained in Georgia you had no proof that you were a free person nor could you own land. No matter what, marry white! Georgia made it a felony to marry outside of your race adopting preventing the marriage of non-withes to whites. That lasted until 1965. Today we are left with a briar patch to work through when any state or federal official says prove it. Many people have Indian ancestry not every person with Indian ancestry is part of a community with common Indian ancestry. Many families experience the prevalence of racism against native people when they have a child today. When asked the race of the mother or father one or both being native. 

They are marked as white. As a result, many children end up with multiple birth certificates within the Vital Records Department. This collective history and adaptation to changing culture is how and why many families have remained within a fifty-mile radius for three hundred plus years. 

Finally, in 1996 laws were removed

We finally had removed from the Georgia code the last laws against Indians in 1996. It took from 1976 as mandated by the federal government that within two years from 1976all anti- Indian codes were to be removed nationwide. Georgia once again gets a pass on 30 years of non- compliance with federal regulation at the expense of yet another generation of Georgia Native Americans. Georgia has never been held accountable for this. It continues in Georgia's capitol building to this day. 

Maintaining Records

Many of us remember our parents not letting us forget and grandparents reminding us of its taboo to discuss. We watched and wondered what some of our friends and families kept in those piles of folders and filing cabinets. Friends and family would find documents newspaper clippings, as well as the white, washed history we were the unspoken subject of. We still maintain those records, we have never had the time and money required to go through and catalog the mass of information there. Other related families had long ago applied to become BIA serviced. That was nearly two generations ago. It took forty-two years for an answer as the rules changed over and over again. There were many arguments and divisions more than thirty years ago about claiming to be “Cherokee” and incorporating with the state as a non-profit. They had long ago made that mistake. What they failed to understand is that under is that an incorporation has no right to claim any rights under any treaty. As members of an incorporated tribe you are members of an incorporation with board members as its governing body. Any level of sovereignty is impossible as an incorporation. To incorporate is agreeing that you are subject to another higher authority for tax and other purposes. The higher authority is granting the right to exist as a legal entity.

As usual, there are those that will die Cherokee when they are Chickamauga. It all resulted in court battles both state and federal. We could not even discuss recognition. We knew better, the leadership of the day wouldn't listen to the old families who know the truth. The same ones who managed to keep the traditions, crafts and religious practices alive. We watched them make the mistakes they were long ago warned about. Even the OFR told them to talk to us. When reviewing their application now public it noted that we gave no response. This is true. But why? What the OFR doesn't tell you is that group had filed an injunction long ago preventing us from even discussing it. We are tired of being sued every time we open our mouths. We even offered to help with their documentation as we knew full well where they were lacking. All of this had served to do some good things for us and some bad. Our generation learned that we should avoid infighting. Two, we learned how not to fight as our parents and grandparents did. Third, we learned the law the constitution and treaties. There are several of us who were intentionally taught these things from an early age. The State of Georgia, Cherokee Nation Oklahoma, and others conditioned a generation to fight back. 

Indian on Indian Racism

In doing research we run across some very interesting things. One of those is a letter by Kent Carter from the national register website concerning out of luck and wannabe Indians.

Apparently, if you are not a Dawes roll descendant you are not Indian. Correct us if we are wrong but that only applied to Oklahoma Indians obtaining land allotments anyone there could pay to be on the Dawes roll. This statement basically says don't bother. We, on the other hand, want to know what they are protecting. The truth perhaps. There is no reason to permit a racially insensitive statement on the National Registers website unless that purpose is to discourage researchers. We see it as racially insensitive and bigoted. We can't believe its posted thereon the National Register website. Not within it, but on the drop-down tab. Even more interesting when you look at the list of states for the history of said state. Georgia Tennessee and Arkansas have no history listed. Why is that? Is there something to hide. Our history didn’t end with the removal! The documentation on our collective histories in those states is approaching a million pages now academically verified! False narratives and red washed histories doesn’t work with us.

Continued Academic Fraud

Now we are going to get into some deep history here. The reason is that CNO and CNNC have paid universities to prove that they have been here for thousands of years. They are continuously creating a false history by using or encouraging historians and anthropologists as well as archaeologists to bend the history that ends up in textbooks. The Cherokee as a body politic was only south of the Tennessee river after 1710. See timeline. Their history in north Georgia is only about 130years. They had Georgia parks and recreation place plaques at places such as Brasstown Bald citing that they built the mounds. The same is true for the Etowah Mound we can understand an error here and there. But its everywhere even in the museums. They claim the Shell gorgets are culturally theirs. It's impossible. It is cultural theft! They were not found here in Georgia by De Soto. In the 1540’s. See Timeline

Emmett Star and W. W. Keeler were instrumental in writing the Cherokee history in a way they saw fit. History did not end here in the east after the removal. Many years earlier, Charles R. Hicks (1820’s) wrote on our history prior to removal. It is believed that it is an accurate history of preremoval events. His manuscripts after his death were placed with John Ross subsequent Chief. The Georgia Guard raided his home in Tennessee in search of papers. They then held John Ross and John Payne prisoner for several days. Ultimately these manuscripts are housed in the Cherokee National Archives in Oklahoma. We have attempted to gain access to view the documents but have been forbidden to read them. However, some historians have obtained copies. Most importantly he clarified that the lower town people were not ethnically Cherokee.

The Cherokee have no prehistoric association with the southeast, therefore, no significant claim to any cultural burial or villages before 1710. Anything after can be debated. Their history resides in the history of those in the Great Lakes region among the Erie and Iroquois. However, those families that are of Muskogee Cherokee admixture, in general, would retain rightful claim. The history of the Cherokee claim is inaccurate in many cases. 

Traditional Religious Practices

If we want the whole story to be told, then we must get into religion. A tribe’s language can change in time but when your religion and cultural practice are no longer observed you are officially extinct. When a small group takes over multiple groups politically that is many times their original size the religious practices of the original rarely survives. The exception is when the conqueror uses religion as the basis for conquering another group. This was not how the take-over in the southeast occurred. It was by force of arms. So the smaller forces religious practices are absorbed to some degree but the matriarchal societies they are both from dictates that it is the mother's practices that are passed on. Then there is the sheer number of people who have existing religious practices that continue. An attempt was made by those who became Cherokee take credit in the killing of the priests the Anikitani. The story says the Anikitani becoming too powerful and greedy took a wife of a Cherokee warrior. Said warrior began a revolt resulting in the killing of all the AniKituani. This roughly coincides with the taking over the many villages and the executing of their leadership as they pushed into now what is North Carolina and Tennessee 1683. Again, falsified history to hide a tribe’s indiscretions.

The Proper Cherokee Religious Practice

The Cherokee proper should be able to show via their ceremonies today what is properly their traditional religion ideologies and practices. They can't. We can define what it should be. Excerpt from Wikipedia. The False Face Society is probably the best known of the medicinal societies among the Iroquois, especially for its dramatic wooden masks. The masks are used in healing rituals which invoke the spirit of an old hunch-backed man. Those cured by society become members. Also, echoing the significance of dreams to the Iroquois, anyone who dreams that they should be a member of the society may join. 

One aspect that did survive among the Cherokee are today called clan masks there are seven. However, they are not used nor are the stories told as to the representation of the spirit within the mask. 

By the early1800'sthe vast majority of Cherokee were Christian. However, there are many examples of preachers acting as both Christian spiritual leaders as well as medicine or holy men and women who conduct traditional ceremonies as well as individual healing. Originally the head holy person acted as an adviser to the chief and council. After the killing off of the Anikitani practices changed to individual persons carrying out religious practices. These are the reasons the original teachings were lost among the Cherokee. An exception to all of this was Redbird Smith. He wanted to revive the traditional religious practices in the early 1800s. 

Ultimately resulting in the Night Hawk Society later recognized in 1953 as the United Keetoowah Band. Redbird and others went to the Natchez holy people and from them learned their practices. As far as Redbird knew they were keepers of the old ways. This is true for the majority of the people to a degree. At that time there were four primary religious practices. To simplify some practices centered around the sun, some the moon, some were animists, some were shamanistic, others were one of several variations of Christianity. We respect them as keepers of the Natchez ways and fire. It is this that differentiates us from them. We have maintained our teachings with a pedigree. Properly they have been passed down generation to generation. Some generations simply kept them without practicing the teaching other generations learned the ceremonies and formulas and openly practiced. We have also maintained our sacred fire. There are traditionalists out there who would do anything to get their hands on our teachings. One example of why this is. The Keetoowah have recovered many of the wampum belts well known throughout history. Each tells a story or is a contract between tribes. The Keetoowah are said to not be able to translate or read the belts. Our teachings teach how to read the belts. They are brought out every so often to be viewed. An explanation is told to those listening about the meanings of the belts as it is understood. 

From time to time, we are invited to the lower Muskogee Creek ceremonies such as the Green Corn festival. We watch how things are done and note the similarities. At times it's identical in motion and word for word. Speaking of the word for word, ask a Cherokee who speaks the language during one of their stomp dances if they know the stomp dance song. They will say yes, as we would. Then ask them what do the words to the song mean? They can’t tell you. Its borrowed from the Natchez in their case. However, the creek version is nearly the same. Our version of certain ceremonies is more like the Muskogee or Upper Creek than the Cherokee or Natchez. Having a good understanding of the actual history of the people this should be the case. Chickamauga is more closely related to the Muskogee or Upper Creek historically than the middle and Overhill. It's a matter of geography. Our historical makeup has a strong Muskogean admixture thus influences.