My evolution from finding out I was Chickamauga to where I am today in being a Chickamauga has come a long way. At first, it was cool finding out that my family’s bloodlines were Chickamauga. Then there was the novelty stage of telling friends I was Chickamauga and that I was an Indian. The next stage was the historical introduction to the “we are not cherokee” we are Chickamauga. I began looking on the internet and at the time everything said the Chickamauga were disgruntled cherokee and that we all died out in the 1830s. The stage of reading treaties and questioning who was a Chickamauga and who was not a Chickamauga from those who signed the treaties was hard for someone with little knowledge of the true history.
In the spring of 2017, after having just completed 6 years of academic research for a K – 12 digital educational system, I had two destructive strokes about 90 days apart which were caused by a hole between the two main chambers in my heart. While I have recovered, I still have some underlying symptoms. The next stage in my journey is still the hardest for me to explain because I began looking for historical documents to tell me about the Chickamauga. Since I did not know where to look, it was hard to find anything other than the myths and legends of the cherokee. I was working with the former Chief and he had me looking in a variety of places which gave me a little information here and there that we pieced together into a short 8 – 10-page brief. Then Chief passed away in May 2019 and I found myself with the job of carrying our region of The Chickamauga Nation into the future.
The academic research stage was next because in July of 2019 the Senate Committee asked us to go back home and prove who we are and where we are from historically with research. This was such a challenge because the learning curve was huge even with a research background. Up to this point, all I could say for certain is that the Chickamauga were part of the Mound Building Culture which began in the Mississippi River drainage basin and that we were part of the Southeast Ceremonial Religious Complex Cult which was part of the Mound Building Culture.
This is about the time I began to learn what it means to me to be a Chickamauga. In late 2020 it was in the War Department Records and the Rutherford Expedition papers, I began reading about the reality of being a Chickamauga. The intentional killing of our men and male teens, the taking of our women and children to be taken by soldiers as slaves, sold as slaves, or taken as sex slaves by soldiers and “southern gentlemen.”. The burning of our villages, harvesting of our crops by the soldiers and the burning of our fields, and the cutting down of our orchards. Tens of thousands of our fruit and nut trees were chopped down and burned. The vivid descriptions in the murders, mutilations, rapes, and pillaging I read in the documents made me physically sick and sent me into a battle with depression during those months.
I also read about the resiliency of our people who survived and went back to the same villages and tried to rebuild. They started their lives all over and moved forward only to have it happen again and again, but they never gave up. They were determined to live a life of their ancestors and have the same for their children. They lived their lives to honor their ancestors and to teach their children to honor their ancestors. They were always teaching lessons and preparing their children for the future. They lived their lives with simple rules: Do not steal, do not murder, do not commit treason, and do not practice witchcraft.
I had come a long way in my evolution to this point. I knew a little history, a little anthropology (study of how man relates to his world and others), and a little culture. I was acquiring academic and historical information, I was differentiating the difference between the historical Southeast Woodland Tribes of the Mound Building Culture, and I was able to prove for the first time that the Chickamauga existed in the Southeast Woodlands since about 600 – 800 CE or AD. I had moved the scale in my understanding of what it means to be a Chickamauga about the width of a needle.
For me, this is when the academic research I had been doing for years began to transition into something different in my own life. This is the first time I was hungry to learn about the culture, the specific things which made a group of people continue to strive to honor their ancestors but also strive to make a better world for their children and descendants. What drove these men and women to keep going even when they lost everything time after time? It is this time in my life that I began wanting to truly know what my ancestors believed and why. The academic approach of seeking knowledge gave way to wanting to have a relationship with my heritage.
Learning about being a Chickamauga by blood takes a couple of hours of research on an ancestry website. Learning the true history of the Chickamauga takes about a year of reading and study of the right documents. Becoming an expert on the history of the Chickamauga takes about 4 – 5 years of 6 – 8 hours a days 365 days a year, with no weekends off. Learning to know what it means to be a Chickamauga takes a lifetime and you never get to the fullest of knowledge, just like our ancestors.
For the first time in 35 years something was moving inside me changing me into something I was hungry to learn. This internal battle between book knowledge and relationship knowledge is what drove me leading up to my becoming a Christian at age 18. I wanted something more than book knowledge about God. I wanted to know God.
It was not that long ago that I began seeking out our leaders in our culture to teach me about the culture, the guiding principles of being a Chickamauga. What I have learned is what it means to me to be a Chickamauga. First, I will honor my ancestors and remember the meaning of their teachings (honor your father and mother). Second, I will live in harmony with my fellow man (love your neighbor as yourself). Third, I will live in harmony with nature (leave the world a better place than you found it). Finally, I will live a life to honor my descendants and teach them to honor their ancestors (leave a legacy for your children). In reality, almost every culture in the world has the same types of beliefs and structures which form their culture.
How do I begin living these ideals in my life? I have made a commitment to learn the teachings of our Chickamauga Grandfathers and Grandmothers. They taught us to start the day by going to water and thanking the creator for water. How simple this is for us in our lives today. Get a drink of water, wash your face, take a shower, or brushing your teeth, give thanks to the Creator for water. This teaches us to be thankful for the little things in our lives. They taught songs and prayers for almost every aspect of their lives, like David wrote in the book of Psalm: Planting, hunting, fishing, gathering, and harvest. These are the major things we can be thankful for because they provide us food. We can learn these songs and prayers for our daily life events whether we are planting, hunting, fishing, gathering, or harvesting. If you live in the smallest of rural communities or the largest of urban cities, we all still do the same things in our lives today. In rural communities we may do every one of those things throughout the year but in urban cities these are accomplished many of these tasks weekly at a grocery store.
Going back to my original thought of what does it mean to me to be a Chickamauga. I know it means I have a blood relationship with my ancestors dating back to time in memorial. That blood, no matter who has married into my lineage, ties me back to every one of those people and their blood lives forth in me so I must honor them. I know the civilization that brought forth the Mound Building Culture were brilliant scientists, astrophysists, voyagers, travelers, revolutionaries, and visionaries: We come from the culture of a mighty empire. Today we must honor our cousins of the Mound Building Culture and claim them as our own because we are of one blood, even if their tribes will not take them in for one reason or another. I know our ancestors gave up their very own lives and dreams to pass them down to us, their progeny so we may fulfill their visions and destiny. I know we continue to seek to overcome the burdens that shackle us so we can provide a better life for ourselves and our children. I know all too well that the Chickamauga have suffered at the hands of governments and other tribes, but we must return to others in love that which was taken in hate. I know we must teach our children what it means to be a Chickamauga so they will know the truth of their Grandfathers and Grandmothers. I know our children will have a better life and live a better life when they can answer for themselves the question, “What does it mean to me to be a Chickamauga?”