Mommy, what’s a Cherokee?
It’s a valid question and depending on whom one asks, one may receive several different answers. There are about ten or twenty definitions of “Indian” in federal law, and some are both confusing and contradictory, it seems the federal government is itself unsure of what the definition of “Indian” is or what exactly constitutes an “Indian Tribe.” This conundrum has led to situations both amusing and tragic at various times.
Among individual Indians, the definition of what an Indian is often has more to do with one’s political loyalties and financial interests then with any biological or historical fact. Some tribes with successful gambling interests have been known to disenroll large percentages of their population in order to boost the personal finances of the more politically connected members. This sort of shortsighted tribal suicide begs the question, are those disenrolled through fraudulent means still Indians? The answer, at least under federal law, is no. these people simply cease to exist, at least on paper, at the stroke of a crooked politician’s pen. This is one of the issues Native people face in the world of identity politics.
Federal Indian law, and the bureaucracy that supports it, is and has always been oriented more towards the termination of Native people as identifiable communities then towards their preservation. In an amusing turn of unreality that could only exist in the mind of a lawyer, an organization may qualify as an Indian Tribe under one federal law and yet be excluded from the same status under another; or at least that is what the Cherokee Nation of
Oklahoma argued when they sued the United Keetoowah Band in a federal case styled “Cherokee Nation v Zinke.” You see, sometimes even Cherokees can’t decide what a Cherokee is, especially when there is money at stake. Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma is, and always has been, the chief sinner in this particular farce. They have sued everybody at one time or another, seems they have a serious complex regarding any Cherokee organization they do not completely control.
Issues of identity among Cherokees dates from at least the 1770’s when Dragging Canoe, the Great War Chief, led a group of Cherokees to the area around Chickamauga Creek rather than agree to the surrender of their ancestral land. The
Cherokee Council responded by stripping Dragging Canoe and his followers of their citizenship, declaring them outlaws and “no longer Cherokee.” Dragging Canoe is said to have responded “We are the Real People”, an insult one would have to be Cherokee to fully understand. They were still Cherokee of course, as the Cherokee Council finally attested some years later.
In 1809 the Cherokee Council was faced with another major identity question when James Vann was brought to his grave by a coward’s bullet. Vann fathered a number of children by a variety of women, some Cherokee and some white. The question facing the council was whether his children by his white consorts were Cherokee and eligible to inherit any of his vast estate, the tradition up to that time was that one must have a Cherokee mother in order to inherit property within the Cherokee Nation. The matrilineal nature of Cherokee society up to that time dictated that ancestry and inheritance be traced through the mother’s line only, this is one of the reasons that so many mixed-blood Cherokees today trace their ancestry to a Cherokee woman who married a white man.
In a final attempt to solve the problems of identity, inheritance and related issues the government of the Cherokee Nation in the 1820’s attempted to put it to bed permanently with a clause in the Cherokee constitution stating in part “The descendants of Cherokee men… as well as the posterity of Cherokee women…”, it is pretty clear to anyone who can read Cherokee, or English, what the elders and leaders of the Cherokee Nation intended.
We will always have arguments over Cherokee identity, it is to some extent a part of the culture; remember Dragging Canoe’s dig, “We are the Real People.” Federal Tribes (there are three), State Tribes (there are several), and Cherokee descendants not enrolled with any tribal organization, all of whom defend their prerogatives with greater or lesser aggression, but at the end of the day it comes down to what the Nation’s elders had to say, and they said it plainly enough, “Any Descendant…”
Fulton Arrington is a past president and current board member of the Friends of the New Echota State Historic Site. He can be reached by email at fultonlarrington@
yahoo.com.
Today I want to share something with you that is interwoven with real estate, but is really a message I hope that you’ll share with the younger people in your life.
It all started when I stopped by a flip project this week and began talking with my lead man, Charles, about a recent article he had read about the shortage of skilled labor in our country. And by skilled labor, I mean people in the construction field.
This notion was perplexing to Charles.
Charles has been a carpenter most of his life. He has built residential houses and custom log cabins all over the country. Some people have fish stories. But if you spend any time talking Charles, you realize quickly that he has house stories. That’s because he has been building most of his life, and he’s done all kinds of interesting things, met all kinds of people and has one of the best knowledge banks in regard to construction of anyone I know. Couple that with his tremendous work ethic, and to say I’m grateful to have him on my team is an understatement.
As we talked about the labor shortage, Charles brought up his view that our society makes it sound like a bad thing to have a job that requires you to work with your hands. He even pointed out that there are many plumbers and electricians who make as much as some lawyers, but that their schooling didn’t accumulate all the debt often incurred with a law degree.
As he said that, I reflected on my experience. You see, when I was in elementary school, I remember the teachers telling us we needed to get good grades so we could go to college. In middle and high school, the teachers said the same thing but added “so you can get a good job.”
In high school, there were two paths to a diploma: college preparatory and vocational. And I remember feeling an implication that the votech diploma, as it was called, was inferior to the college prep diploma.
As such, I never even considered anything but going to college. That’s because I knew that I must “go to college to get a degree to get a good job.” Because that was what I had been told. So, go to college I did.
Now I don’t want to brag, but I got my four-year degree in only seven years.
As you can tell, it took me a while to figure out what I wanted to do. By the time I got my bachelor’s in biology to pursue a career in physical therapy, I nearly had enough credit for an additional degree.
During those seven years, I worked for a painter painting houses. That led to working with a handyman doing house repairs and then to working with a builder framing and finishing custom homes. There, I learned how to frame, side, roof, lay hardwood and tile flooring, build decks, and anything else you can think of to do with a house.
As I recounted this experience to Charles, I also told him about what happened when I graduated. You see, I needed to go to graduate school for physical therapy. But I was unable to apply in the same year I graduated college, and it was going to be almost a year before I could do so. So, I thought I would put my new bachelor’s degree to work, and I started applying for jobs.
In the end, the only jobs my degree afforded me were for a pest control company as a field tech and working on a line as a quality control tech in a plant. And to me, those weren’t what I considered to be the “good jobs” that my high school teachers told me I would get once I graduated.
I remember sitting on my bed, pondering this realization, and thinking to myself, “I’ve been lied to.” You see, I went to school, I graduated with honors, but in order to get a good job, I was told I needed to go to graduate school. That didn’t make sense to me.
To make a longer story short, I went back to construction and found work on a crew rehabbing houses for an investor in Atlanta, which is where I learned about real estate investing.
As I told Charles this story, it hit me — I would not be where am I today if I hadn’t learned to how to work with my hands.
With that fact in mind, please let the younger people in your life know that working with their hands can be a lucrative thing. The baby boomer generation is retiring, and there are fewer high school graduates pursuing the skilled jobs they are leaving, thus causing the shortage of labor. This situation has driven salaries up and presented an opportunity to be paid very well while not accumulating the debt associated with a college degree because of all the tech school assistance that is available.
So don’t discount working with your hands.
Joey and Ashley English buy houses and mobile homes
in Northwest Georgia. For more information or to ask a question, go to cashflowwithjoe.com or call
678-986-6813.
ATLANTA – Georgia was ranked among the nation’s 10 top exporting states last year for the first time, Gov. Brian Kemp announced Monday.
Georgia businesses exported $38.8 billion in goods in 2020, reaching 215 countries and territories and suffering the lowest rate of export contraction among the top-10 states, despite the economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic.
“Over the last year, hardworking Georgians showed their tenacity and their determination to transform obstacles into opportunities,” Gov. Brian Kemp said. “These numbers are yet another example of their strength.”
Georgia’s total trade last year reached $137.7 billion, spanning 221 countries and territories.
The state’s top five export markets were Canada, Germany, China, Mexico and Singapore. Several export markets experienced significant growth, with exports to Germany increasing nearly 50%, followed by China and Hong Kong at 45% and 41%, respectively.
Increased exports to China reflect purchases made under a trade agreement the U.S. and China signed in January 2020. The return of market access for U.S. poultry proved a huge benefit to Georgia producers.
About two-thirds of Georgia trade involves the 12 strategic markets where the state maintains representation: Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Europe, Israel, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Peru, and the United Kingdom.
“Georgia’s network of international representatives around the world provides our state’s businesses with a unique resource,” said Pat Wilson, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Economic Development. “Particularly during 2020 – when needs, supply chains, and conditions were changing rapidly – our international offices provided timely information that proved to be an incredible asset for our state’s growers, manufacturers, and business community as a whole.”
About 90% of Georgia merchandise exports are manufactured goods, and the state’s manufacturing exports have grown by more than 30% over the last 10 years.
Aerospace products, the state’s second-largest manufacturing industry, remain the state’s No.-1 export, totaling $9.98 billion in 2020. Aerospace exports to Hong Kong surged more than 140% last year, while Germany remains the top customer for these products.