In December, we continued with our promotion of Red Nations Remembering by collecting blankets and food to deliver to the Kickapoo Reservation. There was a time when our ancestors needed food and covering, and we do this in honor of them.
In January, we will be gaining skills to learn how to make our own moccasins to ready us for the Walk in March.
The location is being finalized for the event in March and will be announced next month. In the meantime, we are working to schedule activities and events for the entire family.
Members of CCS have been religiously wearing their feather lapel pins to show solidarity and support for American Indians. By asking everyone of Indian descent to wear a feather, we are raising awareness in our community about the American Indian community.
Several groups and organizations have contacted us from around the country
and are also wearing feather and planning events on March 9. Please let us
know what your community is planning and we will publicize it in this newsletter.
The spirit being "Snow Man", brings the cold and snow for the earth to cover the high places while the earth rests until the rebirth of seasons in the Windy Moon "Anuyi". Families traditionally were busy putting up and storing goods for the next cycle of seasons.
Elders enjoyed teaching and retelling ancient stores of the people to the young.
David has a wonderfully illustrated poster of the months in Cherokee.
Please contact him at (412) 487-7093 to order your copy.
April : Patti Davis - Mother's Day Gift June : Martha Sebastian - Things From Nature August : Robin Rinker October : Donna Allen
Please be sure to include your children in these activities. They will
carry the fire for us when we're gone.
Devon Mehisuah explores the school's history, examining curriculum, faculty,
administration, and educational philosophy and showing how these elements
affected the 2,300 women who were educated there. A number of the
seminary's graduates went on to study at colleges and universities across
the county, becoming teachers, physicians, businesswomen, and social
workers. Even those former students who did not seek careers exerted
considerable influence within their families and civic life.
For some strange reason, the US Customs Agents didn't want us to leave so they shot and killed my Dad as we were crossing the border. They also wounded my Mom when she was on the Canadian side but she managed to get away and took the stuff we were bringing back to the St. Francis Reserve. I was put in a boarding school run by the Carmelites. A Jean Pierre LaStrange had sponsored me. I was there until I was 18 and then went to the Reserve where they told me my Mom had died from her wounds. Her Grave is on the Reserve. They gave me funding for my education and also gave me the Qualla Paddle as a keepsake from my Dad.
In time, when I finished my schooling, I was curious about this paddle that I had been carrying with me where ever I went. I had it radio- carbon dated at M.I.T. It was hand carved in 750 AD +/- 50 years! The Qualla Paddle is in the shape of an alligator with holes in the part that goes in the water. On closer examination, the holes were Venturis!!! A Venturi is a "modern" fluid flow measuring device!
The Quallas apparently used the paddle to measure the flow of water in streams as well as to paddle their canoes silently (instead of the "slapping" noise a normal paddle makes).
On October 6, 1996, I was presented the award of Fellow of the International Society for Measurement & Control. I accepted this Award on behalf of the Quallas and present the Qualla Paddle and an explanation of its age and how it was used to measure flow. This proof of the age of the Qualla Tribe and its scientific accomplishments will have a definite impact on the scientific community.
My wish is to return to the Qualla Reservation and to return the Qualla Paddle to the Qualla People to be preserved as part of their Heritage.
(This letter was sent to CCS via the internet in an attempt to contact the
Qualla Reservation. If you have any information or contacts, please submit
for forwarding. Thanks.)
This large resource is arranged alphabetically by language group, and also contains many cross references. Over 100 language groups are included, from Abenaki to Yukon languages. Citations contain bibliographic information and are thoroughly annotated. Learning Aids has been compiled from the "Society of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas Newsletter."
http://cougar.ucdavis.edu/nas/SSILA/names.html
The moony was to be equally divided among all living persons, or descendants of deceased members, who had been members of the Eastern Cherokee nation at the time of the treaties.
In 1835, prior to the removal of the Cherokee to the west, the Cherokee lived in southeastern Tennessee, western North Carolina, northwest Georgia, and northwest Alabama. Many of the Cherokee were forcibly moved to land west of Fort Gibson, in what is now called Arkansas. They later were moved further west of Fort Gibson to present-day Oklahoma.
In his report in 1909, Guion Miller, the enrolling agent, certified that almost 46,000 separate applications had been filed representing about 90,000 individual claimants.
Of that number, more than 30,000 applicants were enrolled to share in the funds. A total of 3,436 persons lived east of the Mississippi River and more than 27,000 west of the Mississippi.
In certifying the eligibility of the Cherokee, Miller used earlier census and rolls that had been made of them by Hester, Chapman, Drennen, and others between 1835 and 1884.
Applicants had to prove descent from someone on one of the earlier rolls.
Those who were unable to do so were allowed to have others familiar with
their ancestry give testimony in their favor. More than 4,500 witnesses were
examined in 19 different states.