DO THE CC CHARGE ENROLLMENT FEES?
No, the Constitutional Cherokee do not charge any enrollment fees. Each community group unites to provide to accomplish any activity. Members bring food to share at the potlucks. Each community group may engage in fundraising from time to time as their needs arise, but there is no enrollment fee.
We also do not charge for genealogy like the EBCI and CNO do.
We also do not do genealogy so there is not charge for that. Each application if complete will have the genealogy accompanying it and once the community group meets the applicant and works with them to make sure their heritage is accurate they may be approved but there is no charge for that either. After all, the application requires your family chart to be certified by a CAILS genealogist, so there is no more rigorous certification possible.
WHY DO I HAVE TO ATTEND PRAYER CIRCLES AND POTLUCKS?
The Cherokee people traditionally were a community minded people. We must combine our language resources in order to celebrate and rediscover our culture.
The community groups of the CC are where you attend prayer circles and potluck. It is where you begin to learn or to help others learn what it means to really be Cherokee.
After all, what distinguishes us as Cherokee people and not just Cherokee descendants is that we speak or are learning to speak our Cherokee language, sing our ancient Cherokee songs, dance our Cherokee Dances, and celebrate our Cherokee festivals.
WHY DOES THE ENROLLMENT FOR NEED SO MUCH INFORMATION?
The enrollment application is designed to safeguard the members of the CC and to protect our identity.Authentication is important. There have been rumors that every state recognized tribe has been a victim of fraud and that some have purposely tried to enroll a dog as a member in each of those tribes- and succeeded!
We have an application process that requires our members to be verified as to their identity and their ancestry.
We also require participation of all our members.
After all, what distinguishes us as Cherokee people and not just Cherokee descendants is that we speak or are learning to speak our Cherokee language, sing our ancient Cherokee songs, dance our Cherokee Dances, and celebrate our Cherokee festivals.
WHY DO THE CHEROKEE EXCHANGE WAMPUM AND NOT EAGLE FEATHERS OR OTHER FEATHERS LIKE THE WESTERN TRIBES DO?
Traditionally, our people held the wampum in high esteem as both a sacred object and as an object of value. The purple or dark wampum traditionally represented money or Adela (which means Bead as well as money) while the white or light wampum had high spritual significance.
Our people understood that the animals seek revenge upon us so very few of our ceremonies involved their use but we used herbs, and plants, stones, and wampum shells in our ceremonies, as did most all southeastern tribes. It is an honor of the HIGHEST order to be presented with wampum shells.
The wampum shells were used to adorn our clothing and our bodies. They were also used to create belts with symbols of office woven into them using varying colors of wampum beads. These wampum beads were strung upon string that was carefully made from dogbane and fashioned into a strong and well composed belt. These were carefully maintained and passed down for generations to those who would keep them and who were trained to read and interpret the symbols of the belts.
WHAT ARE THE NATIONAL PASTIMES OF THE CHEROKEE?
There are three distinctive activities that our youth engage in:
Stick ball,
Marble game,
and the Gaming Wheel.
These are described elsewhere in our handbook but are played at every festival, and throughout the summer months. These are also used to settle disputes and as a way of raising funds for the needy.
If used as a fund raiser, all the participants as well as those watching, bring a worthy gift or Adela which is collected and the winner of the game is given these gifts, thereupon they make a presentation to the needy person, family or group for whom the game was called, afterwhich there is a large feast shared, dancing, and going to water.
If the reason for the competition is for the settling of a dispute, these are done in a particular order, the lowest or smallest dispute is settled by the marble game. A dispute of medium or stronger contention is settled by the gaming wheel. The gaming wheel is also used to settle disputes between communities or within /among Cherokee people.
The most severe of these is the Stickball game, which is used in place of war, between the Cherokees and outsiders.
WHY IS THE LAND OWNED BY THE CC?
This is a traditional way of understanding that no one person owned the land and that Creator had given it to all His Cherokee Children.Traditionally, our people held the wampum in high esteem as both a sacred object and as an object of value. The purple or dark wampum traditionally represented money or Adela (which means Bead as well as money) while the white or light wampum had high spritual significance.
Our people understood that the animals seek revenge upon us so very few of our ceremonies involved their use but we used herbs, and plants, stones, and wampum shells in our ceremonies, as did most all southeastern tribes. It is an honor of the HIGHEST order to be presented with wampum shells.
The wampum shells were used to adorn our clothing and our bodies. They were also used to create belts with symbols of office woven into them using varying colors of wampum beads. These wampum beads were strung upon string that was carefully made from dogbane and fashioned into a strong and well composed belt. These were carefully maintained and passed down for generations to those who would keep them and who were trained to read and interpret the symbols of the belts.
WHAT ARE THE NATIONAL PASTIMES OF THE CHEROKEE?
There are three distinctive activities that our youth engage in:
Stick ball,
Marble game,
and the Gaming Wheel.
These are described elsewhere in our handbook but are played at every festival, and throughout the summer months. These are also used to settle disputes and as a way of raising funds for the needy.
If used as a fund raiser, all the participants as well as those watching, bring a worthy gift or Adela which is collected and the winner of the game is given these gifts, thereupon they make a presentation to the needy person, family or group for whom the game was called, afterwhich there is a large feast shared, dancing, and going to water.
If the reason for the competition is for the settling of a dispute, these are done in a particular order, the lowest or smallest dispute is settled by the marble game. A dispute of medium or stronger contention is settled by the gaming wheel. The gaming wheel is also used to settle disputes between communities or within /among Cherokee people.
The most severe of these is the Stickball game, which is used in place of war, between the Cherokees and outsiders.
WHY IS THE LAND OWNED BY THE CC?
It is also a safeguard- the National or state groups cannot sell land that is within the homeland without the express permission of the local group nor may the local group sell land without the approval of the state and National assemblies.
The Assemblies are composed of CC members.
This allows land within the homeland to remain in the care of all CC members.
If you think about it, this is also why it was illegal for a few Cherokee people to sign the removal treaty that affected the entire nation.
None of those signers had the authority to treat away the homeland.
Although removal happened, it was declared illegal by the Supreme Court and by the Cherokee Nation in the early 1800's.
Today, we hope that land purchased and deeded to our people would remain available for all CC members and therefore we want to clearly state that just because a person is a member of the CC does not give that individual the right to make a treaty or to sell land within the homeland.
WHAT IS THE HOLIDAY KNOWN AS THE DAY OF INFAMY? AND WHY DO THE CONSTITUTIONAL CHEROKEE CELEBRATE IT?
A NOTE about The Day of INFAMY-- April 9:
We Commemorate April 9 each year with MOURNING and FASTING and will do so until the RED CLAY RESOLUTION is repealed AND until the day we are recognized as TRUE Cherokee people.
This is not a "holiday" --
it is a National Day of Prayer
This is not a "holiday" -- On this day, our people fast, pray, go to water and ask Creator for the unification of all Cherokee descendants.
WHAT ABOUT THANKSGIVING?
Cherokees Didn't Celebrate American 'style' Thanksgiving until 1885...
SOME of the Information Below was provided by the
Cherokee Nation Cultural Resource Center
E-mail: cultural@cherokee.org
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE INFORMATION BELOW IS HOW ONE GROUP OF CHEROKEE DEALT WITH THIS ISSUE; Cherokees today often celebrate both US holidays as well as our own.
--------------------
The Cherokees were raising corn as early as 1,000 BC. Before European contact the Cherokees already participated in a ceremony giving thanks for crops and it was a form of worship in what is known as the "Green Corn Dance".
It was this Ceremony of the Corn Festivals that is believed to have actually been the first "thanksgiving" meal.
This traditional dance was a very important ceremony for the Cherokees. This ceremony was the beginning of the New Year. Our ancestors gave thanks for the corn crop that they saw as a continued life for them. It was a time for forgiveness and grudges to be left behind - starting anew. A part of their celebration was fasting, then gathering at the ceremonial grounds to play stickball, dance and have a big feast.
Other traditions for the Cherokee included participating in sports mainly the stickball game and marble game; eating bean bread, wild game, and wild plants to mention a few; and for communication they used the wampum belts.
As settlers moved inland, Native Americans they encountered, including the Cherokee assisted the early settlers and traders with food and supplies. This was a continual process not just a single meal. The Cherokees also taught the early settlers how to hunt, fish, and farm in their new environment. They also taught them how to use herbal medicine when they became ill.
Sadly, as more English people came to America, they didn't need the Native Americans help anymore and the newcomers had forgotten how the natives helped the earlier Pilgrims. Mistrust began to grow and the friendship weakened. The Pilgrims started telling their Native neighbors that their native religion and native customs were wrong. The relationships deteriorated and within a few years the children of the people who ate together at the first Thanksgiving were killing one another in what led to the King Phillip's War.
In 1736, Chris Priber, some say he was German, some say he was a Frenchman, established himself among the Cherokees, learned their language, and taught them the very different ways (he endorsed polygamy and free sexual encounters- the first "sexual revolution" among the Americas.
Some folks used to think he was a Catholic Priest but he was not) until he was arrested by the English and put in prison at Charleston, South Carolina.
Even though the Cherokees worshipped in their own religion, the work of the missionaries converted some Cherokees to the European practices, and the Festivals of the Corn slowly faded away.
The first known Cherokee converted to European Christianity was 1773.
In 1801, the first permanent Mission in the Cherokee Nation was called Moravian Mission. It was located at Springplace, which is in present-day Georgia. As more Cherokees became Americanized, the custom of observing the American National Thanksgiving Holiday became common. It is ironic that the festival that inspired Thanksgiving was now being replaced by that copy cat celebration.
D. W. Bushyhead, Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation, signed a proclamation on Thursday, November 26th, A. D. 1885 for Thanksgiving to be practiced by the Cherokees.
The Proclamation reads,
"The Cherokees have abundant reason to rejoice. They are favored in all things that should make a Nation prosperous and a people happy. They have an indisputable right to an area of land sufficient for the needs of generations of Cherokees to come. They have a perfect form of Government, wise laws, unsurpassed educational facilities for their children and money enough of their own invested to make these blessings permanent. It is true this Nation is neither numerous wealthy nor powerful compared with many others, but it stands and relies upon the plighted faith of a Nation that has become the strongest on earth by reason of its respect for human rights."
Today many of the Cherokee members celebrate the National Thanksgiving Holiday.
There are still Cherokees and other Native Americans who still celebrate the Green Corn Ceremony.
Many Native Americans will fast on the 4th Thursday in November [Thanksgiving Day] as a way of remembering the MILLIONS who died as a result of the invasion.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For more information contact the source:
Cherokee Nation Cultural Resource Center
E-mail: cultural@cherokee.org
* Cherokee Heritage Center
Mail: P.O. Box 515; Tahlequah, OK 74465
Location: 21672 S. Keeler, Park Hill, Oklahoma
Phone: 918-456-6007 ~ FAX: 918-456-6165
E-Mail: info@cherokeeheritage.org
* Official Site of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma
P. O. Box 948 Tahlequah, Oklahoma 74465
Phone: (918) 456-0671 ~ Toll free OK only: 1-800-256-0671
