Copyright © 2001 NLThomas
All Rights Reserved

Now, about the reasons why you haven't gotten your membership card. Without it, you are unfortunately still not a member of this exclusive Club we call the Cherokee Nation. I don't buy the excuse that you are "Gun Shy" after having your application rejected. The kindest thing I can say is that I think you have been procrastinating. If I were anonymous, I could say that you have been just too damn lazy to get the paper work done and send for the certificates you need; but being a kinder person than that, I will refrain.

Until you get that coveted White Card and it's Blue companion, you will not be perceived as being qualified as anything more than a casual observer. As I have said before, within the Club we Cherokees have but one choice when dealing with another member -- we deal with it whether we like it or not. Non-members, regardless of other documented blood quantum, family history, or mis-placed ancestors, are another matter; we don't have to deal with.

Frankly, we don't take kindly to outside kibitzers. We have had a long, too long, history of non-Cherokees interfering in our business, telling us our faults and offering unsolicited advice on how to run our affairs. We have become more sophisticated than we were thirty, sixty or 100 years ago; we haven't reached perfection, but we are working on it. Until we are satisfied with our conditions, we aren't interested in blindly accepting interjections from non-Club members who have no proof that they are what they claim to be. Through the years we have had plenty of experience with "would-be" Cherokees who are just as Proud as Punch for having discovered their "Indian Blood." -- but can't prove it! If you have solutions, we would be more than happy to have your input, but only if and when you become a peer.

Please understand that I am not trying to be mean, simply because I have my card and you don't. I got my card because I did the necessary work to get the documents; it wasn't that difficult, it just took a few dollars to get the certified copies by writing a few letters to State Departments of Vital Statistics. I didn't get my cards the first time either, but rather than sitting on my haunches, I went back through the paper and got it filled out right the second time. I have no reason to question your statement that your great or great great grandfather was on the Dawes Rolls. There are still too many Cherokees who haven't seen a need or developed the desire to become an enrolled member; traffic in the Registration Office daily is proof that some are just now getting around to it.

We know, however, that there are more than a few who come from afar with only genealogy records they gleaned off the internet or researched in national archives expecting to be automatically eligible for enrollment. Some of those who seek membership come with only one reason in mind -- to get their share of some kind of Indian Head right, per capita payment, or instant financial benefit for health, education or a home. They leave disappointed and perhaps angry that they didn't get enrolled; disappointed that the Cherokee Nation isn't standing by the door with bags of money to dispense. We who have been actively involved with the growth and development of the tribe since the early seventies have seen every kind of would-be's and hear every story imaginable for the weirdest assortment of charlatans, con-men and women, and bogga-bogga medicine men in tacky homemade fringed jackets, dirty hair and filthier hats with goose feathers stuck in the brims.

We have heard mystic tales, fictional tales of their powers and importance, offers of get rich schemes, requests for special letters of introductions or recognitions that will allow them to take advantage of "Indian" programs back home, or pleas for affirming certificates that will allow them to make and sell "Indian Arts and Crafts" with the label stating that the items are "genuine Indian Made". For a time, once, we didn't question those people's motives -- in fact it wasn't long ago that we accepted some non-certifiable Cherokee artist as "Club" members with out question and promoted and sold their work in our arts and crafts store. We can't do that any longer because it both dishonest to the buying public and does a disservice to our enrolled members who are competing for the same dollars for a living.

If a piece of work isn't the product of one of our own, why should we continue our benevolence to non-members? It isn't good for our culture to have non-authentic items being panned off as the genuine thing. It is the same reason that the tribe gives Indian preference to certified Cherokees and members of other tribes; it doesn't prevent anyone from seeking a job, we simply give our own the first chance at being hired. Lord knows that if we didn't, we would be inundated by non-Cherokees who had no inherent interest in either the tribe's function as a government and service provider, or the future welfare of the Cherokees we serve.

Let me suggest that you do your homework and get your paperwork in order and become a certified member of this Club. The benefits are few, but the personal rewards of self-awareness are tremendous. Once you get those cards, I invite you to blast away as much and as often as you like. Then there won't be a damn thing anyone can do about your right to interject your spleen. The best we can do is, like any family does, tell you that your ideas are just plain stupid, ignorant, or perhaps wonderful, but don't expect that to happen very often. Cherokees by nature are not prone to gushing admiration of anyone, including their own siblings. If you get an occasional nod and a smile, you can equate that with a slap on the back and thirty minutes of fireworks. That is just the way we are... deal with it when the time comes.

It's a good beginning to learn something about the history and traditions of the Cherokees, but until you live it or become familiar with the reality of how things are or function here in the heart of the Cherokee Nation, I hope that you will consider that we have our own answers and are easily impressed with outsiders giving us unsolicited advice. The next time you write, I expect to hear that you have gotten the process started and won't give up until you get your membership cards for this Club.

Sincerely and closing with this observation; that no ones has the justifiable right to be proud of their ethnic blood unless they have done something important to deserve it.