Most Cherokees, including Chief John Ross, did not believe that they would be forced to move. In May 1838, Federal troops and state militias began the roundup of the Cherokees into stockades. In spite of warnings to troops to treat the Cherokees kindly, the roundup proved harrowing.
Families were separated--the elderly and ill forced out at gunpoint-- people given only moments to collect cherished possessions. White looters followed, ransacking homesteads as Cherokees were led away.
Chief John RossThree groups left in the summer, traveling from present-day Chattanooga by rail, boat, and wagon, primarily on the Water Route. But river levels were too low for navigation; one group, traveling overland in Arkansas, suffered three to five deaths each day due to illness and drought.
Fifteen thousand captives still awaited removal. Crowding, poor sanitation, and drought made them miserable. Many died. The Cherokees asked to postpone removal until the fall, and to voluntarily remove themselves. The delay was granted, provided they remain in internment camps until travel resumed.
By November, 12 groups of 1,000 each were trudging 800 miles overland to the west. The last party, including Chief Ross, went by water. Now, heavy autumn rains and hundreds of wagons on the muddy route made roads impassable; little grazing and game could be found to supplement meager rations.
Two-thirds of the ill-equipped Cherokees were trapped between the ice-bound Ohio and Mississippi Rivers during January. Although suffering from a cold, Quatie Ross, the Chief's wife, gave her only blanket to a child.
"Long time we travel on way to new land. People feel bad when they leave Old Nation. Women cry and make sad wails, Children cry and many men cry...but they say nothing and just put heads down and keep on go towards West. Many days pass and people die very much."
Recollections of a survivor
She died of pneumonia at Little Rock. Some drank stagnant water and succumbed to disease. One survivor told how his father got sick and died; then, his mother; then, one by one, his five brothers and sisters. "One each day. Then all are gone."
By March 1839, all survivors had arrived in the west. No one knows how many died throughout the ordeal, but the trip was especially hard on infants, children, and the elderly. Missionary doctor Elizur Butler, who accompanied the Cherokees, estimated that over 4,000 died--nearly a fifth of the Cherokee population.
Friday, April 27, 2007
Oldest North American Mummy
by Lara J. Asher
A mummy excavated in 1940 and stored at the Nevada State Museum in Carson City was recently dated to ca. 7420 B.C., making it the oldest mummy ever discovered in North America.
Donald Tuohy and Amy Dansie of the Nevada State Museum say the mummy, a male about 45 years old, was one of several gathered from caves in Nevada's Churchill County. Its excellent state of preservation had led earlier researchers to believe it was ca. 2,000 years old. Dansie and Tuohy were astonished when radiocarbon tests of hair and bone and two mats covering the body yielded dates more than 7,000 years older.
Discovered during salvage excavations in advance of a guano-mining project, the mummy was found lying on a fur blanket dressed in a twisted skin robe with leather moccasins on its feet and a twined mat sewn around its head and shoulders. A similar mat was wrapped around the lower portion of the body and bound under the feet. Skin remained on the back and shoulders as well as a small tuft of straight dark hair, which changed to reddish-brown when exposed to light and air.
The man may have died from complications associated with a skull fracture or abscessed teeth, according to Gentry Steele of Texas A&M University, who examined the body. Fifty-eight other fiber and fur artifacts were found in the cave, including two bags containing cremated human remains. The style of weaving used in the textiles, known as diamond-plaited matting, marks the earliest stage in North American weaving technology. "People were more settled than we thought," says Dansie, noting the time it must have taken to gather the fibers and weave them into mats.
Post note: videos regarding this subject can be found on this page.
A mummy excavated in 1940 and stored at the Nevada State Museum in Carson City was recently dated to ca. 7420 B.C., making it the oldest mummy ever discovered in North America.
Donald Tuohy and Amy Dansie of the Nevada State Museum say the mummy, a male about 45 years old, was one of several gathered from caves in Nevada's Churchill County. Its excellent state of preservation had led earlier researchers to believe it was ca. 2,000 years old. Dansie and Tuohy were astonished when radiocarbon tests of hair and bone and two mats covering the body yielded dates more than 7,000 years older.
Discovered during salvage excavations in advance of a guano-mining project, the mummy was found lying on a fur blanket dressed in a twisted skin robe with leather moccasins on its feet and a twined mat sewn around its head and shoulders. A similar mat was wrapped around the lower portion of the body and bound under the feet. Skin remained on the back and shoulders as well as a small tuft of straight dark hair, which changed to reddish-brown when exposed to light and air.
The man may have died from complications associated with a skull fracture or abscessed teeth, according to Gentry Steele of Texas A&M University, who examined the body. Fifty-eight other fiber and fur artifacts were found in the cave, including two bags containing cremated human remains. The style of weaving used in the textiles, known as diamond-plaited matting, marks the earliest stage in North American weaving technology. "People were more settled than we thought," says Dansie, noting the time it must have taken to gather the fibers and weave them into mats.
Post note: videos regarding this subject can be found on this page.
Former Navajo vice president McKenzie dies
Associated Press - April 23, 2007
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - Former Navajo Vice President Taylor McKenzie, a distinguished physician and the tribe's first medical officer, died April 13 at Presbyterian Hospital in Albuquerque, the tribe announced.
McKenzie was 76. His family declined to release any details about the cause of death.
Navajo President Joe Shirley Jr. said his thoughts and prayers were with McKenzie's wife, Betty, their nine children and the rest of the family.
''The late Dr. McKenzie made an important and great contribution to the Navajo people and the Navajo Nation through his service as a physician with the Indian Health Service for more than 30 years, as our vice president and as our first medical officer,'' Shirley said.
McKenzie was vice president from 1999 to 2003 and was appointed as the first Navajo medical officer in December 2005. Before entering public office, he had a 30-year career as a physician and surgeon with the Public Health Service on the Navajo Nation.
Shirley's office said McKenzie was known throughout the American Indian community as a symbol of success for what a Navajo and other Indians could do.
''We all need to pay homage to his leadership,'' Shirley said. ''Through his contributions, we have grown and succeeded, and our nation has become known as great. The nation and our people will be forever indebted to him. He will be deeply missed.''
Shirley planned to issue a proclamation April 16 to have flags on the Navajo Nation flown at half-staff in honor of McKenzie.
Former Navajo President Kelsey Begaye, under whom McKenzie served as vice president, said he was deeply saddened by the news. He remembered McKenzie as a good friend and a devoted health advocate.
Begaye said the results of McKenzie's hard work over the years include clinics in Pinon, the reauthorization of the Indian Health Care Improvement Act and the groundwork for a future clinic at Bodaway-Gap.
McKenzie graduated from Wheaton College in 1954 and earned his medical degree from Baylor in 1958. He completed his surgery residency at Pontiac General Hospital in Michigan.
In 1964, he became a member of the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. He retired in 1995 but continued his medical practice part-time until he ran for vice president in 1998.
While with the Public Health Service, he was chief of surgery at the Tuba City Indian Hospital and at the Shiprock Indian Hospital. He also was a founding member of the Association of American Indian Physicians.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - Former Navajo Vice President Taylor McKenzie, a distinguished physician and the tribe's first medical officer, died April 13 at Presbyterian Hospital in Albuquerque, the tribe announced.
McKenzie was 76. His family declined to release any details about the cause of death.
Navajo President Joe Shirley Jr. said his thoughts and prayers were with McKenzie's wife, Betty, their nine children and the rest of the family.
''The late Dr. McKenzie made an important and great contribution to the Navajo people and the Navajo Nation through his service as a physician with the Indian Health Service for more than 30 years, as our vice president and as our first medical officer,'' Shirley said.
McKenzie was vice president from 1999 to 2003 and was appointed as the first Navajo medical officer in December 2005. Before entering public office, he had a 30-year career as a physician and surgeon with the Public Health Service on the Navajo Nation.
Shirley's office said McKenzie was known throughout the American Indian community as a symbol of success for what a Navajo and other Indians could do.
''We all need to pay homage to his leadership,'' Shirley said. ''Through his contributions, we have grown and succeeded, and our nation has become known as great. The nation and our people will be forever indebted to him. He will be deeply missed.''
Shirley planned to issue a proclamation April 16 to have flags on the Navajo Nation flown at half-staff in honor of McKenzie.
Former Navajo President Kelsey Begaye, under whom McKenzie served as vice president, said he was deeply saddened by the news. He remembered McKenzie as a good friend and a devoted health advocate.
Begaye said the results of McKenzie's hard work over the years include clinics in Pinon, the reauthorization of the Indian Health Care Improvement Act and the groundwork for a future clinic at Bodaway-Gap.
McKenzie graduated from Wheaton College in 1954 and earned his medical degree from Baylor in 1958. He completed his surgery residency at Pontiac General Hospital in Michigan.
In 1964, he became a member of the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. He retired in 1995 but continued his medical practice part-time until he ran for vice president in 1998.
While with the Public Health Service, he was chief of surgery at the Tuba City Indian Hospital and at the Shiprock Indian Hospital. He also was a founding member of the Association of American Indian Physicians.
Do you know...
Wilma Mankiller, former Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, lives on the land which was allotted to her paternal grandfather, John Mankiller, just after Oklahoma became a state in 1907. Surrounded by the Cherokee Hills and the Cookson Hills, she lives in a historically rich area where a person's worth is not determined by the size of their bank account or portfolio. Her family name "Mankiller" as far as they can determine, is an old military title that was given to the person in charge of protecting the village. As the leader of the Cherokee people she represented the second largest tribe in the United States, the largest being the Dine (Navajo) Tribe. Mankiller was the first female in modern history to lead a major Native American tribe. With an enrolled population of over 140,000, and an annual budget of more than $75 million, and more than 1,200 employees spread over 7,000 square miles, her task may have been equalled to that of a chief executive officer of a major corporation.
http://www.powersource.com/gallery/people/wilma.html
Click on link to read full article.
http://www.powersource.com/gallery/people/wilma.html
Click on link to read full article.
The End of the World
Lakota story told by Jenny Leading Cloud (White River, Rosebud reservation, SD) to Richard Erdoes in 1967. Typed from Erdoes and Ortiz, American Indian Myths and Legends
Somewhere at a place where the prairie and the Maka Sicha, the Badlands, meet, there is a hidden cave. Not for a long, long time has anyone been able to find it. Even now, with so many highways, cars and tourists, no one has discovered this cave. In it lives a woman so old that her face looks like a shriveled-up walnut. She is dressed in rawhide, the way people used to before the white man came. She has been sitting there for a thousand years or more, working on a blanket strip for her buffalo robe. She is making the strip out of dyed porcupine quills, the way ancestors did before the white traders brought glass beads to this turtle continent. Resting beside her, licking his paws, watching her all the time is Shunka Sapa, a huge black dog. His eyes never wander from the old woman, whose teeth are worn flat, worn down to little stumps, she has used them to flatten so many porcupine quills.
A few steps from where the old woman sits working on her blanket strip, a huge fire is kept going. She lit this fire a thousand or more years ago and has kept it alive ever since. Over the fire hangs a big earthen pot, the kind some Indian peoples used to make before the white man came with his kettles of iron. Inside the pot, wojapi is boiling and bubbling. Wojapi is berry soup, good and sweet and red. That soup has been boiling in the pot for a long time, ever since the fire was lit.
Every now and then the old woman gets up to stir the wojapi in the huge earthen pot. She is so old and feeble that it takes a while to get up and hobble over to the fire. The moment her back is turned, Shunka Sapa, the huge black dog starts pulling the porcupine quills out of her blanket strip. This way she never makes any progress, and her quillwork remains forever unfinished. The Sioux people used to say that if the old woman ever finishes her blanket strip, then at the very moment that she threads the last porcupine quill to complete the design, the world will come to an end.
Want to learn more about quillworking?
Click here: http://www.nativetech.org/quill/index.php
Somewhere at a place where the prairie and the Maka Sicha, the Badlands, meet, there is a hidden cave. Not for a long, long time has anyone been able to find it. Even now, with so many highways, cars and tourists, no one has discovered this cave. In it lives a woman so old that her face looks like a shriveled-up walnut. She is dressed in rawhide, the way people used to before the white man came. She has been sitting there for a thousand years or more, working on a blanket strip for her buffalo robe. She is making the strip out of dyed porcupine quills, the way ancestors did before the white traders brought glass beads to this turtle continent. Resting beside her, licking his paws, watching her all the time is Shunka Sapa, a huge black dog. His eyes never wander from the old woman, whose teeth are worn flat, worn down to little stumps, she has used them to flatten so many porcupine quills.
A few steps from where the old woman sits working on her blanket strip, a huge fire is kept going. She lit this fire a thousand or more years ago and has kept it alive ever since. Over the fire hangs a big earthen pot, the kind some Indian peoples used to make before the white man came with his kettles of iron. Inside the pot, wojapi is boiling and bubbling. Wojapi is berry soup, good and sweet and red. That soup has been boiling in the pot for a long time, ever since the fire was lit.
Every now and then the old woman gets up to stir the wojapi in the huge earthen pot. She is so old and feeble that it takes a while to get up and hobble over to the fire. The moment her back is turned, Shunka Sapa, the huge black dog starts pulling the porcupine quills out of her blanket strip. This way she never makes any progress, and her quillwork remains forever unfinished. The Sioux people used to say that if the old woman ever finishes her blanket strip, then at the very moment that she threads the last porcupine quill to complete the design, the world will come to an end.
Want to learn more about quillworking?
Click here: http://www.nativetech.org/quill/index.php
Law provides few protections for Indian mounds
When it comes right down to it, the good will of private landowners is often what stands between saving Indian mounds and losing these pieces of ancient history.
“There are no legal obligations regarding mounds on private property, as long as the owners don’t disturb any burials that might be there,” said Linda Hall, a state archaeologist based in Asheville.
In the case of Cowee Mound, preservation efforts by the Hall family ensured its survival. The family owned the mound for 175 years until the death of Katherine Hall Porter in 2002. The mound then passed to her husband, James Porter. He and his heirs worked with the Land Trust for the Little Tennessee and the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians to make sure that it would be protected.
http://www.smokymountainnews.com/issues/04_07/04_25_07/fr_law_provides.html
Click on link to read full article.
“There are no legal obligations regarding mounds on private property, as long as the owners don’t disturb any burials that might be there,” said Linda Hall, a state archaeologist based in Asheville.
In the case of Cowee Mound, preservation efforts by the Hall family ensured its survival. The family owned the mound for 175 years until the death of Katherine Hall Porter in 2002. The mound then passed to her husband, James Porter. He and his heirs worked with the Land Trust for the Little Tennessee and the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians to make sure that it would be protected.
http://www.smokymountainnews.com/issues/04_07/04_25_07/fr_law_provides.html
Click on link to read full article.
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