Indians hope to use genealogy library to recover hidden past

Many Cherokees denied ancestry, making tracing of tribal family roots a more difficult task

Web posted November 2, 1998

Associated Press

MOULTRIE, Ga. -- Chief William Rattlesnake Jackson hid his Cherokee heritage in order to avoid discrimination while he grew up.

Now Chief Jackson is finding out he wasn't alone in shrouding his Indian heritage.

Historians have found American Indian history difficult to trace, in part because of denial of Indian heritage.

In an effort to try to recapture his culture, Chief Jackson has begun working with a genealogist and others in establishing an American Indian library in Moultrie.

The library will serve as a repository for tribal records, and plans call for it to become a home base for a national American Indian library.

``This will go a long way to help bond our family heritage,'' Chief Jackson said. His wife, Strawberry, said she wasn't aware of her Indian heritage until she was in her mid-40s.

Laureen Strongspirit Sauls of Commerce, who directs the American Cherokee Confederacy National Library, said her family also denied its American Indian Heritage.

``My family would take on the ethnic background of wherever we lived,'' Ms. Sauls said. ``We passed for Jewish, Italian, Spanish or Lebanese.''

That lack of acknowledgement of Indian blood by her family and others has made it difficult for many Cherokees to trace their family roots.

Intermarriage with Scottish settlers and the migration of families as American Indians were relocated to reservations in other parts of the country also added to the loss of records, she said.

``The removal led to the fragmentation of Cherokee society,'' Ms. Sauls said. ``While the majority of Cherokee people relocated voluntarily or under duress to Oklahoma, Arkansas and Texas, many either stayed behind in the Smoky Mountains to form the Eastern Band or scattered.

``At the same time, remnants of other native nations, decimated by conflicts with white society, sought refuge with the Cherokee Nation.''

The idea for the library sprouted from Chief Jackson's work with Beth Gay, editor of Family Tree, a monthly genealogical journal of the Hellen Payne Odom Genealogical Library. In an article he wrote on The American Cherokee Confederacy, Chief Jackson said an American Indian library was needed in Georgia.

After the article was published, Ms. Gay contacted Chief Jackson and Ms. Sauls about creating a home for the American Cherokee Confederacy's collection at the Odom Library, which is a private branch of the Moultrie public library.

``By declaring us their library home, they will have a repository for historical and genealogical material to anyone who would like to work in the library and do research,'' Ms. Gay said.

The library already has a significant amount of American Indian materials, Ms. Gay said. She said the addition of the Cherokee collection will make it easier for American Indians to research their heritage.

Already, more than 125 books of history and storybooks of American Indian heritage have been donated and will become part of the collection in Moultrie.

In addition, the American Cherokee Confederacy is trying to establish a reading library at the Veterans Administration hospital and the federal penitentiary in Atlanta.