Thread: Cherokee Tribes hold joint council meetings

Cherokee Tribes Hold Joint Council Meeting
By TIM WHITMIRE, Associated Press Writer
34 minutes ago

CHEROKEE, N.C. - Cherokee runners carried flaming torches down a mountainside at dawn Friday to the tribe's historic homeland and a reunion with members who fled the Smoky Mountains nearly two centuries ago.

Both the Eastern Band Cherokee and the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians in Oklahoma trace their origins to the ancient city of Keetoowah, which once stood a short distance from what is now a reservation for the Eastern Band.

The joint council meeting Friday of their leaders, near a mound that is all that remains of Keetoowah, was the first between the tribes.

"In our life, we rarely get that chance where we're able to do one thing for our people," tribal elder Tom Belt told the runners. "This is that time. It is not a small thing."

The Eastern Band, which numbers about 13,500 members, descends from Cherokees who remained in western North Carolina after the rest of the tribe was removed. The Keetoowah Cherokee, who fled the mountains in the late 1820s and also ended up in Oklahoma, are known as the "Original Settlers" and count about 12,000 members.

Cherokees descended from those who traveled the Trail of Tears compose the much more populous Oklahoma Cherokee Nation.

Belt prayed in the Cherokee language with about eight Eastern Band runners _ boys, girls, young women and men _ and reminded them that long ago the Cherokee were told that their tribe would one day be separated and later made whole again.

Such ceremonies, Belt said, "are markers that tell us we are still one people."

The 8-mile torch run began at the site of an eternal flame that was kindled in the 1950s. Cherokee officials say that fire can be traced to a flame that Cherokees took with them when the U.S. government forced them out of the Smokies in the late 1830s and marched the tribe along the Trail of Tears to what later became Oklahoma.

"It's our original site," said George Wickliffe, chief of the Keetoowah Cherokee and leader of a delegation of about two dozen from the tribe's headquarters in Tahlequah, Okla. "This is where we all come from, all of us. The original fire still exists."

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

I just thought this was a nice article to prove there are ways in which people honor their culture and history and people and still assimilate and function in this society. And if there's anybody that deserves to hold a grudge....it's the American Indian. But I feel they have overcome an unjustice and choose to live in the "here and now". Realizing they lost some things but gained others. And I'm thrilled they choose to celebrate the customs that bring them together.

crazybird...........if you've never seen the showing of The Trail of Tears, you are truly missing something else. I've been to see it often. It's amazing. You actually feel their pain and shed tears with them. I see you are in IL. I'm in NC.......I know you are a ways from it, but if you ever get down this way, that is one show you do NOT want to miss.

CHEROKEE, N.C. - Cherokee runners carried flaming torches down a mountainside at dawn Friday to the tribe's historic homeland and a reunion with members who fled the Smoky Mountains nearly two centuries ago.

Aztec Indians were NEVER indigenous to North Carolina

crazybird...........if you've never seen the showing of The Trail of Tears, you are truly missing something else

No I haven't had the chance but will definately try.

Aztec Indians were NEVER indigenous to North Carolina

I'm not up on alot of American Indian things, but I'm confused about that statement? I didn't even see the Aztec Indians mentioned in the article. I thought they were from Mexico or South America. Did I miss something?