Dear Editor,
I recently read an article in your Aug. 23-29, 2018 paper entitled “Cherokee Language has become a novelty”. It was moving.
I, myself, am Cherokee. Non-registered. However, from the Oklahoma branch and not Eastern branch.
I didn’t actually know my father who was born from a 100 percent Cherokee mother and a white father. My father, being half or 50 percent, always kept his family secret due to what someone in his family did so I never knew that side.
He left when I was 5 and I never saw him again. I found when I was 17 he had died. I always wanted to know that side of my life, and it was denied to me. I cannot afford to research my line to prove it, to get registered, to join the Tribe. I would love to learn the Cherokee language that apparently many of your tribal members are not interested in doing. I want to know the creation story of the Cherokee. The meaning of signs and symbols. I want to be taught what many don’t want to learn. I want to know that side of my family and the brothers and sister I never met.
How can someone like me, who has nothing, with no official ties, get what I have wanted for so long? I have no outside income and my mother’s family is dead or has abandoned me. So, it’s just me. Do you have any suggestions?
Sincerely,
David Whitworth
Butner
