Cultural appropriation. From the tomahawk chop to the Jeep Cherokee to car dealership, cigar shop style Indian statues towering over a heavily trafficked road, it is interwoven into American society. Some Indigenous members of our communities are outspoken and repulsed by it. Others just chuckle and say that it is part of living for Natives in America.

First, I wish to thank Mr. Robert Jumper for his article and sharing his memories and perspective of the commodity program. As the manager of the Tribal Food Distribution (Commodity) Program, I would like to respond to his article.

Each morning as I come into work from the Painttown area, I come through downtown Cherokee.  Lately, I’ve noticed more and more tattered U.S. flags in downtown and some in other parts of the Qualla Boundary. 

Patience. It is a virtue indeed. And, like me, I am sure you all could use a good dose of it. Pardon me for being rude, but we have become a society of, if not community of, discourteous people.

I was amongst the last groups of EBCI (Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians )kids that received their ‘big money’ in one lump sum. I had just graduated high school and was told the best thing to do would be to cash the whole lot and take it to my preferred bank. Talk about a recipe for disaster.

“Father, I pray that every door that needs to be closed, is closed, that we might know clearly the avenues of the past in which we must walk to fulfill the mission that You’ve given us this year.  And Father, in these, may we give You all the Honor and everybody says Amen, Amen, and Amen.”  (Continued from last week.)

In recent years, a number of us have been doing voter registration in Cherokee for county, state and national elections with more success in some years than others.   It is very important that Cherokees vote in these elections as what happens in the county, Raleigh and Washington directly impacts enrolled members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.  

From language to artifacts, we say that the preservation of our ancestry is a high priority. We say.