Over the last 3 years, I have had hundreds of people tell me that they have always been told they have a little Cherokee blood. I ask them to do one simple thing: Run their genealogy. When they return with their family tree, they are shocked to find out that they actually have Chickamauga ancestry. Most of the time, they find out that their ancestors came from the Southeast Woodlands of Kentucky, Tennessee, Western Virginia, Western North Carolina, Western South Carolina, Georgia, or Alabama. Others find their lines originate just north of the Ohio river in Indiana, Ohio, or Illinois. Still others find their family origins are from Northern and Western Arkansas, Southern Missouri, Eastern Oklahoma, and East Texas. All can be and often are Chickamauga.
People often ask me, “How can this be?” First off, their family did not lie to them because that is what their families were always told by the government. Even the treaties say to all of the Cherokees. Almost always it is because of the United States government and the US Indian Agents told everyone who spoke the Cherokee trade language that they were Cherokee when the United States and the Indian Agents knew specifically who were Chickamauga because they retained their traditional ways of the Mound Culture and Southeast Ceremonial Complex culture and religion. That is why the Cherokee hated the Chickamauga and committed genocide against us; because we were religious and cultural traditionalists.
Even when letters were sent to the War Department in 1809 stating that a group of about 1200 Chickamauga had arrived at Dardanelle Rock in Arkansas and were looking for places to live the United States knew we were Chickamauga. But, Return J. Meigs who knew we were Chickamauga when he reported back to Washington DC continued to call us either Immigrant Cherokee, Arkansas Cherokee or Western Cherokee.
How does that affect people today to learn that they are Chickamauga and not Cherokee? It should be a relief. Many people are made fun of by the Cherokee Nation for claiming to be Cherokee when in reality, the Cherokee know that we are Chickamauga and refuse to tell people the truth.
I suspect that if your family originated from the Southeast Woodlands or Arkansas and you have always been told you have a little Cherokee blood, that you are in fact, Chickamauga. Here is the challenge, go on ancestry or some other site and find your family tree, your ancestry. Highlight the side(s) you suspect are Indian and fill out an application for The Chickamauga Nation (ChickamaugaNationApplications@ProtonMail.Com). I would suspect you will be shocked to find out that your ancestry is not Cherokee at all, but something wildly different: Chickamauga.
(C) This document was produced at the request of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs on July 18, 2019, to document the History, Anthropology, Culture, Religion, and Archaeology of The Chickamauga Nation.