As we go headlong into the year 2022, I want to take a look back over the last 30 months.
I am an eternal optimist, always seeking ways to find good in everyone and every situation. That is why I was a minister in Southern Baptist churches for over 20 years. I thought I could make a difference in the world by working with youth almost my entire life. That is the reason I went back to college, acquired a second MA degree in education, so I could teach Social Studies to those who needed to know how our country works.
Then, in 2019, when I became Chief, I was a wide-eyed, innocent who believed everything I had ever taught about American Civics, American History, American Government, and World History. I even believed that the Congress and Senate of the United States cared about doing what is right, that they would immediately remedy the sins of the past and place The Chickamauga Nation on the Serviced Tribes Roll because it was the right thing to do.
I wanted to believe everything I ever taught and was taught about the splendor and wonder of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. I wanted to believe every Senator and Congressman wanted to do the right thing no matter what because that is what I was taught and taught to others. I wanted to believe the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, when they looked at our history and anthropology, they would smile and say welcome to the club, but they did the exact opposite.
Then COVID-19 hit in January of 2020, making it to where we could not see each other. We could not meet with each other, hug each other, and care for each other's needs. The Senate and House stopped talking to us and the world felt like it was passing us by like it had done for over 250 years. Again, decimating my eternal optimism and causing me to question everything I had ever learned and taught about the government of the United States. But like every Chickamauga over the last 250 years, I must hold out hope that the United States will honor its treaties with us and treat us with honor, dignity, and respect. I cannot abandon all hope because I still believe that there is still good to be found somewhere in the United States government.
No matter what, our people are survivors. We have survived genocide and continued ethnic cleansing. We have overcome our lands being taken from us, our women, children, and elders being killed or taken captive and sold into slavery. We will hold our heads high and tell our children and grandchildren that our people withstood the worst a country could do to a people, because we survived.
As we venture into the great unknown of 2022 together we must always hold on to each other. We have survived so much as a people and will continue to do so because we are warriors and above all, SURVIVORS.
We are The Chickamauga Nation.
We will be heard.
We Stand.
(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.