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Cherokee Interviewee

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Submitted By daoudi1978
Words 2533
Pages 11
Bilal Daoudi
Professor: Mr. David Carter
Class: ENG111 123A FA13
Date: 09/11/13
The Cherokee Tribes During a recent trip to Lake Lure in western North Carolina, I was taking a boat ride with my fiancée and her family and we were sharing many stories. When her mother, Martha, tried to show us the Great Smoky Mountains on the west side, she mentioned the Cherokee tribes where her ancestors used to live as the Native Americans who inhabited North America before the settlers came from Europe. After we finished that wonderful ride, I scheduled another meeting weeks later to talk more with Layla, my fiancée, about her origins and the Cherokee. Layla Sawyer said, “There are three federally recognized tribes today: the Eastern Band of Cherokees, the Cherokee Nation and the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians. I trace part of my ancestry back to the Eastern Band of Cherokees, although I’m not a member.” The Eastern Band of Cherokees are scattered throughout North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, Tennessee and Alabama. However, her family has roots in Cherokee NC. The Cherokee Nation and UKB are located in Oklahoma and Arkansas. They were originally part of the same larger body of Cherokees who were settled in the mountains of southeastern North America but in 1838 the federal government forced the Cherokees to leave their lands in Southeastern US and relocate to Oklahoma. This was known as the ‘Trail of Tears’ in which thousands of Cherokees were forced to walk away from their ancestral homes by the US Army in the middle of winter so that the new foreign settlers could have access to their land and the gold found therein. Thousands of Cherokees died on this long walk.” For this reason, the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma has many more members than the Eastern Band of Cherokees here. The Cherokees here are the descendants who were able to hide and

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