July 12, 2006

The Onega Cherokee group of the Texas Cherokee Nation had their regular meeting this past Saturday. The meeting was held in the Collins Hall Annex of the Aubrey First United Methodist church where the meetings are held the second Saturday of each month.

The group announced that at future meetings there will be classes for learning the Cherokee language. The lessons are open to anyone who wants to learn and practice the Cherokee language.

The present language stems from the re-invention of the language as it was presented to the Cherokee Nation during the 1830's during the great removal. There were 3,800 Cherokees that traveled through this area on their way from Oklahoma to the south with Chief Sequoyah. A group of the Cherokees dropped out of the migration and settled in Tioga. Onega was the next town settled just 12 miles south of Tioga. The Cherokee word for Onega is white. Other towns were settled to the south on their way to San Fernando, Mexico. One of the towns was Watauga, which stands for "plenty of water."

On another note, during the past four or five months, I have introduced myself to several boys who are immigrants from Mexico. I commented on how blue their eyes were. They replied, "Sir, I am Cherokey and my people in Mexico are Cherokey." I explained to them that my grandparents were Cherokees. He said, "no we call it Cherokey in Mexico."

Chief Sequoyah arrived in Mexico and established a village six miles from Zaragoza called San Fernando. When the local Cherokees recently made a trip to Mexico to visit the Mexican Cherokees, they all used the common word for hello, "Osi Yo."

When we begin learning the Cherokee language, it will not be the first time that the language has been spoken in this area.

Recently, after the article about our Cherokee heritage was reported in the Dallas Morning News and the Denton Record Chronicle, many people have responded and stated that they had always been told their ancestors were Black Dutch, but never really understood what it meant. Black Dutch was the cover-up for our Cherokee heritage.

According to the many different e-mails, phone calls, and letters that I have received, many of them would have been slapped across the face for casually mentioning that they were of Cherokee descent.

There were many new guests and visitors welcomed at the Cherokee meeting. Many of them were first time visitors. The State Chief, Buddy Garland, closed the meeting with a moment of spiritual comments and prayerful events.

Mark your calendars for the second Saturday of each month at 11:00 a.m. at the Aubrey First United Methodist Church, and start making plans to meet with the group in the future.

The following information appeared in the:

Aubrey Herald, Friday, January 27, 1911, Number 46

Cotton Receipts

The yard here has weighed cotton to date as follows:

Aubrey Cotton Yard 3,765 bales

Cotton Ginned Here

The number of bales ginned at two gins up to date is as follows:

F&M Gin 2,059

T.E. Ratchford’s Gin 1,496

Total 3,555

Prices yesterday on lint was 13.00 to 15.00

In the same issue of the Aubrey Herald,

The First National Bank elected officers for the new year, they are:

S.D. Houser, Mrs. Ola Davis, J.R. Phillips, Mrs. Clara Parker, Dr. Copenhaver, Mrs. Tom Rodgers, J.J. McKnight, F.W. Angel, W.S. Polhemus, T.H. Hannah, J.L. Parker, T.L. Mullins

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