July 19, 2006

I am so grateful and thankful for the time that Paul Knight, a freelance writer for The Dallas Morning News, took in writing the story about our Cherokee heritage. He is an excellent writer, who had much patience with his slow and obvious method of asking questions. The time he spent with me was well planned and spent so much time gathering the information for the story he wrote.

I have received many letters, from one line to two pages in length in response to the story that was printed. Many of the letters that I received from e-mail, letters, and phone calls have expressed that people curious to determine if they are from Cherokee descent. Many of them have been told that their ancestors were Black Dutch, and they did not know that this meant Cherokee lineage.

I have received many phone calls. I haven’t had so many phone calls since I was Mayor of Aubrey back in 1962, when the Aubrey water well went down. Back then, we had one well that pumped oil and wouldn’t work and one well that just simply broke down all of the time. The difference in the phone calls then and now was that the phone calls I received recently were gracious phone calls and e-mails. I have plans to respond to all of the contacts I have received.

I received a nice letter from a lady named Aubrey. She was inquiring about the Cherokees of Onega. I also received a letter from Dr. Kimberly, a history professor from Wesleyan University in Oklahoma. Some of you readers may be up on reading about Chief Bushyhead. He died in 1944. The professor says that not too much is known about Chief Bushyhead, but if you can help add to the information, it would help this professor’s research.

There are strong indications that when Chief Sequoyah came through this area, when the towns of Tioga, Onega, Mingo, Watauga, and Saginaw were established by the Cherokees, who dropped out of the caravan of Indians that were on their way to Mexico in search of freedom. Sequoyah left the western band of Cherokees of the Cherokee Nation in the late 1830's.

I am sure that these two chiefs, Sequoyah and Bushyhead met each other during their lifetime. It was during this period of time that Sequoyah was ridiculed for his work on the new alphabet. There may a lot of hidden information about these two chiefs that we need to learn more about.

Chief Bushyhead was a Baptist minister before he died in 1844. If you know of anything about Chief Bushyhead, please send it to us. It might be just the smallest detail or much information. Whatever you have to share will be appreciated and acknowledged upon receipt from you.

One other word of noteworthy news is that a Cherokee Nation of Texas flag was approved and forwarded to the National Chief. The Onega tribe flag is a white flag with the seven stars of the little dipper. The Texas Cherokee Nation enrollment is 621.

Last week I shared that there were 3,500 bales of cotton processed in 1911. I tried to visualize in my mind just how much that would be per person. I know there were not 3,500 people, but if there were 1,700 people in the area (and I doubt that there were that many people here then), that would mean that one person had to pick two bales of cotton.

We all didn’t pick cotton. I remember that I picked 50 pounds one time, and decided to change my occupation. I was 8 years old when I made this decision. I studied hard all of my life so I wouldn’t have to pick cotton again. It was in August, with weather like it is now. I didn’t have anyone to encourage me to change professions, but the decision was automatic.

The photo was made in Aubrey with my Grandfather Wood Goin. He is in the middle of the wagon. He was the public weigher and was elected to this position.

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