I don’t have the correct statistical information regarding the number of American people with Indian heritage, but if you had a way to determine our ancestry, you might be surprised.

There are more people with Cherokee heritage than what we realize. I have written in the past that there is no better way to describe the American people. We area a hand me down group of people that had to ignore our heritage for so many years to protect ourselves and our families. Yet the Federal government has promoted and protected the Cherokees and other tribes in order for them to be located where they are today, even though the Federal Act of 1828 and the amendment in 1838 required them to face death or move west of the Mississippi River. After they moved west of the Mississippi River, it was then that the federal authorities encouraged the white settlers to fore the Indians to move farther west.

The local Cherokee group of Onegans have a way of injecting past historically even if it is on a limited basis, but never the less, the historical events have been passed on each time the Cherokees gather. The local Onega tribe meets each second Saturday of each month.

One welcome milestone in the local Onega Cherokee tribe was accomplished this past week when the Cherokee Nation of Texas acquired a very attractive meeting and gathering space. This new location is the meeting place for the group on the second Saturday of each month.

DWayne Carroll made the announcement at the last meeting, that the group would occupy a portion of the old Town Charter Office Building. DWayne has purchased the building and has made it available to the Cherokee Nation of Texas for a meeting place, a library, and a research facility. The group previously met at the Aubrey First United Methodist Church, but will now have a permanent place for meetings and tribal activities.

DWayne is a descendent of Chief Bowles, the famous chief that died with a bullet to his head while he was seated under a shade tree in East Texas. His defeat in 1839, was the act that liquidated the Cherokee tribe in Texas. Several bands of the tribe exist over the entire United States and the National Chief for the tribe is Chief Spruiell, who now lives in New Mexico.

A large effort is being made to incorporate all of the bands together to make the tribe more productive. The Onega group has 722 registered Cherokees in the local tribe of Texas.

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