The Chief then looked me straight in the eye and with great boldness proclaimed, "You are Texas Cherokees." He looked around the room at everyone repeating this several times. I looked at the book that I had brought Daddy from the museum of the five civilized tribes in Muskogee, Oklahoma, titled, Texas Cherokees.

My mind began to think back to my experiences of the previous weekend. Randy took me to Tahlequah, Oklahoma last weekend to the Cherokee Nation complex and the Cherokee Heritage center. While there, I learned that there was an eastern band of Cherokees living in the eastern states of the U.S. and a western band of Cherokees living in Indian Territory in Oklahoma. The western band of Cherokees holds high regard for the eastern band of Cherokee, and I perceived that we were not particularly received by the western and with the same regard.

Sunday morning as we prepared to make our way back to Texas an image came to my eye. The image was a profile of an old Indian man. I couldn’t get this image out of my thoughts. Then I saw a very old antique gun pointed to the back of the old Indian’s head. I wondered what this all meant.

We left Tahlequah. There was a sign about 30 miles out of Tahlequah in Muskogee, Oklahoma, that advertised a 5 Civilized Tribes Museum. We followed the signs to the museum which sat on top of a high hill. After touring the museum we prepared to leave, until I found the books for sale. Texas Cherokees was calling me to pick it up so I bought it. I began reading the book on the way home.

The following is what I learned:

Many years before the forced evacuation of the Cherokees on the Trail of Tears, a Cherokee chief named Bowls with other Cherokees made their way down to Texas to try to obtain the land to build their homes on. These people talked with Stephen F. Austin, Sam Houston, and others but always put off and had to keep waiting. They told these people that if they would fight the Comanches for them that they would give them land. They didn’t want to do this at first, but later did. The Cherokees did not get the land promised them for fighting the Comanches. The Cherokees wised up to these ploys, the book was about all the negotiations, meetings, dates, names of people, etc. trying to obtain land they could call a home.

When I got to the last chapter, I read about the old Indian Chief Bowles who was 83 years old. He was shot in the back of the head with a gun by Sam Houston’s soldiers. The Cherokees were forced to return to Indian Territory in Oklahoma, or so they thought they all did.

My thoughts returned to me as I heard the Cherokee Chief Spruill boldly proclaiming at the meeting this Saturday, "You are Texas Cherokees." The friendly smiling faces that welcomed me confirmed my inner thoughts and the Chief’s bold words.

I heard a lady telling the Chief how they were so honored to have him and his wife at the meting. After the meeting was over, as I was in the car going to my parent’s home, I asked Daddy, "Who was that Chief who was at the meeting?" He told me that his name was Chief Spruill and that he was a National Chief. I asked Daddy what a National Chief was and he told me that he was head over all of the Cherokees in the country even the ones in Tahlequah.

While visiting with Daddy on the back porch on Saturday, one of Daddy’s books was calling me to pick it up. It was titled The Divine Plan of the Ages for Bible Students. Daddy told me it was very old and had a copyright of 886. After opening the book, my eyes fell upon the words, "earth’s night of sin to terminate in a morning of joy." These words jumped out at me because last weekend Randy and I visited the Trail of Tears Museum in Tahlequah, Oklahoma.

I was grieved to find out at the museum that when gold was discovered in Georgia, Andrew Jackson developed the Treaty of Echota. The Treaty of Echota by Andrew Jackson called for the removal of Cherokees from the eastern United States to Indian Territory in Oklahoma. The museum showed that the removal of the Cherokees was simply due to the greed of men. The exhibits revealed the cruel and inhumane treatment of these Indian People.

When Randy took me to the Cherokee Heritage Village, an image came to my mind as we were resting n the village on some benches and were looking at the rock wall that was built on the back of the center. I saw a Cherokee mother bent over crying with a calico dress and bonnet on. There was a very tall angel looking over her and then I saw God’s eye looking over it all.

I contemplated all that I had seen at the Cherokee Heritage Center – things that were displayed by the Cherokees and things that were displayed by the creator. I didn’t understand how such terrible things could happen to people in this country with no restitution or retribution. I did not understand how God’s eye could have been upon it all and it bothered me.