WHO WE ARE
"Now is the Time!" Spiritual leaders all over Turtle Island are all being
given this message through spirit.
The so called "Cherokee Nation" in the southeast, did not exist
as a political entity until 1721, and did not have a Constitution until
1827. That "sovereignty" postdates our own, as we as popular sovereign
Cherokee people, were not present to submit to it.
Before 1721, Cherokee sovereignty resided in the people, who had delegated that sovereignty to "moieties" or "towns," which were fully autonomous. Those towns were led by Headman who were similar to Mayors of City-States.
Our Clan, (or "Town") now a "Tribe" of more than two bands or "Clans",
has the oldest existing sovereignty of all the Cherokees.
The Cherokee people, the true popular Cherokee Sovereigns, settled all
over the western water shed of the Mississippi. Many returned east after
the Trail of Tears. Many never walked it. Our forbears multiplied
so that today we estimate our Cherokee people to number, according to one
prominent ethnologist, FIVE TO SEVEN MILLION.
When the Chickamauga Cherokees came here in 1793, and later, the "Old Settler," Cherokees arrived in 1817, in what is now Missouri and Arkansas, they found the Amonsoquath, waiting with open arms -- and with a landbase that we shared with them. As "Caretakers of the Cherokee Nation" the Creator had prepositioned us to provide them with their basic needs. We had, in 1793, obtained a land grant from Spain, for 2/5th of what is now Missouri and for 1/5th of what is now Arkansas -- basically, the entire Ozark Plateau.
We are, in some sense -- politically speaking now -- a part of the "Western Cherokees" and of the "Southern Cherokees," because we have ancestors who signed on, AND WE ARE SUCCESSORS-IN-INTEREST TO, the Cherokee Treaties of 1828, 1833, and 1866... that concern both historical groups. The Amonsoquath, as Powhatan descendants, are also successors in interest to the Treaty of 1677 with the Virginia Company. We have the oldest existing sovereignty among all the existing Cherokee groups.
Because we had to "hide in plain sight" for so long, our effort today is to make our people aware of the fact that our nation is here. We would like for all our sisters and brothers to come back to the nation of their roots.
We have existed here in the Ozarks even before Chief Bowles came with the Chickamauga in 1794.
Persons associated with Amonsoquath families that were Cherokee Treaty
Signatories, Witness, or Interpreters
James Davis (signatory on Treaty of
1805) James Martin, John Martin (signatory on the Treaty of 1828) Thomas
Wilson (interpreter on Treaty of 1816) - all our Chief Walking Bear's
relatives
James Davis - Signatory on Treaty of 1805
Yonewatleh, or Bear at Home - Signatory -1793, 1798
Yonahequah, or Big Bear - Signatory - 1798, 1805 (first treaty of)
John Thompson, Interpreter - 1791, 1793, 1794
Thomas Wilson, interpreter, 1816 (third treaty)
James Martin - signatory, 1817 co-equal of Chief John Smith, mentioned
above.
John Martin - signatory, 1819
Daniel Davis (emigrated on treaty 1819)
Young Davis - signatory, 1817
Edw. Butler, captain commanding at Tellico, 1798
John Thompson - signatory, 1798
James Davis, or Coowusaliskee, signatory,1805 (first treaty of)
John Dougherty, or Long John, signatory,1805 (first treaty of)
John Bawldridge - signatory, 1816
It should perhaps be noted that many of the US Governments OWN Commissioners were relatives of the Cherokees on these treaties mentioned. Its always good to send commissioners that are family when you want arms twisted!
Robert King, 1791
Daniel Smith, 1806
John Smith, 1806
Gid. Davis. 1816
John Smith arrived with a large group in 1817 during the French and Spanish
occupation. Twenty years before the Trail of Tears, on November 2, 1819,
John Ross wrote of John Smith's group in a letter to James Monroe, the President
of the United States. In the letter, Ross referred to their people, west
of the Mississippi, as the "Cherokee on the St. Francis River," located in
southeast Missouri and northeast Arkansas, who had moved here many years
before. John Ross later became chief of the "Cherokee Nation," which few
people know was not created as a political entity until 1721, in
the southeast. It should be mentioned that the government recognized the
"Western Cherokees," of which are a part, in 1828 and again in
1833.
Indian Agents, Samuel Treat and WM I Lovely, were assigned to our forefathers. After the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, and Trail of Tears in 1838-1839, the government chose to ignore or forget our people. Our effort today is to recover that lost or forgotten federal recognition of our nation.
In 1818, the local militias drove us from our ancestral lands
on Cherokee Ridge (still on old maps, but name changed to
"Eastwood") in what is now Carter County, MO to "Skillet Flats" in Southwest
MO. In 1825, four years after statehood, Missouri passed illegal legislation
which outlawed American Indians in Missouri. We are now in the
process of repurchasing that ancient village site.
Many different kinds of Indians came back to Arkansas from Indian "Territory"
(now Oklahoma), and many passed as white so they could stay in Missouri.
Our people in Arkansas also hid out. For many years, until 1924, we were
not U.S. citizens. Today they hold dual citizenship that was verbally
recognized, in a public meeting in Rolla, MO, by a Missouri Senator
John Ashcroft in 1996.
Much suffering has been heaped upon our people, and it is time to stand
up and be counted. Together we can be strong, we are a nation, and if we
are politically strong, we can get our federal recognition back and be our
own people without caving in to "BIA services" that will erode our
sovereignty. All together -- all Cherokee people standing together,
the Cherokee Nations will rise again, from the ashes of the
past.
Today, it is being discovered that Amonsoquath share surnames with many
nations... NOW IS THE TIME!
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