MIKE (ALI) RACCOON EYES KINNEY: WHY I AM A NATIVE CANDIDATE FOR THE RICHMOND CA. COUNCIL CITY FOR NOVEMBER 2012: IGNITING THE NATIVE REVOLUTION

THE NATIVE VOTE FOR 2012: IGNITING THE NATIVE REVOLUTION IN THE RISE TO POWER!
By Mike Raccoon Eyes-Native Advocate Candidate


THE NATIVE VOTE FOR 2012: IGNITING THE NATIVE REVOLUTION IN THE RISE TO POWER!



By Mike Raccoon Eyes-Native Advocate and Candidate for Richmond CA. City Council 2012





I am a Native Advocate for Human and Civil Rights for Indian Country and many people have asked me why I am running as a Native Candidate for the Richmond City Council in Richmond California in November 2012.

I tell mainstream people this:"We Native People have waited for change. A change from being left out. A change for standing in the background. We have waited too long to say something. YES, WE HAVE WAITED LONG ENOUGH. Something must and will be done soon! "



The mindset of mainstream America is vastly different from the mindset of Native Peoples,Americans seem to have forgotten Sand Creek, Wounded Knee, Washita and other numerous sites of racial extermination against entire Native populations. Indian Country's historical trauma is at the heart of it, when we as Native People have unresolved grief about this type of violence and death that involved the use of ethnic cleansing.



According Maria Yellow Horse Brave Heart, Ph.D. " Five hundred years of conquest death cultural deprivation, and mistreatment have left North American native populations with unresolved grief about their history, which must be openly discussed if it is going to be resolved." Medical anthropologist Spero Manson, Ph.D.,: " What Native people living today experience counts more than what happened to their ancestors. Trauma is also associated with risk for and high rates of onset and poor control of diabetes, asthma,and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease."



I have stated in the media and town hall meetings through out Indian Country: " We have to learn how to reprogram ourselves as Indian individuals from a spiritual place. When you understand how Historical Trauma has handicapped and destroyed us mentally, psychologically and emotionally, then we can be better prepared to embrace the empowerment of our both Native Political and Spirituality empowerment and in turn the power of Spiritual transformation.



Indian Country has been and is still entrenched in an appalling culture of cycles of poverty, hopelessness and violence. In rural and urban Indian Country conditions have not improved for the past 100 years. People face daily starvation, with a back drop of high unemployment or no jobs. Drug and alcohol addictions and domestic violence is out of control. Illiteracy and high school drop outs exceeds the national average. Hunger and malnutrition is common place.



This is how it always has been in rural and urban Indian Country for the past 180 years to the present! A violent time bomb ready to explode! The factors of historic poverty and the issues of Native sovereignty has always been a keg of dynamite that was then and still is ready to blow Indian Country. WE NOW KNOW INDIAN COUNTRY IT IS TIME TO RISE TO POWER!



The political and spiritual objectives for Indian individuals and families is to try to do everything a little better tomorrow than it was today. Continuous improvement is the path to a higher standard of spiritual leadership for today's issues in Indian Country. We need to acknowledge that attachments such as power, privilege and material possessions can make it difficult to maintain high moral and spiritual standards for Native people.

By the same token, personal observations and a spiritual commitment to the truth, will lead us to see things as they really are and to understand the true needs of Indian Country people. We must be able to spiritually feel our Indian communities, not just intellectualize the needs of our People.



When we as a Political and Spiritual Native peoples stand up for what you believe is right, you must have the spiritual courage to acknowledge your actions and face the consequences. With spiritual courage, Native people can win political battles for their communities, but it takes a spiritual will to win the war. It is the both the political and spiritual moral and values of the Native community that gives us the confidence to overcome the barriers for more Human and Civil Rights for Indian Country. We must politically and spiritually strive to serve Indian Country. It will increase our bonds with our People and move us forth as individuals, and challenge us to reach higher standards that will help place us in step with the times.



"WE MUST ASK OURSELVES FROM BOTH A POLITICAL AND SPIRITUAL PLACE, WHAT IS INDIAN COUNTRY WILLING TO DO TO BE SUCCESSFUL?"



Each of us in Indian Country must have a spiritual commitment to live by, a standard code of spiritual conduct. For if we do, our Native and non-Native leaders will have to follow. Each one of us in Indian Country is setting a spiritual example for someone else, and each one of us has a spiritual responsibility to shape the future of our families and communities.I hear people in Indian Country say that poverty and unemployment, lack of education, alcohol, drugs and violence are killing off our Native People. These issues are all valid, but I believe the underlying issue is the loss of our Spirituality, our Traditional way of life and our self-esteem. Our Spirituality, self-esteem and commitment to ourselves, to our Tribes and Indian Country can empower us to overcome the obstacles that so many of us face.



At one time, our Nations were strong with our ceremonies, dances, prayers, songs and medicines. We must now recapture and use the forms of spiritual power that the Creator has given us since Sacred Time, Creation Time, First Man and First Woman Time, if we are to survive as Native People.We will regain our spiritual strength and power, our pride and dignity and use it to start healing families, our communities, along with Earth Mother and ourselves.

We must learn to be proud of our rich Native heritage and culture, our Spirituality and knowledge. We should no longer be ashamed of it. As Native People, our one common bond is our direct connection to the Great Creator of All Things.

Our Native medicines, our Sacred and Holy power centers and sites, our spiritual forms of knowledge are now ready to be used. We should use these things with sincerity and respect.

We must try harder as Native People to make a real Spiritual commitment to re-connect with Creator, our Ancestors, the earth Mother and each other as Native People.

And from this point, we become the political and spiritual change we wish to see in Creator's World!



We believe that Creator made all generations, past, present and those of the future, holy people. This is what our Elders teach us from the time we are born. Our families and Elders teach our young people that they must tear away the images and stereotypes that mainstream society has placed upon them as Native peoples. Violence and killing is not traditional in Native culture, it is a learned behavior from mainstream society.

We teach our youths not to attack, punish or beat themselves up for crimes that they have never committed in regards to racism. Our Elders and families teach our young people to have good self-esteem, self-worth and self-value, for as the original holy people this was Creators plan.



" THE NATIVE VOTE EQUATES NATIVE ELECTED OFFICIALS TO GIVE US REPRESENTATION IN A RACIST, COLONIAL MAINSTREAM SOCIETY "



Among the most difficult civil rights issues are those facing Indian Country's 10 million Native Americans. Federally recognized tribes are considered domestic dependent nations, with their rights to tribal sovereignty preserved. Tribal sovereignty refers to tribes' right to govern themselves, define their own membership, manage tribal property, and regulate tribal business and domestic relations; it further recognizes the existence of a government-to-government relationship between such tribes and the federal government. The federal government has special trust obligations to protect tribal lands and resources, protect tribal rights to self-government, and provide services necessary for tribal survival and advancement. The fight to preserve tribal sovereignty and treaty rights has long been at the forefront of the Native American civil rights movement.Moreover, Native Americans suffer from many of the same social and economic problems as other victims of long-term bias and discrimination - including, for example, disproportionately high rates of poverty, infant mortality, unemployment, and low high school completion rates. The struggle for equal employment and educational opportunity is key to addressing these problems that historically plague Indian Country.

WE NOW KNOW INDIAN COUNTRY IT IS TIME TO RISE TO POWER! We know as Native People can no longer afford to go along to get along!



The Native vote equates Native elected officials rebuild Native community by community and person by person, and Indian Country as a whole.I can't tell you how many everyday people that I've talked with who've visited Indian Country, and they've looked around and they saw all the social indicators of decline: high infant mortality, high unemployment, many other very serious problems among our People, and they always ask, " What happened to these people? Why do Native People have all these problems?"



To be blunt, many Native Peoples view the current United States government as a racist, colonial, illegal foreign government that is occupying our many Native Nations and could a dam less about us!

Five hundred years of conquest, death, cultural deprivation, and mistreatment have left North American Native populations with unresolved grief about our history.The racist, colonial policies of the United States government views as a so-called 'conquered people', oppression and repression of our God given Human and Civil Rights as First Nation Peoples and mass extermination,ethnic cleansing and racial genocide.



Native people know that with the emergence of many Native elected officials in 2012 that is the beginning of the prophecies of when Indigenous Native People are in CONTROL of the three America again within the next 25 years or less!



As I state on mainstream media and town hall meetings through out Indian Country, I make the following statement:



" AS A SPIRIT MAN I SAY THIS: CREATOR'S WORLD RENEWAL CYCLE SHALL START SOON! THE RED MAN SHALL RISE TO POWER SOON! WE AS NATIVE PEOPLE SHALL BE IN CONTROL OF THE AMERICAS AGAIN! BE READY! LEARN YOUR PRAYERS! LEARN YOUR SONGS! LEARN YOUR DANCES! BE READY! THE RED MAN SHALL RISE TO POWER AND BE IN CONTROL OF THE AMERICAS!"



Mike Raccoon Eyes is of the Eastern Band of the Cherokee, out of Quallah, North Carolina. He has been a Native Advocate for more Human and Civil Rights for Indian Country for the past 25 years. He is the San Francisco Bay Area delegate for the Inter-Tribal Council of California. He is a writer and author on traditional and contemporary issues of Indian Country, as well gives inspirational motivational talks about the spiritual empowerment of Native Peoples. He currently resides in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is a Native Candidate for the Richmond City Council in Richmond CA in 2012

CLAUDETTE PHOENIX SWAMPY'S NEW BLUES CD RELEASE PARTY! "THE RETURN TO THE NEW BLUES "

INTERNATIONAL NATIVE BLUES SINGER-CLAUDETTE PHOENIX SWAMPY RELEASES NEW CD: ' RETURN TO THE NEW BLUES '
INTERNATIONAL NATIVE BLUES SINGER CLAUDETTE PHOENIX SWAMPY RELEASES NEW CD
CLAUDETTE PHOENIX SWAMPY- 'THE FIRST LADY OF ABORIGINAL BLUES', proudly announces the release of new CD album:

'Claudette Phoenix Swampy: THE RETURN TO THE NEW BLUES 'The CD release music industry showcase with Claudette performing LIVE will be held at:
THE GAS PUMP
10166-114thst St.
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

September 9th, 2011-VIP doors open at 8pm

CLAUDETTE PHOENIX SWAMPY- 2012 JUNO NOMINEE FOR ABORIGINAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS

For more information contact:
Mike Raccoon Eyes @ ghostdancer1890@hotmail.com

INTERNATIONAL NATIVE BLUES SINGER-CLAUDETTE PHOENIX SWAMPY RELEASES NEW CD: ' RETURN TO THE NEW BLUES '

INTERNATIONAL NATIVE BLUES SINGER CLAUDETTE PHOENIX SWAMPY RELEASES NEW CD
CLAUDETTE PHOENIX SWAMPY- 'THE FIRST LADY OF ABORIGINAL BLUES', proudly announces the realease of new CD album:

'Claudette Phoenix Swampy: THE RETURN TO THE NEW BLUES 'The CD release music industry showcase with Claudette performing LIVE will be held at:
THE GAS PUMP
10166-114thst St.
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

September 9th, 2011-VIP doors open at 8pm

CLAUDETTE PHOENIX SWAMPY- 2012 JUNO NOMINEE FOR ABORIGINAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS

For more information contact:
Mike Raccoon Eyes @ ghostdancer1890@hotmail.com

NATIVE BLUES VOCALIST CLAUDETTE PHOENIX SWAMPY SING THE BLUES CLASSIC OF ELMORE JAMES;' COMIN' HOME'

' A PERSPECTIVE OF CHEROKEE RESISTANCE, OCCUPATION, SELF-DEFENSE AND SOVEREIGNITY '

' A PERSPECTIVE OF CHEROKEE RESISTANCE, OCCUPATION, SELF-DEFENSE AND SOVEREIGNTY '

By Mike Raccoon Eyes Kinney


As a Cherokee Native Advocate and a writer about Indian Country for many years, I have many grave concerns about Human and Civil Rights abuses of both the Canadian and United States governments, that are direct violation nations and international accords that both countries have signed in regards to First Nations Indigenous Peoples.

I have written and lectured extensively about the 'New Indian Wars', this essay is a close examination of Cherokee Resistance and Self-Defense.

Rolling Thunder, a Cherokee Doctor and activist, once stated: " I am NOT good material to be dictated to by any white man as to what I can do and where I can go on MY LAND!"

In the the 1830's then United States Supreme Court Chief Justice Jon Marshall, ruled the Cherokee were a sovereign nation. The had offered a brilliant legal defense in the issue of sovereignty. As Clyde Warrior once noted; The Cherokees...are a very legal-minded people. They want to try everything that is right and proper. Because they believe that if they do everything that is legal and proper that justice will prevail."(1) As was the the case of Cherokee sovereignty in the 1830's as an example.

Warrior made this comment in 1966, resulting in a trial of full-blood Cherokee man named John Chewie. Who was to stand trial ay a county courthouse in Jay,Oklahoma for charges of 'illegally hunting deer on traditional Cherokee land held in trust by the federal government by Oklahoma state authorities.

While the trial was starting 400 full-blood Cherokee men armed with hunting rifles, shotguns and hand pistols surrounded the county courthouse and were duly prepared to defend the life of Chewie and Cherokee sovereignty.

Warrior observed: "What the Cherokee fail to see is that the American system, nothing is done legally, honestly or truthfully. Now when they find out, they are going to be pretty damn mad. If that(the legal way) fails, then VIOLENCE will take place. The country should take HEED."(2)

In the late 1830's the Indian Killer, President Andrew Jackson defied the US Supreme Court ruling and started a new policy of relocation, along with racial and ethnic cleansing. The Cherokee would be the very first victims of this 100 year policy that would forever change the world of Native America.

Almost 100 years later, Adolph Hitler would use the same exact blueprint of relocation, concentration camps and ethnic cleansing in what he termed the Final Solution. Hitler had studied and read carefully, how the Indian Killer had instituted the 'Final Solution'for the Cherokee.

For the full and mixed blood Cherokees in the high hills of eastern Oklahoma on the fringe of the Ozarks and through the traditional homelands of Appalachia have been and still entrenched in an appalling culture of cycle of poverty, hopelessness and violence. In rural Cherokee Country conditions have not improved for the past 100 years. People face daily starvation, with a back drop of high unemployment or no jobs. Drug and alcohol addictions and domestic violence is out of control. Illiteracy and high school drop outs exceeds the national average. Hunger and malnutrition is common place.

This is how it always has been in rural Cherokee Country for the past 180 years to the present! A violent time bomb ready to explode! The factors of historic poverty and the issue of Cherokee sovereignty has always been a keg of dynamite that was then and still is ready to blow among rural Cherokee Country.

By the late 1960's ,in rural Cherokee Country in east Oklahoma starvation was out of control. According to historical sources entire villages and hamlets were suffering on massive level. Traditional full blood Cherokee men decided to respond to the challenge and violating both federal and state laws, began to hunt deer on traditional Cherokee land.

The full-bloods met in secret to address the issues of starvation and Cherokee sovereignty- the right to hunt on their own CHEROKEE LAND. Hundreds of men formed the 'Five County Cherokee Movement. They drafted there own Cherokee Declaration of Independence in the winter of 1966. 'We meet in atime of darkness to seek the path to the light. We come together, just as our father's have done, to do these things...we the Five County Cherokees are one People. We stand united in the sight of our Creator. We are joined by love and concern for each other and for all men..."

We offer ourselves as a voice of the Cherokee People. For many years our People have not spoken and have not been heard. Now we gather as brothers and sisters... We insist on equality under the laws of the United States. We act now peaceably but firmly to carry out THE WISHES OF OUR PEOPLE...We do this for the benefit of all Cherokees. We do this as a good example to all men. Already we have gathered to protect our rights to harvest fish and game to feed ourselves and children..."(3)

So in the winter of 1966, the Movement became a high mark for the advancement of Cherokee sovereignty. Hundreds of men were hunting in the old traditional Cherokee land in the high hills of east Oklahoma. Movement men including John Chewie hunted in small bands to bring deer to the dinner table. The State of Oklahoma-department of Wildlife arrested and charged John for possession of deer meat out season and having no license to hunt , when he was 'caught' by game wardens.

When Movement men had received word of his arrest and pending trial, his brothers quietly encircled the small town of Jay and the courthouse where Chewies trial would take place. Movement men brought their rifles, shotguns and pistols; about 400 in number to defend John's life and Cherokee sovereignty if need be.(4) Chewie had become the the shining icon to Indian Country for the issue of Native sovereignty to hunt on native lands that were claimed by federal and state jurisdictions.

Fearing both violence and bloodshed, the State of Oklahoma legal system decided to pass John's case on to the federal court level in order to AVOID AN ARMED CONFRONTATION WITH THE MOVEMENT MEN.

Not only had the Five County Cherokee Movement been heard and spoken, it had won the first round in it's advocacy for Cherokee sovereignty and the long hard road for the advancement for more Human and Civil Rights for Indian Country! A-ho!


source quotes:(1)(2)(3)(4)from 'The New Indians-Stan Steiner 1968 Delta

INTERNATIONAL NATIVE BLUES VOCALIST/ RECORDING ARTIST: CLAUDETTE PHOENIX SWAMPY-'THE NEXT BIG THING '

INTERNATIONAL NATIVE BLUES VOCALIST/ RECORDING ARTIST:

CLAUDETTE PHOENIX SWAMPY-“THE NEXT BIG THING IN BLUES”


EDMONTON,ALBERTA-Over the past 3 decades I have written many entertainment feature articles on the jazz and blues super-star divas like Phyllis Hyman, Anita Baker, Bonnie Raitt and Toni Braxton. They all as super-star performers had impacts in the music industry and world-wide audiences buying their records , huge stadiums filled on their world tours. By the mid-90s it all seemed to come crashing down, there simply no one to fill the void these super star divas had instilled in us: a certain quality of talent with voice while singing, a presence, I mean a real presence of stage work, commanding power and authority of holding the fans spellbound in the audience while performing.



It seemed like a golden era passed by for a number of years, all the fans really wanted was a female blues super-star diva to make her appearance, who could incorporate the great blues performers of the past. Hold down the contemporary blues tunes of the present; and yet some how create a whole new set of dynamics of original musical leadership of 21st century blues. A blues super star with a strong performing leadership and identity on stage. A woman that was not only performing the blues, but was incorporating their own unique stylings and techniques, pioneering new and exciting dimensions of blues, carrying it to the next level that the fans never knew existed before.


The global community of the international blues fans has been waiting a great period of time for the next big thing. Recently I just had my first encounter with next big thing, here and now. I was surfing youtube and saw a video with a female blues vocalist doing here rendition of Elmore James classic blues tune of ‘Comin’ Home’. I see this awesome woman blowing, I mean really blowing this tune and she was breaking all the rules in the process. She was interpreting the song the way she wanted it to be. She injected powerful, almost unheard of vocal stylings and techniques that had this packed room of her fans on the brink of blues nirvana. I stopped the vid to see the name of the vocalist. Enter Claudette Phoenix Swampy. I sat there in awe realizing that this blues canary dared to be to be different, was bold and resilient. She had the musical ability to command and give authority to both her stage presence and stage work. She was in the act of a creating a blues musical revolution, Claudette was defining and redefining the interpretation of the blues to the next level. Her fans in the audience wanted more of what Claudette would give them.


In the world of blues clubs and venues, must upcoming blues vocalists and performers think it is best to go along to get along. So they generally stick to singing or performing a blues standard as it were performed back in the day. Claudette Phoenix Swampy is the total exact opposite. When performing blues standards, she breaks all the rules while performing, she dares to be different, she’s bold and sassy and this has become both of her trademark and signature statement while she is performing. She is redefining the words of what the blues experience is really is while on stage. She is now creating a new blueprint, designing a new mold of taking the blues scene to the next level. Her stage presence is powerful and overwhelming, yet she commands, really commands the venue she works in and legions of fans are still hungry for more of Claudette.

Having been in the blues arena as a performer-recording artist for under two years, Claudette is being acknowledged by her fans an blues industry as a quickly rising super star, she has showed all the signs of being one of the most experienced and seasoned blues professionals in such a short amount of time. What she may be actually doing is pioneering a whole new concept and interpretation of how blues are performed and as well creating a whole new definition of what contemporary blues is about. What so amazing about Claudette, is she so busy creating the next big blues thing, she may not even know she being viewed as the actual next big thing in blues by her fans and the blues industry.

She is never tiring, almost relentless in honing her craft of the blues, she has almost completed her first highly awaited ,soon to be released album. Claudette noted about it, “ One of my goals on my new album ,is to bring real blue music back, You can have a million dollar recording in the studio and the tracks will sound perfect because of the technology, but on stage it will sound totally different. That’s where I have the ultimate advantage, I sound the same on both stage when performing and at the studio when I’m recording. Trust me not everybody can do that!”


The Cree vocalist from Canada holds a high place in the international blues recording artists community, as being one of the few Native blues vocalist-performers world -wide. Claudette holds the title of : ‘The First Lady of Aboriginal Blues’, she takes her career in the blues arena with a focus that is goal oriented, about the business of the blues, off or on the stage. She motivated and driven to be a successful high achiever, her energy, talent and professionalism are endless. She will settle for nothing less than being acknowledged and having the status of a blues super star. Make no doubt about it, this Songbird of blues is a super star in the making, it’s all but a matter of time before it happens to Claudette.

One of the key elements of her new album is her signature vocal stylings and techniques. Claudette observed, “ I have been told many times that I have a very haunting and mesmerizing voice, whether on stage or studio.” When she sings here voice has uncanny resemblance to the great jazz vocalist ,Phyllis Hyman. Her current album has 12 tracks, “ My rendition of blues music returns it back to the roots and traditions, the very foundation of what the spirit of blues all about in the first place. I’m focusing on my music in studio the way Elmore James did it, raw, original and most definitely innovative!”


While she is returning to the fundamentals of blues on her new album, she definitely redefining the blues experience and that is the secret that makes Claudette destined for super stardom. “Just listen to any blues music played at venues, or airplay on the radio or net, it has gone completely commercial. The commercialization of blues is totally out of control and unacceptable. What labels are putting out is not even real blues, they are corporate fantasies of what they think blues should sound like.”


Claudette stated, “ I have this excellent remake of Elmore James ‘Comin’ Home’, like I said it’s raw and original the way it was intended to be sung, but I blow the blues experience into that piece as I see it! It’s really powerful and that is a good thing from my perspective. I have another original piece I have done on my album called ‘Burning Blues Fire’, it’s about young man facing the obstacles of life when he is in love, and about the woman he fell in love with, and how she both used and abused him him while in the relationship. This is my blues homage to men I have know that this has happened to. These are the types of blues songs I have done. They are at the very heart and soul, the very essence of what I know the blues experience to be, any of my fans will tell you that.”


Claudette has penetrating, piercing eyes when she looks out to her audience when performing, it’s just like everybody knows in the venue, she is the next big thing, a short journey to her becoming a blues super star. It makes me think of that 70s rock tune with the line-‘ She looked at me with those big brown eyes and said Baby you ain’t seen nothing yet!’

With Claudette Phoenix Swampy, she is looked upon as so busy creating the next big blues thing, that in reality she is now the next big thing blues. The next big thing equates to the next big super star and that is how it works in the music industry. Claudette Phoenix Swamp is well on her way to final destination…. International blues super star.

MIXED BLOOD NATIVES-THE SILENCE OF INDIAN COUNTRY

MIXED BLOOD NATIVES-THE SILENCE OF INDIAN COUNTRY

BY MIKE RACCOON EYES KINNEY

As was discussed in 'Mixed Blood Natives-The Silence of Indian Country' (Part-1),
Quanah Parker as a mixed blood Native made the decision to leave one culture and enter into another culture.

The story of the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek and Seminloe has a similar theme as well. The Cherokee culture was steeped deeply into the great Meso-American pyramid temple cities as early as 800 A.D. When the Olmecs, Toltecs, Mayans and Aztecs were moving from North to into the South deep into Mexico and Central America, they quickly absorbed and embraced building their own great pyramid temple spiritual cities they had observed and seen in the great Cherokee cities of the Southeast.

Cherokee intermarriage to both the Mexican and Central Americans would become the norm for the next 300 years. The mixed blood Cherokees would hold a high place of honor within the Meso-American world of Mexico and Central America. For the mixed blood Cherokee of the time were the priests, prophets, engineers and administrators, who were the elite of running the new spiritual pyramid temple cities of both Mexico and Central America. Without the mixed blood Cherokees, the great pyramid temple cities in Mexico and Central America would cease to run, much less function.

The Cherokee started having intergenerational marriage and 'sexual relationships with the Europeans in the early 1700's. Many Cherokee bands and families were quick to see the economic benefits of having trade, land and business dealings with Europeans. In a sense this could be viewed as a classic Cherokee version of the 'hang around the fort Indians'. However this story was not true for the majority of mixed blood Cherokee people of that time!

For the the upper class elite of mixed blood Cherokee of the late 1700s and early 1800s, it was not uncommon for them to have extensive plantations, a lavish life-style that would have not been uncommon in London or Paris and a sizable work force of African slaves. Many well to do mixed blood Cherokee were highly educated in New York, Washington D.C. or even London.

The preference of mixed blood Cherokee men of the time were to marry European or other mixed blood Cherokee women. Their children and grandchildren would follow suit. The new generation of light-skinned mixed blood bourgeoisie Cherokee would wash their hands of and renounce the traditional ways of Cherokee culture and Spirituality.

However, there was another side to the mixed blood Cherokee people, that has been neglected and treated with silence. The story is that of the traditional mixed blood Cherokee that retained their cultural and Spiritual identities.

The traditional mixed blood Cherokee lived along the side of their full blood cousins in the pre-1830's in large rural wilderness areas that were isolated communities of families and bands in vast tracks of land through out the greater Southeast of the U.S.

Even during the days of post Contact, while the Europeans were eco-raping the land, extensive outreach by the missionaries to convert out People by force and the Federals in league with newly established State of Georgia authorities were to use brutal and ruthless tactics to remove remove the Real People from our lands with the discovery of gold, both mixed and full blood Cherokee people still retained an amazing amount of sovereignty and autonomy because they knew both spiritually and culturally they were the Creator's original Holy People.

The Indian Killer Jackson enforced the new Indian Removal Act at the heart land of our Great Cherokee Nation in the mid and late 1830s. Bluecoat soldiers started first with the Cherokee in the new policy or ethnic cleansing, relocation and the reservation system. So began 'Our Trail of Our Tears. where 20,000 Cherokee were relocated to Indian Territory. No one was spared! Not full or mixed bloods or even the bourgeoisie Cherokee were spared from Jackson's vision of hell to kill our People!

However, large pockets of both mixed and full blood Cherokee families and bands did manage to escape and offer a sizable resistance coming from Cherokee country. My own family, the Raccoon Eyes were one such family. My Great, great, great, Grandmother- Polly Raccoon Eyes was born in 1714 in Rowan County, North Carolina, she was a full blood woman of the Eastern Band. When Polly was 12 years of age she was a domestic to the Newsome family. In the year 1726, Polly and the Newsome family walked some 400 miles from North Carolina to our family village in Southeast Kentucky.

They would eventually settle in the high hills and river country at a location called Sooky's Creek. Sooky's Creek was our old historical family village and it had old burial mounds of our Cherokee ancestors dating back so 4,000 years. It was the homeland of the Raccoon Eyes band. Elder Newsome a white Englishman would leave his wife and family to join Polly as his common law wife. From the time she was 18 years of age and older, Polly would bear some 12 sons and daughter in their union.

It was here that the mixed blood lineage of the Raccoon Eyes family would begin at our family village at Sooky's Creek. It was here where the Raccoon Eyes family would fight a successful guerilla war against Jackson's Bluecoat Indian killers.
The mixed blood Cherokee were killing high numbers of Bluecoat soldiers in Southeast Kentucky. However bullets were running low for the long rifles, hunger and starvation were abundant and the hard brutal winters were taking it's toll on the children, women and Elders in the campaign against the Bluecoats and their allies.

The mixed and full blood elders and ancestors had to make the decision to surrender and turn themselves in so they could survive as a People! They were forced to take missionary surname, embrace a alien Deity and the most hideous of act all... to have forced sexual relations with the white conquerors. The ultimate goal and reason our Cherokee men and women did this for was to keep lightening and lightening our skin color until we could 'pass for white'. It was the only way as the Real Cherokee People could survive and not become victims of more ethnic cleansing.

Until a generation of fair-skinned, Blue-eyed Cherokee was created! It was the most painful and heart-breaking decisions that our Elders made at the time! BUT WHAT ELSE COULD THEY HAVE DONE?? But we have fulfilled their dream to be alive and celebrate our survival as a People.

I honor and give thanks to my Elder's decisions to let the Raccoon Eyes family to continue to live and exist! And their are hundreds of thousands of we mixed blood Cherokee people alive today to tell our stories and celebrate that we the REAL PEOPLE are still here! We are just as a part of the history of Indian Country as any other Native people! I always celebrate Native folks who look like us.

Like Quanah Parker who chose to leave his Father's world and live among his Mother's world, I chose some 35 years ago to leave my Mother's mainstream world and enter into my Father's world of being who and what I truly am.....a Native Man!
Cousins, I tell it was the best decision I ever made. To reclaim my Culture, my Spirituality and most importantly my....life!

We can no longer afford as mixed blood People of Turtle Island to sit in silence and ignorance of the reality of who we are as true Native People! We can no longer sit back and attack ourselves, beat ourselves up and pound ourselves for crimes we have NEVER committed. It now time to view we mixed blood Native People, with good self-esteem, good self-worth and good self value. For this was the Creator's plan!
Remember all WE Native People are the Creator's Holy People!

Wado and A-ho my Brothers and Sisters,