Thread by @gindaanis

Being Cherokee is a political identity. It is a nation that includes diversity. Like the Delaware. Like the Freedmen. It is citizenship derived from ancestors who remained Cherokee at a time when the US was creating the state of Oklahoma.

These people stayed in opposition to American colonization. Those who choose American citizenship chose for their children as well.

We all have ancestors from somewhere outside of our lived experience 6 or 7 generations ago. My youngest is in Ireland rn. It would be ridiculous for him to tell them, who lived through the famine and the troubles and the current political stress that he is Irish too.

It is also ridiculous to think that a Cherokee, who likely didn't speak English and certainly didn't look white, managed to hide in plain sight in the early to mid 1800s. That they managed to retain their identity through generations of living American.

To think that they abandoned their siblings and cousins instead of fighting alongside them. To think that they put themselves ahead of their families and people.

And to think that their descendants would have the gall to call themselves Cherokee. Even to claiming that they are the true Cherokee and that the others sold out.

Some eastern métis say this too btw.

It's insulting.

I learned all this from @pollysgdaughter @justicedanielh and @DarrylLeroux

You can hear them talk about this and a whole lot more right here:

soundcloud.com/patty-wbk/the-…