Who's Your Daddy?

Unto These Hills

Cherokee, NC  2008

Exodus 1:1 NIV

"These are the names of the sons of Israel who went to Egypt with Jacob, each with his family."

I'm the unofficial historian on my father's side of the family as my mother's side has kept impeccable records.

However, there is one strand I am stuck on: the Cherokee branch. 

The older generation failed to write down names of the Cherokees for us younger ones, so I'm at a roadblock.

However, when I visited Cherokee, North Carolina, with my family and friend, Anna, from Turkmenistan, in 2008, one of our jokes was how I seemed to be related to every one in town.  The resemblance I had to the residents of Cherokee was much closer than any other town I'd visited. It was uncanny.

I had been to Cherokee as a child with my parents, and I remember standing next to a man dressed as a chief welcoming people into town. He told me he could see my Cherokee heritage.

In 2004, I was encouraged by Holly Mcclure, a Cherokee author living on St. Simons Island, who grew up in Cherokee, North  Carolina, to represent the Cherokee Nation and to tell their stories in Turkmenistan. 

The English teachers from Turkmenistan had discovered I had Cherokee ancestry and asked me to tell stories about the Cherokees. For the first time in my life, I needed to live that part of my heritage. Holly gave me the courage to embrace those roots.

In Turkmenistan, in 2008, the U.S. Embassy brought a Native American dance troupe to Ashgabat to tour the country for the Fourth of July. I spoke to a Florida Seminole woman, who addressed me as her "Cherokee Sister". 

I was astonished. She didn't distinguish how much blood I had in me. She just acknowledged my heritage.  I felt like I had opened a door to a new world I had never known before.

I have such a small amount of Cherokee blood in me, yet if I knew the name of my ancestors who were on the Trail of Tears in 1838, then my generation of siblings and cousins could be the last of our family line to officially join the Cherokee Nation.

I wish we had a record of names, like those recorded in Exodus, but we don't.  However, I can pay tribute to all my ancestors as I represent the true "American Melting Pot" Jean de Crevecoeur described in 1783.

I have within me Scottish, Irish, English, French, German, and Cherokee lineage. My family is diverse and came to America at different times in different ways. I don't know all their names, but I am trying to find them and record them for generations who follow me.  

Of course, my ultimate lineage leads me back to my Father in Heaven. His name is Abba. And He named me and knew me before I was born.  So all I'm doing as the family historian is filling in the gaps from Him to now.

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Father, Thank you for the diverse backgrounds and personalities of the individuals who have contributed to my existence.