My Great Grandmother Was A Cherokee Princess

You would think that after the recent Elizabeth Warren controversy, folks would learn to think twice before making a dubious claim to Native American heritage.   Perhaps the most dubious is the claim to be the descendant of a "Cherokee Princess."

I was sitting at lunch at a very swanky country club a few weeks back when my host's wife made one of those statements that makes any Okie and particularly a Cherokee Okie want to laugh in their face.  This lovely, polished, otherwise classy lady said with a perfectly straight face, "My great grandmother was a Cherokee Princess but we can't prove it."  Proving that would be a problem.  All Things Cherokee makes an interesting statement on this subject: ".... many Indians consider "my grandmother was a Cherokee princess" to be the mantra of the wannabe. There is no faster way to lose credibility and respect from an Indian than to speak these words." Link The photograph below is the header of a very well written and pointed blog that addresses this issue. Link I think the photo itself pretty well tells the story but this same writer has also written an excellent post on the subject. Link

The statement that you are a descendant of a Cherokee Princess is a common urban myth.  First, Cherokee leadership was not hereditary. Cherokee leaders were almost always elected or appointed when there were any leaders at all outside the clan.  So, without hereditary titles, the "princess" concept becomes somewhat problematic.  Further, it was common for Cherokee men to refer to their wives in the linguistic equivalent of the term "princess."  It was a statement of affection and respect not title.  Finally, in later years before statehood, it was common to publish the title "Cherokee Lady of Quality" when a white man married a Cherokee woman.  This was to let the ignorant readers in other states know that this man had married a civilized woman who was not an uneducated barbarian.  

Another commonly held myth about Cherokee's is that there is a "Cherokee Reservation" in Oklahoma.  The relationship between the Federal Government, the State of Oklahoma and the Cherokee Nation has always been murky and is seldom understood by outsiders.  The Cherokee Nation was never a "reservation" but rather a constitutional republic which occupied approximately the northeastern quarter of the State of Oklahoma.  When people from out of state ask to be taken to the "Cherokee Reservation" I am tempted to drive them to Catoosa, point out the Casino complex and then say, "Here you are.  It continues to the Arkansas state line east and the Arkansas River south."  Trying to explain checkerboard Indian country to an outsider is usually not worth the trouble unless they are a lawyer.

I am a blue eyed and fair skinned with only a small blood percentage. There were two branches of my father's family, the predominantly white and the predominantly Cherokee.  I never knew the white side.  But, my Cherokee great aunts and uncles were wonderfully gentle and kind. I have very fond memories of meals in their homes and get togethers at their churches and cemeteries.  They were almost all stalwart Baptists, honest to a fault and very family oriented.  But, some of the fondest memories of my childhood are from time spent with my half blood great aunt Ada Miller who raised my all but orphaned father.  Aunt Ada and her full blood husband John Miller were remarkably kind people who took in a sickly, orphaned boy and raised him as their own.  I am honored to have known them.