Beyond Land Acknowldegement - Part 5

 These are my last photos and notes (except including Liana Costantino's slide) from:

"Beyond Land Acknowledgement: Toward Reparations and Healing"

Sept 30, 2023, Asheville, NC

Liana Costantino, Director, Tribal Alliance against Fraud, spoke of the Journey towards Allyship with American Indians. 

I was impressed by her speaking from her heart of her experiences, rather than showing her power point presentation (her choice.)  She was open to questions following her talk. 

One of the members of the audience was also an Indigenous person from another tribe, and she shared and had pointed questions. It was great to hear her views too.

On our next break we had frybread with different sorts of toppings, from honey, to sugar/cinnamon, to honey and powdered sugar. They were all delicious! Though of course I could only eat one.

Our final presentation was by Shannon Swimmer, JD, a Former Cherokee Tribal Judge, who gave us an opportunity to experience a "Reconciliation process using Talking Circles to Heal." 

After everyone was seated in a circle, she explained that when she was a judge, often sitting up on the bench in the black robes, the people before her wouldn't say anything. So she tried getting everyone to sit in a circle, and then they could respect each other and they could see they were equals, and so their views were shared together.

Organizer Pat Johnson sat next to her, and didn't want to share first, so I had to, being next in the circle. It wasn't too bad. I just said I was glad to be given the job of photographer as a volunteer. Then after everyone had gone around the circle (with the opportunity to pass) Pat shared last!

I was especially interested in hearing from these young people who attended the Conference.

Even the presenters got to share their experience of the day.

Before we broke the circle, Maggie O'Neill., our wonderful guide and organizer (of the 3) gave us some final words...and I expect that I'll be receiving emails of more.

 

Again, I'd like to give credit to the wonderful organizations behind the seminar. This was the last page of the program. And I believe all of these organizations were represented by some of the presenters and attendees.

A very big thank you in appreciation for an intense experience of information sharing , laughing, learning, and processing together. As I said to Patty Edgemon before leaving, "My heart is open from hearing what was said."

Indigenous People's Day was celebrated for the legal holiday last Monday.

Beyond Land Acknowledgement - Part 4 - Cherokee Museum

It's Indigenous People's Day today in the USA, and Happy Thanksgiving in Canada!

These are my photos and notes from:

"Beyond Land Acknowledgement: Toward Reparations and Healing"

Sept 30, 2023, Asheville, NC

Shenelle Feather, the Education Program Manager of the Museum of the Cherokee Indian shared some of the wealth of information about the Museum with the large group and brought 2 Cultural Specialists with her.

Note, all the presenters were Cherokee, locally living in North Carolina.

It was great to see the two younger faces, Nola and Dylan, in our slightly older Conference population!

I was entranced by Shenelle's outfit!

Then Nola gave the Cherokee history of the beginning of life on earth. She said "You would call it a story. We call it history." Her history included wonderful one arm gestures. I imagine when she gives this to tourists at the museum, she may used both arms...

Part of the history was: "And of course the earth was like soft clay, so the buzzard volunteered to go down and dry it out." (The animals were in the upper region in the Cherokee History, I don't know the name) "The buzzard was tired and his wing feathers touched the earth and brought up the soft clay into forming the mountains of Appalachia."

And then with just a bit of shuffling around...

We all were around the edges of the room in a big circle. Then we learned our part of the song that would be sung...mainly just a whoop at a certain point. 

Shenelle asked us to join hands and Nola started leading us in the biggest circle possible, while Dylan and Jarrett Wildcatt sang the chant with Shenelle...with a great beat kept by the shaker.

I took a video of the dance and almost all of the participants engaged in it!

We certainly enjoyed this activity after sitting and paying close attention to the first 3 presentations...now it was time for lunch!

Beyond Land Acknowledgement - Part three - Patty Grant Edgemon

Notes from "Beyond Land Acknowledgement: Toward Reparations and Healing"

Sept 30, 2023, Asheville, NC

These are my own comments and photos on this blog, except the photos of her power point presentation, those are Patty Grant Edgemon's.

Sept 30, 2023, Asheville, NC

Patty Grant Edgemon, Behavioral Health Specialist - "Healing from Historical Grief, Trauma and the Intergenerational Impacts of the Colonization Process"

Opening the door to considering the emotions and looking at the experiences of trauma.

Patty spoke from her heart, sharing her own story of being a daughter of a boarding school survivor mother, who passed that trauma down to her children.

Many details of what the Cherokee tribal members have gone through, and where they are today.

And Patty spoke of the healing process, which continues as she shares. She spoke several times about how these details could bring up the traumas that members of the audience and other presenters might have experienced and how they need to find a trusted person with whom to share their feelings and experiences.

With organizer Pat Johnson...

 Patty shared a video clip (photo above) of Craig White (appropriately named) who gave his personal apologies to Tribal Peoples for the white colonial privileged ancestors and current day people who have done such harm to people of color, including the Native Tribal Peoples and enslaved Africans. This was perhaps the point where I most teared up in the program. Unfortunately I left the seminar without finding out more about him. (But I sure am planning to do so in the future)

I had one question for Patty, concerning her approach to dealing with addictions...and alcoholism. I had worked with white people in substance abuse and found the disease model of the problem was helpful. I wondered if she found the traumas to be more important in her approach...and she said yes, that came first. Later at lunch I mentioned my learning this, and a new friend said "everyone has traumas of some kind." That was really the moment I absorbed what Patty had been saying.

Patty speaking with an audience member from another tribe who was welcomed also as a descendant of enslaved Africans.

Maggie O'Neill was one of the organizers of the Conference.  She shared her personal experience of attending the 5-day Cherokee Spirituality Retreats in 2020 and 2022, where she heard much of the same information, but in more depth. That retreat will be offered again in March 2024, contact Liannaconstantino@yahoo.com for more information.

The sponsors of the program were...

All Native Peoples were admitted free.

Beyond Land Acknowledgement - history by James Bradley

Notes from "Beyond Land Acknowledgement: Toward Reparations and Healing"

Sept 30, 2023, Asheville, NC

These are my own comments and photos on this blog, except the photos of his power point presentation, those are James Bradley's

James Bradley, Former Education Secretary of Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians gave a detailed (though of course brief 90 minutes) presentation of the history of Tribal peoples in North America.

His presentation did focus in on the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI)

A wonderful power point presentation.

A lot of people took notes as he showed the masks representing the 7 clans of the Cherokee

A map showing the territory in which the Cherokee were established (Tennessee, the Carolinas and Georgia and more) before colonial powers and treaties (which were never kept by the white people).

I learned that all the histories which said the Cherokee had mainly been sent on the Trail of Tears but some hid in the mountains who became the ancestors of the present Tribe - was WRONG. (Though yes, 11,000 did go to Oklahoma on the Trail of Tears, and a quarter of them died on the way.) 

Actually the following quotes are from a Wikipedia article which says much the same but sort of includes the truth. (Remember who writes history - the winners of wars.)

Some of the Cherokee were able to evade the initial removal and hide in the Great Smoky Mountains, some were free to stay on their lands due to earlier treaties, but the majority of the Cherokee people were removed from the land. This was when the main struggle for land at what became the Qualla Boundary began. (NC GenWeb Project)

Here's the truth as given by James, as well as other sources:

"The tribe purchased this land in the 1870s, and it was subsequently placed under federal protective trust; it is not a reservation created by the government. Individuals can buy, own, and sell the land, provided they are enrolled members of the Tribe of the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians. (from Wikipedia)

So Qualla Boundary is actually a "territory held as a land trust by the United States government for the federally recognized Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians."  

This purchase of land occurred with the help of a white man (who had the title to it, and sold it to the Tribes. William Holland Thomas had lived and worked among the Cherokee people for a good portion of his life. He had a knowledge of their traditions and language, and was close friends with some members of the tribe. The Cherokee valued and respected Thomas; he had studied law and was adopted into the tribe and named as successor by its hereditary chief. He is the only European American to have served as chief in their history.  

(from Culture, History and Development on Qualla Boundary)

Audience member asking questions of James

A audience member (also Tribal) asking questions.

More to follow on this blog.

And here are the sponsors of this program. All Indigenous People were admitted free.

Beyond Land Acknowledgement: Toward Reparations and Healing