Cherokee heritage groups are associations, societies and other organizations located primarily in the United States. Such groups consist of persons who do not qualify for enrollment in any of the three federally recognized

Cherokee The Cherokee (; chr, ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯᎢ, translit=Aniyvwiyaʔi or Anigiduwagi, or chr, ᏣᎳᎩ, links=no, translit=Tsalagi) are one of the indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, th ...

tribes (the

Cherokee Nation The Cherokee Nation ( Cherokee: ᏣᎳᎩᎯ ᎠᏰᎵ ''Tsalagihi Ayeli'' or ᏣᎳᎩᏰᎵ ''Tsalagiyehli''), also known as the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, is the largest of three Cherokee federally recognized tribes in the United States. ...

, the

Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI), (Cherokee: ᏣᎳᎩᏱ ᏕᏣᏓᏂᎸᎩ, ''Tsalagiyi Detsadanilvgi'') is a federally recognized Indian Tribe based in Western North Carolina in the United States. They are descended from the sm ...

, and the

United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians The United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians in Oklahoma ( or , abbreviated United Keetoowah Band or UKB) is a federally recognized tribe of Cherokee Native Americans headquartered in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. According to the UKB website, its mem ...

). As the Cherokee Nation enrolls all people who can prove descent from a Cherokee ancestor, many of these groups consist of those who claim Cherokee ancestry but have no documentation to prove this heritage. A total of 819,105 Americans claimed Cherokee ancestry in the 2010 Census, more than any other named ancestral tribal group in the Census. Some of these heritage groups, notably the authorized satellite communities of the federally recognized tribes, seek to preserve Cherokee language and culture. However, others are groups that have not existed from historical times. Their members may have no connection whatsoever to Cherokee culture or heritage. While some groups are steadfast in their desire to be culturally accurate, and to find documented family connections to the living Cherokee communities, many others may incorporate non-traditional elements such as stereotypes of Hollywood Indian dress,

New Age New Age is a range of spiritual or religious practices and beliefs which rapidly grew in Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise definition difficult. Although many scholars consi ...

beliefs (cf. plastic shaman), made-up dances and ceremonies, or imitations of what they believe to be

Plains In geography, a plain is a flat expanse of land that generally does not change much in elevation, and is primarily treeless. Plains occur as lowlands along valleys or at the base of mountains, as coastal plains, and as plateaus or uplands. In ...

-style ceremonies. A heritage group may incorporate study of genealogy and language study, along with providing social events. Many groups that claim to be tribes, but have no requirement of Cherokee heritage, instead focus on " Indian hobbyism", role-playing, celebrating their ideas of

pow wow A powwow (also pow wow or pow-wow) is a gathering with dances held by many Native American and First Nations communities. Powwows today allow Indigenous people to socialize, dance, sing, and honor their cultures. Powwows may be private or p ...

s and other festivals that are not historically part of Cherokee culture. Some have formed in an effort to gain financial benefits through fraudulent means. The Cherokee Nation encourages people seeking accurate information about Cherokee heritage to become active in "appropriate cultural organizations" rather than those with "unverifiable ties to Native American citizenship", as "the reality is these groups and individuals misrepresent true Indian culture and identity... and typically members know little or nothing about the true culture they claim to represent."

Origins

The origins of these groups can sometimes be found in fraudulent tribes formed by those whose ancestors were rejected from the

Dawes Rolls The Dawes Rolls (or Final Rolls of Citizens and Freedmen of the Five Civilized Tribes, or Dawes Commission of Final Rolls) were created by the United States Dawes Commission. The commission was authorized by United States Congress in 1893 to exe ...

due to not being Cherokee. Non-Natives often fraudulently applied seeking allotment of lands. Other groups may consist of non-Natives with a tiny amount of distant Cherokee heritage, but whose ancestors assimilated so thoroughly, and so long ago, that their family no longer has any traces of Cherokee culture, language or ceremonies. Smithers, Gregory D.
Why Do So Many Americans Think They Have Cherokee Blood? - The history of a myth
, ''

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'', 01 October 2015. Accessed Oct. 9, 2015Joyce, Melissa (2006)
Impacts of Assimilation
for ''

Mount Holyoke Mount Holyoke, a traprock mountain, elevation , is the westernmost peak of the Holyoke Range and part of the 100-mile (160 km) Metacomet Ridge. The mountain is located in the Connecticut River Valley of western Massachusetts, and is the ...

Historical Atlas''. Accessed Oct. 9, 2015 In other cases, there are only vague family stories, sometimes told to explain differences in appearance and hide the existence of

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...

ancestors. In the

Indian Territory The Indian Territory and the Indian Territories are terms that generally described an evolving land area set aside by the United States Government for the relocation of Native Americans who held aboriginal title to their land as a sovereign ...

in what is the present-day state of

Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a state in the South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the north, Missouri on the northeast, Arkansas on the east, New ...

, the Choctaw,

Muscogee Creek The Muscogee, also known as the Mvskoke, Muscogee Creek, and the Muscogee Creek Confederacy ( in the Muscogee language), are a group of related indigenous (Native American) peoples of the Southeastern WoodlandsNatchez formed the

Four Mothers Society The Four Mothers Society or Four Mothers Nation is a religious, political, and traditionalist organization of Muscogee Creek, Cherokee, Choctaw and Chickasaw people, as well as the Natchez people enrolled in these tribes, in Oklahoma. It was forme ...

to resist the federal government's attempts of

forced assimilation Forced assimilation is an involuntary process of cultural assimilation of religious or ethnic minority groups during which they are forced to adopt language, identity, norms, mores, customs, traditions, values, mentality, perceptions, way of li ...

and breakup of the five civilized tribes.

Individual recognition

Some people who are ineligible for tribal membership join Heritage groups to identify with the Cherokee people. This identification may be based on documented distant heritage, or family rumors, or on unfounded myths about Native American history. While it is true that some Cherokee avoided enrollment, in those cases they almost always married into non-Native families and assimilated. Within a generation or two, their descendants were culturally non-Native, and remain so today. Some heritage groups are formed by those who rally around a cause such as "Save Kituwah", language preservation, or to maintain cultural art forms such as basket weaving. Both the Eastern and Western Cherokee have master teachers in these art forms with large followings. The rise of Social Media has helped connect individuals with interests in genealogy and heritage, while white members of "I am Cherokee and I can prove it" meet only on Facebook and have "virtual hog fries".

Tribal recognition

Heritage groups of all these types have sometimes sought recognition as Cherokee tribes. Cherokee Nation spokesman Mike Miller has said that the heritage groups who want to study actual

Cherokee language 200px, Number of speakers Cherokee or Tsalagi ( chr, ᏣᎳᎩ ᎦᏬᏂᎯᏍᏗ, ) is an endangered-to- moribund Iroquoian language and the native language of the Cherokee people. ''Ethnologue'' states that there were 1,520 Cherokee speak ...

and culture should be encouraged, "but the problem is when you have nrecognizedgroups that call themselves 'nation,' or 'band,' or 'tribe,' because that implies governance." Many of the heritage groups are controversial for their attempts to gain economically through their (usually false) claims to be Cherokee, a claim which is disputed by two of the federally recognized Tribes, who assert themselves as the only groups having the legal right to present themselves as Cherokee Indian Tribes.Pierpoint, Mary. "Unrecognized Cherokee claims cause problems for nation." at ''

Indian Country Today ''ICT News'' (formerly known as ''Indian Country Today'') is a daily digital news platform that covers the Indigenous world, including American Indians, Alaska Natives and First Nations. It was founded in 1981 as a weekly print newspaper, ''The ...

''. August 16, 2000 (Accessed May 16, 2007), 'Official Statement from the Cherokee Nation' While heritage groups may base their membership on cultural and genealogical requirements, or on nothing more than a stated belief that one has Cherokee ancestry, tribal recognition is more complex in its adherence to academic, legal, historic, sociological, anthropological and genealogical principles. Some of these groups seek state recognition, and in some cases achieve recognition by the state; however, In the census for the year 2000, there were 729,533 people who self-identified as Cherokee and only about 250,000 people who were enrolled at the time in one of the three Federally Recognized Cherokee Tribes.

Cherokee Satellite Communities

Cherokee Southwest Township (Albuquerque, New Mexico) The Cherokee Southwest Township (CSWT) in Albuquerque, New Mexico, is a large group of Cherokee families enrolled with the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. It is not a so-called Cherokee heritage group, but a satellite of the main tribal jurisdiction. ...

( CNO-affiliated since 1999.Cherokee South West Township
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The Cherokee Nation website
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References

External links

Cherokee Heritage Center

Cherokee Registry

Are Ethnic Indians a Threat to Indigenous Rights?
by Duane Champagne for ''

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Why Do So Many Americans Think They Have Cherokee Blood? - The history of a myth
By Gregory D. Smithers * - Informational video from the