{Roots}
Cherokee Legacy By Loyd McIntosh
Three generations of Cherokees: Rowland Matthews poses with daughter, Angie, and grandsons, Brody and Wyatt, at the April PowWow in Guntersville
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e’ve all heard stories from our grandparents about how they had to walk uphill both ways to school in six feet of snow, about how Grandpa’s first car cost a nickel and how he had to work for months to save up the money for it, or about how Grandma was one of Babe Ruth’s girlfriends. But what about when they start telling stories about their own heritage, particularly stories about their Indian heritage? It’s hard to know what to believe when some of our more senior relations start rolling with a good story, embellishing tales about how their greatgrandfather was on the Trail of Tears, or that they knew Sequoia personally. Sometimes, those tall tales turn out not to be so tall at all and can be life changing. For proof, just ask Rowland Matthews. A businessman from Grant, near Guntersville, Matthews is on the Tribal Council of the United Cherokee Ani-Yun-Wiya Nation and a wellknown historian of Cherokee lore throughout the South, particularly Northeast Alabama. However, Matthews may never have known anything about his Cherokee heritage had it not been for a single conversation with his grandmother as
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a small child. In that conversation, Matthews’ grandmother talked about her own childhood and about an ancestor, a Cherokee chief known as Grey Eagle. Grey Eagle was her grandfather and lived near Tallulah Falls Georgia. “She only told me about it once and I didn’t let it bother me for almost fifty years,” Matthews said. “Then, about seven or eight years ago, it really began to bother me and I wanted to know why she would tell the story once and never talk about it again.” As a result, the research led to the discovery of Chief Grey Eagle’s original “Council Chair,” which was on display at the Tallulah Falls School for some ninety-seven years. For nearly a decade, Matthews has been obsessed with learning about his Cherokee heritage, a task he has gladly taken up to help preserve his family’s history. “For some reason, there is always one person in the family who will become interested and do the research,” Matthews said. “I guess I happened to be that person.” Through his research, Matthews learned that many of his ancestors settled in Jackson and Marshall Counties after leaving Cherokee
strongholds in the Carolinas, Tennessee, and Georgia. He also discovered that many of his ancestors refused to be rounded up and sent to Oklahoma and Arkansas on the Trail of Tears, a fact that made piecing together the genealogical puzzle very difficult. “Several thousand Cherokee Indians signed the immigration rolls to go to Arkansas and Oklahoma during the 1800s. But, many came into Alabama and hid out, changing their names a little,” Matthews said. Cherokee people–and other native populations–kept quiet about their heritage for generations out of fear that they might be detected, a problem that continued to more modern times as discrimination against Indians remained an everyday reality well over a century after the Trail of Tears. “You have to understand, as late as the 1970, if you were Indian you didn’t own land. You just couldn’t do it,” Matthews said. “As a result, a lot of our history and knowledge is lost as our older generations die. “I remember when I turned 18 years old and I went in for my physical to join the military. On my certificate they marked my race as ‘ruddy,’” Matthews added. “I asked my mother why they would say this and she said ‘Son, they know you’re a Cherokee.’ That was the first time I really realized people could tell by your color.” Times have certainly changed since then and it is no longer a source of embarrassment or fear to be known as a Cherokee. In fact, it’s not only a source of pride but of curiosity to many who would like to know if they have Cherokee blood in their family line. For those beginning to conduct some research, Matthews has a few tips to get you started. First, Matthews suggests sitting down with your oldest living relatives and talk to them or her about their lives and about stories they heard as children. These anecdotes may hide a valuable nugget or two of information that could shed some light on your heritage. “Talk to people. If you get a chance sit down with them and ask questions,” Matthews said. Second, be aware that there is a lot of misinformation in the public domain. “Remember, not all of the things you find on the Internet are true,” Matthews cautions. Loyd McIntosh is a freelance writer and a former reporter for The Daily Home in Talladega. He lives in Pell City with his wife, Elizabeth, and daughters, Emily Grace and Lily.
There are also many myths and misconceptions with regard to Cherokee heritage. Below is what Mathews had to say about several of the most common Cherokee myths: My grandmother was a Cherokee Princess. This common statement is incorrect, according to Mathews. “There were no Cherokee princesses and there was no royalty in the Cherokee nation. That is a common misconception.” Darker skin color and high cheek bones are a good sign of Cherokee heritage. Not so, says Mathews. “There are full-blooded Cherokee Indians with blond hair and blue eyes.” The reason: Welsh explorers that settled in the Gulf of Mexico and migrated north as early as the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. “The Cherokee people realized pretty quickly that they were going to have to work with the white man and assimilate to his ways in order to survive,” said Mathews. As a result, white settlers and Cherokee–along with members of other tribes– began intermarrying centuries before Columbus made landfall in the Western Hemisphere. A person must be full-blooded to be able to claim to be a Cherokee. Yet another common misconception. The amount of “Cherokee blood” isn’t an important factor in claiming Cherokee heritage. “It’s not the quantity of Cherokee blood, but the quality,” Mathews said. “I’ve known full-blooded Cherokees who it means nothing to and I’ve met others who are 1/28 Cherokee who are very interested and are at every pow-wow. It’s not how much Cherokee blood you have, but what you do with it that matters.”
Look for more myths in the fall issue.
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