Osiyo. Shkee for stopping at my lodge. I am known to my Tsalagi family as Painted Hand Tsalagi Warrior of the Aniwaya Clan of The Southeast Kituwah Nation, in the white mans world I am called Bret.
I have want to share with as many as will listen what I have been learning. Many people outside the Cherokee, as well as other Native American cultures, still believe the white mans sterotypical image of the Indian people. This image is so far from reality it make my heart sick. This image also has caused those of us that wish to hold our traditions sacred to us to hide, as the Jewish people did during Hitlers reign. To accept the ways of the white man. To pretend, in public anyway, that we fully accept his ways, his jobs, his money, his way of worshiping GOD (Grandfather Creator). The government of this Great Country still wishes to control the Native people that were here well before any white man ever came to this land. We have become the very worst treated minority of this country. They wish to issue us cards and registration numbers so they can track us like wild animals. Do they do this to the African American people, the Jewish people, to the Chinese people ,to the Asian people, to the Mexican or Spanish people? NO they do not! As a matter of fact, the Government is pushing the Spanish language on all of us.
This land has been and is still being destroyed by the greed of the White man and the culture he has perpetuated. His culture is finally understanding what pollution from the factories has done to the air and water, that the "natural resources " he is using will be gone soon at the rate they are being used up. He is finally hearing the words the Red man has been saying for centuries. I pray it is not too little too late.
The "civilization" of my people, the Tsalagi, by the white man and his ways has over the years caused my people to grow apart form their heritage. To become as the white man, to forget that we didnt waste anything that our Earth Mother gave to us, to long for his greed, his alcohol, his discord for our women (once held in the highest regard). It is my wish that the words and stories I present here will open the eyes of those that have lost sight.
We Tsalagi will once again rise to be the proud and loving family our ancestors were before they were driven from their homeland.
I had the priviledge to travel recently to visit face to face some of my Tsalagi brothers and sisters. And to stand on what was the homeland of our ancestors. On this journey, Grandfather Creator and my ancestors gave me many signs that they are pleased with our people that once again are rekindling the flames of their heritage. For example,a gust of wind bringing the scent of lilacs where I sat with one of the clan fathers. No lilacs grow where we were, so it could only have been sent there by a power greater than us. In a garden planted by the Beloved woman of my nation, plants not doing so well due to lack of rain, a CORN BEAD plant growing healthy and full of seed. And then, when my vigdo "She Who Bears Gifts" showed me the grounds where our spring stomp was held, our ancestors filled my soul and heart with such emotions and love that I could tell they have longed for our people to return to the old ways. And finally, while driving home thru North Carolina.I was given a vision by the ancestors of my clan that smiled at me thru the trees on a moutainside.
So it is with great pride I offer to you all the teachings of our ancestors thru the wisdom of my elders and friends. I hope not to dissappoint them :-)
Walk With Pride
Stand in Beauty
Live in Peace and Harmony with all of Creators work
Chief Dragging Canoe
Clan Colors
Important Dates
Storytime
Treaties
The Treaty OF Echota
My Tsalagi Family and Their Views