These ledgers belonged to a full blood Cherokee man who was secretary of the Nighthawks when Redbird Smith was leading them. Undoubtedly, these ledgers, for Cherokee treasures and historical information, will rank in the same category as the work by Emmit Starr, but are probably more valuable because not only do they contain some family groups, in some sections, they list people by name in Cherokee and English along with age. It is important to note that not all Cherokee families will be found in the ledgers. Since these are records of the Keetoowah Society, only those who had association with them will be found.
These ledgers are not for public viewing at this time and I don't know if they will ever be. I believe there is a plan in the works for them to tour the three federally recognized Cherokee governments and some highly respected U.S. national museums, but I am pretty sure they will not be available for research purposes to the average person because their value is so great, there is no way to put a price on them. Maybe some day, parts of them will be available by transcription, but who knows for sure. All I know is I feel extremely privileged to have been allowed a glimpse of these Cherokee treasures. Thank you, my friend!
Those are my thoughts for today.
Thanks for reading.
The Granddaughter
**Note - Out of respect for privacy of the person and family who shared information with me about these ledgers and also allowed me to see a little of them, I am not publishing their name. I would like to remind everyone, these are part of a PRIVATE collection, so we must be respectful of that.**
copyright 2011, Polly's Granddaughter - TCB
Tweet
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment
Your comments are welcome!