This may be my last post for a week or two.
I think it is time for the Ridgetop Shawnee to explain our history. Every person who attended a Kentucky School was taught the meaning of the Kentucky. That definition is; The Dark and Bloody Ground, or some variation of.
At the time that Collins' History of Kentucky was published, this region, Southeastern Kentucky, was embroiled in a terrible war. From 1765 to 1790 or so one would take their lives in their own hands by traveling to this part of the country. Many of the remains of our ancestors found in these hills died a brutal death. And yet many are young people. The ridge tops of Pine and Cumberland Mountains were inhabited by Shawnee and elements of the Chickamauga Cherokee. In my book Cherokee and Chickamauga Cherokee are two totally different people. The term Dark and Bloody Ground, as our tradition dictates, was created by Cherokee Chief Dragon Canoe at the treaty of Sycamore Shoals. He said "that land has a dark cloud hanging over it, it is a bloody ground" and the words were twisted into the definition we have today. He was warning the Whites who just purchased Kentucky that settling that land wound not be easy.
We do not celebrate the war or the legacy of that war. Terrible atrocities were committed on both sides.
Most of Southeastern Kentucky's Native population came here as refugees, yet a few have always been here. We believe an established Indian presence was established in the extreme Southeastern Kentucky, Southwestern Virginia and the Northeastern Tennessee region for basically thousands of years. When the warriors left the area Indian refugees filled the voids. The mixed heritage families that settled Harlan, Clay, Whitley, Letcher and Leslie Counties came here to basically be left alone. So our people are the folks who came to this region to coexist with Whites. In this region Indians could own land, farm, make a living and be left alone.
Take a look at some of the photos on the Ridgetop Shawnee Tribe of Indians website. Many are obvious Native American of some degree, some are established Native families but they may look more Irish than Indian. I find a new Native family about once a month in this region and I expect the trend to continue. Many families maintained their oral traditions, their Indian traditions. And many of those families, or elements of the family, packed up and went to Oklahoma to enroll in the Indian Nations only to be rejected for a basic technicality. That technicality is this; when a person from this region went to the Indian Nations during the time period between 1880 and 1910 they were usually rejected. These families were not recorded on the old rolls of the Cherokee and Shawnee. So you could not enroll 60 years later. Over 2000 Sizemore's applied for enrollment into the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians turning this time period. That tribe was called the Whitetop Laurel Band of Cherokee from the Ashe County NC area.
We are the remnant families who came to escape persecution, we are also original people. We anted to escape the terrible war between elements of the Franklinites, the US Government and the Shawnee/Cherokee Confederacy. And many of our families suffered dearly for it.
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