Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Delight Woman Traces Heritage To Cherokees

Imagine knowing about your heritage all your life, but only being able to prove it in your twilight years.

This happened to Reece Lamb of Delight, who only recently obtained full recognition of her Cherokee heritage.

Lamb, who lives in the Piney Community near Delight, and a cousin, had tried to years to find out about their Native American heritage. They had been able to trace their Cherokee genealogy back to a great-grandmother, only to have the family line fade out.

An aunt sent her a copy of an Associated Press article on how the Cherokee Nation had been looking for lost members, and what to do in order to contact them.

This led to time on the road for Lamb and her cousin, Loreta Avery. First, they went to Berryville where they had been told the Indian Agency was.

However, upon arrival, they learned the agency had been moved to Eureka Springs, so they headed there.

When the two arrived at Eureka Springs, they were informed the agency was now in Missouri. Instead of continuing the trip, they decided to return home.

But, on the way back, they stopped at an Indian store, where a young girl told them what they needed to go.

With the information they had about the family tree, Lamb and Avery obtained the necessary paperwork and filled it out.

Lamb worked with Chief Tom Red Hawk Vickers on proving her heritage. Vickers, at the time, was researching a book on the Western Arkansas Band of Cherokees, a group, until recently, never officially recognized. However, Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee signed a proclamation Oct. 14, 2000, officially recognizing the tribe.

With Vickers' help, Lamb and Avery were officially placed on the roll as members of the Cherokee nation.

"I always knew I was part Cherokee," Lamb said, "and I wanted to prove it. I wanted to show my heritage."

Another cousin, she said, went to Tennessee to try and find out about their Cherokee side, but what it took was finding someone who knew how to go about getting it done.

According to the AP article, neither state nor federal governments recognize the Northern Cherokee tribes, but tribal officials want to find lost members. By so doing, they hope to boost their chances of getting national recognition and the perks that come with it.

"We want our own autonomy," said Carle Grey Owl Griggs, the tribe's principal chief. "We want Indian schools. We would like to have trust funds for our younger people. We can never get our old land back, but we would at least like to sustain ourselves."

The Northern Cherokee tribe is based at Clinton, Mo., but draws most of its members from northern Arkansas. Both states were on the Trail of Tears, a route used in the 1830s to relocate hundreds of Cherokees from their ancestral homelands in the southern Appalachians.

The Northern Cherokee Membership Office is located in Clinton, Mo., and the tribe managed to identify more than 8,000 members as of 1997.

To be recognized and placed on the roll, a person must show they have Cherokee blood from being full blood to 1/64th . The proof requires is a birth or death certificate from a Cherokee relative appearing on the tribal census rolls.

Getting national recognition would be the tribe's first step in obtaining scholarships, creating land trusts or getting tax benefits.

Currently, the federal government recognizes 554 Native American tribes, according to the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The Northern Cherokees still being considered for recognition.

Lamb and Avery began working with Chief Red Hawk Vickers in 1997, and got their official cards earlier this year. Lamb said it took about 2= years to get the card once they started.