The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), also known as Indian Affairs (IA), is a United States federal agency within the Department of the Interior.
You will want to contact the BIA agency that provides services to the Tribe you’re claiming heritage from in order to obtain the CDIB card, that information can be found in the Tribal Leaders Directory.
According to the federal government, in order to be a Native American, one must enroll in one of the 573 federally recognized tribes, etc. An individual must connect their name to the enrolled member of a federally recognized tribe. Please see the link of the list of federally recognized tribes.
How much Native American do you have to be to get a tribal card?
The Bureau of Indian Affairs uses a blood quantum definition—generally one-fourth Native American blood—and/or tribal membership to recognize an individual as Native American. However, each tribe has its own set of requirements—generally including a blood quantum—for membership (enrollment) of individuals.
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Who was removed by the Trail of Tears?
The Trail of Tears National Historic Trail commemorates the removal of the Cherokee and the paths that 17 Cherokee detachments followed westward.
The Trail of Tears and the Forced Relocation of the Cherokee Nation (Teaching with Historic Places)
The caravan was ready to move out. The wagons were lined up. The mood was somber. One who was there reported that “there was a silence and stillness of the voice that betrayed the sadness of the heart.” Behind them the makeshift camp where some had spent three months of a Tennessee summer was already ablaze. There was no going back.
A white-haired old man, Chief Going Snake, led the way on his pony, followed by a group of young men on horseback. Just as the wagons moved off along the narrow roadway, they heard a sound. Although the day was bright, there was a black thundercloud in the west. The thunder died away and the wagons continued their long journey westward toward the setting sun. Many who heard the thunder thought it was an omen of more trouble to come.
This is the story of the removal of the Cherokee Nation from its ancestral homeland in parts of North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama to land set aside for American Indians in what is now the state of Oklahoma. Some 100,000 American Indians forcibly removed from what is now the eastern United States to what was called Indian Territory included members of the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, and Seminole tribes. The Cherokee’s journey by water and land was over a thousand miles long, during which many Cherokees were to die. Tragically, the story in this lesson is also one of conflict within the Cherokee Nation as it struggled to hold on to its land and its culture in the face of overwhelming force.
The Trail of Tears National Historic Trail commemorates the removal of the Cherokee and the paths that 17 Cherokee detachments followed westward. It also promotes a greater awareness of the Trail’s legacy and the effects of the United States’ policy of American Indian removal not only on the Cherokee, but also on other tribes, primarily the Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole.
W. Shorey Coodey to John Howard Payne, n.d.; cited in John Ehle, Trail of Tears: The Rise and Fall of the Cherokee Nation (New York: Doubleday, 1988), 351.
Who do you think might have lived here in the 1820s?
Setting the Stage
When English and European immigrants arrived on the North American continent, they found many people whose appearance, lifestyle, and spiritual beliefs differed from those they were familiar with. During the course of the next two centuries, their interactions varied between cooperation and communication to conflict and warfare. The newcomers needed land for settlement, and they sought it by sale, treaty, or force.
Between 1790 and 1830, tribes located east of the Mississippi River, including the Cherokees, Chickasaws, Choctaws, Creeks, and Seminoles, signed many treaties with the United States. Presidents George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison struggled to find a balance between the obligation of the new nation to uphold its treaty commitments and the desires of its new citizens for more land. Ultimately, the federal government was unwilling or unable to protect the Indians from the insatiable demands of the settlers for more land.
The Louisiana Purchase added millions of less densely populated square miles west of the Mississippi River to the United States. Thomas Jefferson suggested that the eastern American Indians might be induced to relocate to the new territory voluntarily, to live in peace without interference from whites. A voluntary relocation plan was enacted into law in 1824 and some Indians chose to move west.
The 1828 election of President Andrew Jackson, who made his name as an Indian fighter, marked a change in federal policies. As part of his plans for the United States, he was determined to remove the remaining tribes from the east and relocate them in the west. Between the 1830 Indian Removal Act and 1850, the U.S. government used forced treaties and/or U.S. Army action to move about 100,000 American Indians living east of the Mississippi River, westward to Indian Territory in what is now Oklahoma. Among the relocated tribes were the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, and Seminole. The Choctaw relocation began in 1830; the Chickasaw relocation was in 1837; the Creek were removed by force in 1836 following negotiations that started in 1832; and the Seminole removal triggered a 7-year war that ended in 1843. These stories are not told in this lesson plan. The trails they followed became known as the Trail of Tears. The Cherokees were among the last to go and it is the Cherokee’s story that is the subject of this lesson pan.
Follow Us: Membership. The word mandala is a Sanskrit term that means “circle” or “discoid object”. A mandala can be defined in two ways: externally as a schematic visual representation of the universe and internally as a guide for several psychophysical practices that take place in many Asian traditions, including meditation.
A mandala (Sanskrit: मण्डल, romanized: maṇḍala, lit. ‘circle’, [ˈmɐɳɖɐlɐ]) is a geometric configuration of symbols. In various spiritual traditions, mandalas may be employed for focusing attention of practitioners and adepts, as a spiritual guidance tool, for establishing a sacred space and as an aid to meditation and trance induction. In the Eastern religions of Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Shintoism it is used as a map representing deities, or especially in the case of Shintoism, paradises, kami or actual shrines. A mandala generally represents the spiritual journey, starting from outside to the inner core, through layers.
YOUTUBE FEATURES FLUENT CHICKASAW SPEAKERS AND STORYTELLER
Speakers fluent in the Chickasaw language are featured sharing stories on YouTube.
Formally called “Documenting Endangered Languages/National Science Foundation grant,” the project features many fluent Chickasaw speakers telling childhood stories and recollections.
English subtitles are included in the videos.
The late Jerry Imotichey (1938-2016) shares a story from his childhood about the sighting of a Lhofa’, or Bigfoot.
Imotichey was a longtime collaborator with the Chickasaw Language Revitalization Program. He was a skilled teacher of the language as well as a prodigious translator who worked on many projects, including language publications for the Chickasaw Press.
Geneva Holman, Chickasaw Language Committee member, shares a story from her childhood about an event at a church meeting when families would camp during the weekend. Holman grew up near Boiling Springs Church in Allen, Oklahoma, and currently resides in Ada. She is a wonderful storyteller and happily shares her knowledge with new speakers of Chikashshanompa’.
The late Vera Tims (1945-2021) shares a story about her grandfather. She was a longtime tribal employee and spent the latter part of her career as a youth language educator focused on early childhood and childcare programs.
Chickasaw speaker JoAnn Ellis tells a shikonno’pa’ (a traditional animal story) about Buzzard and Rabbit. Ellis is a Native speaker of Chickasaw and resident of Tupelo, Oklahoma. She served as a language educator for the Chickasaw Nation for many years and remains actively involved with the Chickasaw Language Revitalization Program.
The videos are made possible through a 2013-19 grant secured by the Chickasaw Nation and Dr. Colleen Fitzgerald, vice president at North Dakota State University, formerly of the University of Texas at Arlington.
With fewer than 35 fluent Chickasaw speakers alive today, the grant was critically important to provide video and audio of the language by fluent speakers, Executive Officer of Language Preservation Dr. Joshua Hinson said.
The new videos also come at a time when a new language program, aimed at adults, is being launched by the Chickasaw Nation.
The Chickasaw Nation’s Chikasha Academy Adult Immersion Program (CAAIP) will soon begin its 2022-2024 program. The exclusive program immerses participants in a three-year long, 40-hour per week regiment that allows students to learn the Chickasaw language while being compensated.
CultureNanna Móma Chikasha
EXTERNAL RESOURCES
Government
- Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA)
- Bureau of Indian Education (BIE)
- The Secretary of Native American Affairs
- The State of Oklahoma
- U.S. Department of Interior
- Oklahoma Legislature
Elders
- National Indian Council on Aging (NICOA)
- American Association for Retired People (AARP)
- Social Security Online
- Eldercare Locator
- National Council for Aging Care
Education
Health-Related
Tourism
Councils & Associations
- National Congress of American Indians
- Native American Chamber of Commerce (NACC)
- United National Indian Tribal Youth, Inc. (UNITY)
Legal
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