We Will Always Be Here: Native Peoples on Living and Thriving in the South

249 Pages·2016·43.98 MB·English

by  Denise E. Bates

We Will Always Be Here
Other Southerners
University Press of Florida
Florida A&M University, Tallahassee
Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton
Florida Gulf Coast University, Ft. Myers
Florida International University, Miami
Florida State University, Tallahassee
New College of Florida, Sarasota
University of Central Florida, Orlando
University of Florida, Gainesville
University of North Florida, Jacksonville
University of South Florida, Tampa
University of West Florida, Pensacola

We Will
Always
Be Here
Native Peoples on Living
and Thriving in the South
Edited by Denise E. Bates
John David Smith, series editor
University Press of Florida
Gainesville • Tallahassee • Tampa • Boca Raton
Pensacola • Orlando • Miami • Jacksonville • Ft. Myers • Sarasota
Copyright 2016 by Denise E. Bates
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
This book may be available in an electronic edition.
21 20 19 18 17 16 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Bates, Denise E., editor.
Title: We will always be here : native peoples on living and thriving in the
South / edited by Denise E. Bates.
Other titles: Other southerners.
Description: Gainesville : University Press of Florida, [2016] | Series:
Other southerners | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015041911 | ISBN 9780813062631 (alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Indians of North America—Southern States—Social conditions.
| Indians of North America—Southern States—History. | Southern
States—Race relations.
Classification: LCC E78.S65 W4 2016 | DDC 975.004/97—dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015041911
University Press of Florida
15 Northwest 15th Street
Gainesville, FL 32611-2079
http://www.upf.com
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
1. Growing Up Indian in a Southern Context 7
The Ballad of the Choctawhatchee River: Ripples from Our Past 11
Nanette Sconiers Pupalaikis
Muscogee Lifeways in Central Georgia 15
Stan Cartwright
My Family’s Legacy 16
Patricia Easterwood
Hiding My Indian Identity 19
Wanda Light Tully
Growing up MOWA Choctaw 24
Framon Weaver
The Sacrifices We Made for Our Education 28
Kenneth Adams
Showdown at Bayou Pointe-aux-Chien 33
Charles “Chuckie” Verdin
Racism in New Brockton, Alabama 34
Nancy Wright Carnley
One Poarch Creek Family’s Educational Journey
over Three Generations 38
Otha, Marie, Pauline, Nathan, Karla, and Kaci Martin
We Will Forever Remain Coushatta and We Will Always Be Here 45
Ernest Sickey
2. The Politics of History and Identity 51
A Rebirth on the Chowan 56
Marvin T. Jones
Speaking for My Ancestors 61
Shoshone Peguese-Elmardi
From Cherokee to Chowanoke: Discovering
the North Carolina Algonquians 65
Lars Adams
The Chowanoke Indian Resurgence 72
Doug Patterson
Jamestown 2007: A Native American Perspective 78
Kenneth Adams
Eastern Creeks and the Persistence of Identity 81
Hodalee Scott Sewell
To Be or Not to Be a “Wannabe” 87
Tony Mack McClure
Jim Crowfeather in Indian Country 93
Cedric Sunray
3. Cultural Grounding 104
In My Mother’s Hands 109
Brooke Bauer
Nerataya: Spirit of the Deer and Passing the Gifts of the Tunica-Biloxi 113
Donna Pierite, Jean-Luc Pierite, and Elisabeth Pierite-Mora
Reawakening Our Warrior Tradition 118
Harold Comby
Te-lah-nay’s Wall 121
Tom Hendrix
In the Eye of Isaac 123
Michael “T. Mayheart” Dardar
Being the Indians We Were Made to Be 125
Marcus Briggs-Cloud
Generations within the Circle 131
Marvin “Marty” Richardson
Putting the “Community” Back into My Jena Choctaw Community 139
Dana Chapman Masters
Finding My Sense of Place in My Ancestral Homeland 143
Robert Jumper
Native People Should Tell Their Own Stories 147
Robert Caldwell
Vpuecetv (To Dream): My Journey to Becoming Tribal Royalty 151
Megan Young
At War with Herself: Artistic Reflections of Culture and Identity 159
Jessica Osceola
4. Moving Forward 164
A Reflection on a Lifetime of Leadership 171
Ernest Sickey
Initiating Intertribal Efforts in Louisiana 177
Jeanette Alcon
The Oil Companies Stole Our Land 182
Charles “Chuckie” Verdin
Finishing What I Started 184
Framon Weaver
Looking South 189
Michael “T. Mayheart” Dardar
Inauguration Speech, First Woman Chief of the Mississippi Choctaw 192
Phyliss J. Anderson
Building an Entrepreneurial Spirit within Tribal Nations 196
David Sickey
Seeking Prosperity and Self-Determination 200
Stephanie Bryan
Defining Moments 205
Malinda Maynor Lowery
Working Toward a Healthy Future for the Cherokee Nation 210
Ahli-sha Stephens
Native Youth in Agriculture 212
Elliott Nichols
Notes 217
Bibliography 221
Index 227
Acknowledgments
I would like to express my deepest gratitude to the contributors of this col-
lection who generously shared their wisdom, memories, and talents that
unfold through the pages of this book. They offer us an important glimpse
into both the painful as well as celebratory moments that have helped to
shape their experiences as southern Native people. For their patience and
generosity, I will be forever grateful. They have each enriched my life in
ways that I wish I could adequately express.
This collection is something that I had been considering for some time,
but it finally grew some conceptual roots during a trip to give a talk and
participate in a panel discussion hosted by the Coushatta Tribe of Louisi-
ana in 2012. As a result, I would like to express my appreciation to Ernest
Sickey, David Sickey, and Jeanette Alcon for the lively conversation, inspi-
ration, and support to further develop an idea for a collection that would be
regionally focused, and would offer an opportunity for Native people to tell
their own stories and share some of their greatest challenges and achieve-
ments.
This project was able to further progress thanks to John David Smith,
who reached out to me seeking a contribution to the University Press of
Florida’s Other Southerners series, and to Sian Hunter for helping me nav-
igate through questions and keep everything on track. I’m thankful that
the University Press of Florida recognizes that although archival-based re-
search is important to further understanding the southern historical nar-
rative, there is also a need to open up a space for the very people being
written about to speak and document their own experiences and construct
their own arguments—all in their own words.