Dr. Will Goins,CEO of the Eastern Cherokee Southern Iroquois and United Tribes of SC with Deborah Greig, activities director of the Reedy River International Group in Greenville.
Photo by Sherry Moss Cowan
FEBRUARY 23, 2005
Long Time Coming
Native Americans receive official recognition from South Carolina.
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Dr. Will Goins,CEO of the Eastern Cherokee Southern Iroquois and United Tribes of SC with Deborah Greig, activities director of the Reedy River International Group in Greenville. Photo by Sherry Moss Cowan |
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Sisters Sherry Moss Cowan and D.J. Stribble trace their lineage back to Nancy Ward, the famous Cherokee who took up the gun of her slain husband, Kingfisher, in a battle with the Creek in 1755, leading the Cherokee to victory. Ward later argued on behalf of her tribe with U.S. representatives to preserve their native lands and warned of land cession to the whites. But it wasn't until last week that Cowan, Cherokee name "Raven" and Stribble, "Blue Spirit Woman," said they can finally call themselves Native Americans.
On February 17, the state gave official recognition to four South Carolina American Indian groups, including the sisters' - the Eastern Cherokee, Southern Iroquois and United Tribes. The state Minority Affairs Commission, which only last year was given the power to recognize Indian tribes and groups by the General Assembly, also recognized the Wassamasaw Tribe of Varnertown Indians as a group. Two other groups were recognized as "tribes": The Waccamaw Indian People along the coast and the Pee Dee Nation of Upper South Carolina.
"It lifts a burden off you," says Cowan, who lives in the town of 96, near her sister in Chappells. "You're not in the closet anymore. To be state-recognized lets people know I'm Indian, and no monetary value can replace its spiritual value."
Though official recognition has symbolic meaning for South Carolina's Native Americans - the state is one of three that hadn't officially recognized tribes - it has little tangible value. There are no state funds attached to it, and last year's bill allowing for recognition contains a clause excluding land claims and gambling-rights claims.
But state recognition - which requires reams of paperwork verifying the genealogy of a group's members - is the first step to federal recognition, a more complicated process. This would enable members to seek federal grants for Native American projects. State recognition also enables the groups to label arts and crafts as Native American-made.
Deborah Greig of Laurens, who attended the Commission meeting with Cowan and Stribble to represent Greenville's Reedy River Intertribal Group (part of the Eastern Cherokee, Southern Iroquois and United Tribes), says she hopes eventually to establish a Native American center in Greenville to teach the Cherokee language and "the old ways."
"One of my goals is to teach the younger generation how important it is not to lose who we are," says Greig, Cherokee name "Twin Eagles' Child," who has spent decades researching her ancestors. "What I know was taught to me by my grandmother, who was taught by her grandmother. I don't want my children to forget about respecting the earth; we're a 'throw away society,' and things come by so easily that you don't have to work for them. We forget how hard our ancestors worked to get what they had."
Greig, part Cherokee and Catawba, traces her lineage to Native Americans who helped negotiate the Louisiana Purchase from the French. Despite that heritage, her Cherokee mother had to pass as Mexican when her family moved to South Carolina from the Oklahoma Cherokee lands.
"My grandmother told me, 'Don't be an Indian - it's not a good place to go,'" says Greig, the Reedy River Group's activities director. "It's hard to explain what it makes you feel, knowing how hard it is to prove who you are. State recognition has been a long time coming."
Stribble said she hopes recognition could lead to health and educational benefits for her children and grandchildren - but it's not about money. "People don't recognize that Native Americans are still in South Carolina," Stribble says.
The Catawba Indian Nation, with a 660-acre reservation in York County, is the state's only federally-recognized tribe, and their land and casino claims prompted the clause in the state Indian recognition law that excludes land claims and gambling rights. The tribe is pursuing a court battle to assert its rights. But local Indian leaders said they're looking neither for special privileges nor handouts.
"This is something I have a lot of pride in, and I'm proud that the state embraced my native heritage for the first time," says Pat Langley, chairman of the Reedy River Group. "This gives those who've been left out an opportunity to get together, share and celebrate their heritage."
The local group counts about 50 members, including Cherokee, Chickasaw, Pottawattamie, Navajo (Dina), Catawba and Lakota Sioux. The Reedy River group holds monthly drumming sessions in Greenville city parks, members' homes and even the parking lot of Langley's family-run grocery store, The Eight O'Clock Superette across from Sirrine Stadium. In mid-May, the group plans a one-day Native American Festival along the paths of the Reedy River.
"There are loads of people in the Upstate of native descent, from Pickens to Walhalla," says Langley, Cherokee name "Morning Hawk." "And some are proud and some aren't."
Langley said official recognition is a huge step toward instilling that pride. About 27,000 South Carolinians identified themselves as American Indian in the 2000 Census. The Commission recognized two groups as "tribes," a more stringent requirement involving not only members with Native American genealogical proof, but also that the "tribe" has roots in the community with boundaries for at least 100 years. Recognition of a "group" means some members can be non-Indian, but those who can prove Native American lineage can seek the same benefits - such as federal grants - as those in a tribe.
For more information on the Reedy River Intertribal Group, call Pat Langley at 864-233-8742.