Believe me, Jim, I understand your sensitivity on this subject. Though I have not done any research, my grandmother on my father's side was said to be one half Cherokee. This is feasible, as she was born in Ball Ground, Georgia, the traditional location of the Cherokee practice of settling disputes by playing the forerunner of lacrosse. These games were the next thing to pitched battles. My grand dad had lost his first wife, and had a teen aged daughter. He went up there and arranged to marry my grandmother, who was fifteen at the time. Some Cherokee had hidden in the hills and not been sent west. He was twenty seven years older than she, at forty two. His daughter, my Aunt Vada, always referred to her as "Mama", though she was only two years younger than Grandmother. She kept her hair in braids, and brushed it every night. That always fascinated me, as a young child. She called my grand dad Mr. Boring", until the day he died, December 11, 1942. I watched him die. He sat up in bed and called my mother's name; "Dell". then fell back dead. They put pennies on his eyes.

His father had come into Cobb county the same year the Cerokee were rounded up and sent on the "Trail of Tears" to Oklahoma. So maybe I too had folks on both sides. I have always been perturbed by the fact that though the Cherokee won their court case in the Supreme Court, to be recognized as a nation, Andrew Jackson said it was the court's decision, they could enforce it. But we know what he thought about Indians.

You're right about some people's opinions. My wife's grand dad, who came from west Virginia to Kentucky, reported his family as "Indian" on an early census. When I found this out, I told my father in law about it, he scoffed and blew it off. My wife has always said she was part Cherokee, but apparently her father does not agree, at least to the extent that his father did.

Well back on topic, with the closing remark that you are praching to the choir, at least as far as i am concerned. Regards. Stan