"I have been told that community and a sense of belonging to each other is almost universal in the Native American world, and central to a person’s identity. I don’t believe I’ve been misled on this point.

I cannot prove my blood quantum, nor my grandmother’s full-blood status. In fact, she died before the Baker Roll was completed in 1924, her maiden name lost in the missing records of three southern states. But I have photographs of my father and his sisters and family stories that leave no doubt. Their heritage and mine is written on our faces and in our hearts.

So what do we do, we Cherokee wannabes?

We join those who would have us, as I did when I enrolled in the Lower Eastern Cherokee Nation, S.C. – Piedmont American Indian Association. They accepted the documents I could provide and welcomed me.

There is no doubt that there is a flourishing trade in phony Cherokee this-and-that, tailor-made for the gullible. I applaud the efforts of the legitimate Cherokee nations to expose the hucksters and preserve the truth."

Get the Story:
Dan Hosea Morotini: Nuances in ancestry (Indian Country Today 12/10)