According to my mother, who has been gone from this earth for a number of years, one of her grandmothers (on her mother's side) was a Cherokee full-blood. That would make my mother one-quarter Cherokee. It would also make me one-eight Cherokee, my own father being very much a Scotsman. Keep in mind that mother's are not a source recognized by the US government. In fact a large faction of that same government would like to not even recognize the sacred institution of Motherhood itself!

The "wild card" in those blood degree percentages, would have been my grandfather,who was also of Cherokee blood. His grandparents were from Cherokee, North Carolina. He was born in Boone County, Arkansas in 1887 and passed away in Idaho in 1964. His exact percentage of Native American blood, I will never know. I do know that he moved with his wife and daughter from Arkansas for a time (while my mother was a child) and they lived for several years on the Cherokee "reservation" in Oklahoma. My grandfather was a proud man who would never use the word reservation. He always referred to that time as living in the Indian "Nation."

My grandfather and friend, somewhere in Arkansas, circa 1910

In order to be a "registered" member of the Cherokee Nation, you have to prove your bloodline with an ancestor who is on the Dawes Role or the Baker Role. The Dawes Roll was the "final roll of the five civilized tribes." To appear on that roll, which was taken between 1899 and 1906, an ancestor had to be residing in Indian Territory (now NE Oklahoma) and accept land from the government. The Baker Role of 1924 was for the Eastern Band of Cherokees. In the case of the later, a direct lineal ancestor has to be on that role and you must possess at least 1/16 degree of Eastern Cherokee blood.

It has been estimated that the vast majority of the Cherokee people never registered on these roles. A number were not residing in what is now Oklahoma or (in the case of the Eastern Cherokee) North Carolina, Georgia, etc. Also, a number of those who didn't register had a very justified distrust in getting their names on any government role. Many of those who did register and accept the government handout of land were good and honorable people who were forced into doing so by the situations and government mandates of the time. A few were undoubtedly known by the vernacular "Uncle Tomahawks." I am proud that some of my ancestors had both the dignity and good sense to avoid the government rolls. I am well aware that many people in our time are now seeking for tribal registration as the brass ring in getting in on the government "dole." I am also aware that there is justification in the art world for preventing non-Indian artists from "cashing in" on a heritage that belongs only to Native American artists. There is understandable "bad feelings" among the latter toward anyone attempting to do so.

The latter (Native American style) being an "interesting" term in itself. But... that's another story.

Legally having to have said all of that, I still have an understandable fascination for doing a portion of my artwork that is related to Native American culture and subject matter and will continue to do so. I also have the same fascination for doing artwork related to the culture of the Scottish Highlands. My ties to the later are much easier to verify, as I have genealogy records of a direct line of grandparents going back to Fergus Mor Mac. A grandfather who left Ireland around A.D. 424 to settle the highlands of Scotland and become the first of a line of Scottish kings.

I have also had a long-standing fascination for the similarity between a number of the Native American cultures and the Scottish Highland culture. Several bronzes are planned that reflect upon that similarity. The first of these bronzes, called "CHIEFTAINS" is pictured below...

It is fortunate that the government has not been able (thus far) to regulate an artist's choice of subject matter, nor successfully take away (at least on a personal level) their cultural heritage.