There is a United Cherokee Tribe of Virginia that celebrates their ancestry
in the state. They were mostly located in the mountains in the SW part of
the state.
The Cherokees were slaveowners and while they banned the ownership of Indian
slaves in the early 18th century as a tribal matter, they collected and kept
Black slaves up until 1866 when that ended via treaty with the US. See,
Theda Perdue, Slavery and the Evolution of Cherokee Society. The Cherokee were
notoriously cruel slave owners and developed great skill in tracking down
runaway slaves for white owners; however some had a habit of killing the Black
slaves once they found them and so the Cherokee fell out of favor as slave
catchers. Seems like this dislike for their Black brothers goes a ways back.
76% is a pretty telling indication of how the tribal members still feel.
<BR><BR><BR>**************************************<BR> AOL now offers free
email to everyone. Find out more about what's free from AOL at
http://www.aol.com.
To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions
at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html