Apr 05 2010
Genealogy Trip to the Heart of Cherokee Country: Tahlequah
Cherokee Heritage Center
Ned Christie - my husband's direct ancestor!
This weekend my husband, daughter, and I went to Tahlequah to do some research on my husband’s Cherokee side of the family at the Cherokee Heritage Center and Tsa La Gi village. It was a splendid trip all around! ‘Twas a beautiful Spring day, and all of Tahlequah was in bloom. If you’ve never been there, it’s one of the most beautiful, magical places in the world with so much intrigue. It triples as a college town, a Native American cultural area, as well as an Okie small town so it has all of these worlds colliding, but what’s really special about it is that it’s nestled in the heart of a hilly forest, not to mention it’s also the most relaxed place.
Not only was it a lovely road trip, but I got a wealth of information! No really, a treasure trove of information! We went Saturday morning and they had a genealogy helper there, the nicest guy, who was able to pull up my husband’s family history seven generations back. It had their Native American names and even stories about many of them. I found out that Ned Christie (the only man the the U.S. military ever went after with a cannon!) is in my husband’s direct line and that some of his other direct ancestors died on the Trail of Tears, where many Native Americans were forced to move out of their lands and into Oklahoma and many died along the way.
We went from the museum which displayed both the artwork and pride of the Cherokees along with the sad history, to a tour of the ancient Tsa La Gi village. So it was a nice family trip as well as being a productive research trip; we all enjoyed visiting the museum and taking a tour of the village.
My husband’s relatives had remembered little about their family history so I was afraid that his side would remain very much a mystery, but now a whole new world of information has opened up – enough to keep me very busy for a long time on my genealogy wiki. And what a rich, colorful history his family has! Along with Cherokee outlaw Ned Christie and Trail of Tears survivors, there was a medicine man and a murderer in the family.
Here are some photos from our family/genealogical trip to Tahlequah:
Cherokee National Museum and Genealogical Research Center
Trail of Tears Plaque
Trail of Tears Plaque
Tsa La Gi Village
Tsa La Gi - an ancient Cherokee village
Cherokee dolls and pottery at a typical Cherokee home
Our guide showed us how the young Cherokee boys would hunt with blowguns
The Cherokees made bows and arrows like this one and chipped stones to craft arrowheads
Flint stones for weapons
The interior of a typical tribal meeting house where community decisions were made. It was a warm day but inside it was as cool as can be - the Cherokees had a ventilation system where hot air escaped from the top of the building and cool air came in through the bottom.
We learned a lot about our family, enjoyed the perfecto weather, and finished off our day with a late lunch of burgers at a local favorite restaurant in Tahlequah – Del Rancho.