$2 Million per month - missing
A few posts ago I talked about my family history and how it was important to have by children born in America to keep them attached to their roots. A few of the comments that people gave back to me where - I have never thought that far into the future and how my being a Surrogate really leaves a lasting impression on someone's life.
To me it is clear that where my child is born changes their life story and their children's life story.
Well I have a story about how simple decision's by one person can change a families life forever. This is not a bitter story for me, but just a perfect example on how one small change in your life can affect everyone else down the line.
My Great-Great Grandma was 100% Cherokee Indian and my Great-Great Grandfather was reportedly at least 50% Cherokee Indian. Now in their time around the 1890's American Indian's were not being treated very well.
So my Great-Great Grandfather made a decision. I am going to claim to be a white man and move my family off of the reservation. This will be a better life for my family then face the repression and discrimination of being an Indian and living on the reservation.
It was probably a life or death decision for them.
Now fast forward to today. The Indian's have Casino's and are bringing in Millions of dollars that they are passing out to their tribe members. I am not sure about all of the tribes, but you can read stories in the paper that the dividends for members can be in the $20,000 - $30,000 per month range.
With that kind of money at stake the tribes have become very picky on choosing who they recognize as members. They are going back to the reservation roles of 1900 to determine who is a member of the tribe and you need to be a specific percentage of Indian blood.
The family line from my Great-Great Grandma and Great-Great Grandpa is easily over 100 people. That means that if we were all recording our family would get $2 million per month for being Cherokee.
Well they had moved off of the reservation before 1900 so there are no records of us. We missed out on the jackpot by 10 years.
To me it is clear that where my child is born changes their life story and their children's life story.
Well I have a story about how simple decision's by one person can change a families life forever. This is not a bitter story for me, but just a perfect example on how one small change in your life can affect everyone else down the line.
My Great-Great Grandma was 100% Cherokee Indian and my Great-Great Grandfather was reportedly at least 50% Cherokee Indian. Now in their time around the 1890's American Indian's were not being treated very well.
So my Great-Great Grandfather made a decision. I am going to claim to be a white man and move my family off of the reservation. This will be a better life for my family then face the repression and discrimination of being an Indian and living on the reservation.
It was probably a life or death decision for them.
Now fast forward to today. The Indian's have Casino's and are bringing in Millions of dollars that they are passing out to their tribe members. I am not sure about all of the tribes, but you can read stories in the paper that the dividends for members can be in the $20,000 - $30,000 per month range.
With that kind of money at stake the tribes have become very picky on choosing who they recognize as members. They are going back to the reservation roles of 1900 to determine who is a member of the tribe and you need to be a specific percentage of Indian blood.
The family line from my Great-Great Grandma and Great-Great Grandpa is easily over 100 people. That means that if we were all recording our family would get $2 million per month for being Cherokee.
Well they had moved off of the reservation before 1900 so there are no records of us. We missed out on the jackpot by 10 years.
Comments
It is funny that in the 70's and 80's the Indian tribes were begging for members and now that they have Casino money they are kicking entire lines of families out of the tribe.
Then they redistribute the money to the remaining tribe members.
There was an article about this exact situation in the LA times awhile ago. Everyone in the tribe was getting $20,000 a month.
One family was causing the elders trouble so they ran a search on that families heritage. One of the Great-Great-Great-Great-Grandma's was adopted. So even though they had been part of the tribe for over 100 years the tribe kicked them out.
This excluded over 130 people.
The remaining members of the tribe then started getting $30,000 checks per month.