What things could i get for being a Cherokee Indian! all so what type of list do

Question:

What things could i get for being a Cherokee Indian! all so what type of list do i have to be on!?

if i can prove that i am a cherokee indian what type of benifits could i get.like if my ansesters were in the trail of tears or some other things like that.

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Benefits? Think that is the problem right now with folks wanting to be included on the enrollment they want money more then finding out about their family. I think for this reason my tribe (I am an enrolled member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indian's located in Cherokee NC) has had their rolls closed to EVERYONE except for kids under the age of 3.

Each tribe has different requirements for enrollment. The eastern band is the most strict if I remember right. With the western band (mainly in Oklahoma) just voting to kick off all the freedman slaves I am not sure how their enrollment is going.

I in a way wish that the eastern band did not send out per captia checks each year cause of how money can change people. The major requirements for most of the tribe enrollment's include....your ancestor's have to be on the Dawe's roll. You MUST have a blood quantium of at least 1/16th (for easterrn band...would have to check on western band and other tribes). You have to provide a birth certificate with the lineage of your cherokee ancestor's also.

Like I said before though the roll for eastern band hasn't been open for a very long time...and there is an audit of the rolls going on right now. Meaning they are checking everyone that is already enrolled to make sure they have the blood quantium. That is going to take a few years though. I found out thru the audit that I was in the wrong community and so my whole family had to be switched over to the correct community which took almost six months to do.

If all you are really looking for is a hand out then I would say that you shouldn't waste your time and maybe rather then sitting here looking for benefits....you should be out working and earning money like everyone else in the country has to. If anyone actually wants help about learning about their family and heritage and not concerned about what benefits they can get please feel free to email me at kebaj1@yahoo.com

PS: I just read what david posted and not all tribes provide you free college if you are cherokee. The chocktaw I know do give you schlorships to it's members. The eastern band just did a contract with University of Tennessee at Knoxville to provide schlorships to enrolled members also. I want so say they are going to pay for at least half of semster costs's. Each tribe is different though and you can't try to join more then one tribe. Which means since I am a member of Eastern Band I couldn't turn around and try to join Western band also.

If you were adopted by a person that was cherokee you can NOT try to join the tribe because you have to have cherokee blood to quailfy for enrollment.