Completing the circle

Soft music plays in the background at the downtown storefront where beautiful artwork and weavings greet visitors. Step inside Cherokee Trails, an art and gift shop in the 800 block of Broadway, to see some of the hand-carved wooden bowls or signed prints and you've also paid a visit to the region's only American Indian Center.

The lines blur between where the Cherokee Trails store ends and the American Indian Center of the Heartland begins because both the store and the center are the work of Michael and Glinda Ladd Seabaugh.

As American Indians, the Seabaughs don't see much distinction between their business life, personal life or political life. "It's the idea of a circle, the circle of life," Michael Seabaugh said. "If you take out one segment of the circle it wouldn't be complete."

And for them, developing a center for American Indian people is crucial to telling the story of their ancestors. While plans for the American Indian Center are far from complete, the Seabaughs are happy with where things stand a year after its formation.

The Seabaughs don't expect the American Indian Center to grab the same attention or exhibit quite the grandeur of the Smithsonian Institute's new National Museum of the American Indian. But the center is based on the same principles.

Both serve as places to learn about the history, culture and language of native people in North America.

"There's a lot of history in this area," Michael Seabaugh said. The region he speaks about covers parts of five states: Missouri, Illinois, Arkansas, Kentucky and Tennessee, and includes several American Indian tribes.

For years the Seabaughs have been involved in Cherokee Nation politics and organizations since both have Cherokee ancestry. But when the couple first envisioned opening an American Indian Center, they wanted it to be a place for all native people to socialize, gather and learn.

And while the national museum, which opened this week in Washington, D.C., will showcase American Indian artifacts from all across the country, the local center isn't quite ready for exhibits or multitudes of visitors.

But those things aren't far behind.

In the past year, the Seabaughs have been holding monthly meetings with American Indians and other interested people to organize the center. The meeting room, upstairs from the Cherokee Trails shop and which formerly housed the American Legion Post, is slated for remodeling. There are plans to open a genealogy library for people tracing their American Indian family trees, and an open house and frybread meal is planned for November.

The Seabaughs don't expect an influx of visitors at the local center, but there's always a steady interest from customers and people seeking genealogy information.

"One of the things I was glad to see was the variety of tribes," said Glinda Seabaugh. At the monthly meetings, there have been people of Lakota, Chickasaw, Omaha, Osage and Blackfoot descent.

"It's been mostly Cherokee that we've dealt with," she said. "And there are a lot more people from a lot more tribes. That's surprised me."

But those surprises are good ones.

There also have been issues to work through for the group. When Southeast Missouri State University organized a committee to consider changing the name of its mascot, the American Indian Center spent three months talking about how best to get involved.

The group supported the university's name change from the Indians to the Redhawks and will take part in the mascot retirement ceremony Oct. 22.

"We didn't shrug our responsibilities in this," Michael Seabaugh said.

Both the Seabaughs feel that they have a duty to share the story of their ancestors with the community. For years, they've been addressing Cub Scout troops, school classes and church groups to talk about their Cherokee ancestry.

An American Indian Center in Cape Girardeau will help tell the story of many tribes. "We've tried to educate people as to the history of Indian people. It's better today than it was when we started," Michael Seabaugh said.

Glinda Seabaugh said the National American Indian museum will help correct false information. "I was glad to see that they're talking about relating all history," she said. "So many times you leave out the bad part and there were tragedies that happened."

She would like to add more history and cultural exhibits to the center and perhaps create an art show of works by American Indians. "We want to really stress more of the art, education, history and culture."

ljohnston@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 126