NORTHERN CHEROKEE NATION IN SEARCH OF MEMBERS IN REGION

The descendants of those who survived the mid-winter trek of 17,000 Cherokee from their Carolina homeland to a new reservation in Oklahoma live on as the Western Cherokee Nation, and the descendants of those who defiantly remained in the East constitute the Eastern Cherokee Nation.

But another Cherokee nation survived as well.

The as yet unofficial Northern Cherokee Nation consists of those who escaped during the forced march known as the Trail of Tears and those already living in the West prior to that winter of 1838-39, its leaders say.

They suggest that the ancient Mississippian culture might even be Cherokee.

The Northern Cherokee Nation's leaders now are seeking federal recognition while searching for members who may or may not be aware of their Cherokee roots. A spokesman estimated that 500 Cherokee descendants may be living in Southeast Missouri.

"We were known as `The Lost Cherokee,'" says Dewey Neal, the nation's Northern Arkansas representative.

"We are no longer lost."

Neal, who is in charge of publicizing the enrollment locally, said he has signed up more than 60 families from Southeast Missouri in the past month.

The Northern Cherokee Nation's capital currently is in Columbia, the home of its elected chief, Beverly Baker Northup.

Bob Northup, her non-Indian husband, is the tribe's spokesman. He dates the history of the tribe in the West as far back as 1721, when the first Cherokee lands were given by treaty to the Carolina colony.

But based on similarities between the Mississippian and Cherokee cultures, the latter's history here could go back even further, he said. "This is speculation on our part."

Each cession of land to the white man led to a Cherokee migration, Northup says, adding that many began settling along the southern part of Missouri's St. Francis River.

Most Southeast Missouri history books make scant mention of the Cherokee influence. But in his book "The History of the Cherokee Indians," Cherokee historian Emmet Starr maps a 10-county area west of the Mississippi River in which Cherokee settled, with Cape Girardeau near the center.

Indeed, Cherokee were among the tribes Cape Girardeau founder Don Louis Lorimier met with during a general council of Indians called at his post in 1793.

In her tribal history, Beverly Baker Northup writes, "Ancestors of the Northern Cherokee Nation of the Old Louisiana Territory held lands in the Cape Girardeau (region) prior to the Louisiana Purchase.

With the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, she says, Cherokee living in Missouri's Bootheel were receiving benefits through agent Samuel Treat.

Starr puts the number of Cherokee living in the Louisiana Territory at 6,000 at the beginning of the 19th century, and says many of those lived along the St. Francis, where they farmed and hunted.

Others lived at a Cherokee reservation opened in Northern Arkansas in 1817. Many of these later moved to Oklahoma.

Because of discrimination against them, the Cherokee who remained outside the reservation tried to blend into the white society. Many intermarried and hid their heritage, Northup said.

Missouri statutes long prohibited white men from trading with Indians and one written as recently as 1906 prohibited Indians from living in the state without the permission of a U.S. agent. That law was repealed in 1909.

Neal's own family is an example of the effect such laws and discrimination had. "They kept it hidden from us until two or three years ago," he said of his Cherokee forbears. "...People were afraid of it and would never talk about it."

But some full-blooded Cherokee still live in Northeastern Arkansas," Northup says. "Most of them are illiterate. They think the white man is going to take them off their land. They think they will be forced to go to Oklahoma."

The Cherokee who moved to Oklahoma were not viewed favorably by the others, Northup says. "These people were considered not faithful to the old nation."

The movement to establish a Northern Cherokee Nation is necessary because the rolls have long been closed for the Western and Eastern nations.

"We aren't doing this to get benefits," Northup said. "We're doing this because the Northern Cherokee deserve to be recognized as a sovereign nation."

They hope the momentum is building. Then Missouri Gov. Christopher Bond declared a Northern Cherokee Recognition Day in 1983.

Representatives have met with Bureau of Indian Affairs officials increasingly recently, and plan to present their petition for federal recognition to the BIA next month.

Membership in the nation does not require a certain amount of Cherokee blood, Northup said, though the federal government may establish a "blood quantum" if the nation is recognized.

To receive an application, phone Dewey Neal at (501) 558-2525 or write him at Rt. HC 72, Box 205-3, Mountain View, Ark. 72560.