On this Christmas Day, we face warm memories and celebrate the joys brought to us by friends, family, and community. As a result, we also take the time to celebrate who we are as a community of resarchers, preservationists, and activists.
There are some, who have a perception that those of us who research family history, are performing a simple act of creating a family tree to put on a wall or to show at a family reunion. Some mistakenly perceive genealogists as those who perform simple acts that do not merit mention or consideration from serious minded scholars. However, for those of us in our own communities from the Five Tribes, much has arisen from the acts of genealogical efforts begun in the 1990s. We work with the historical record daily. And our stories are to be appreciated and acknowledged.
It is from our community of genealogists and preservationists that several writers have come forth with journals, blogs and books.
Several organizers have stepped up and created communities that have chosen to address the wrongs from the past. And additionally, preservationists have emerged, protecting long forgotten burial sites of loved ones long gone. It is from the work of those family historians, that the rights of Freedmen communities have been obtained as evidenced in the Cherokee Nation, and Creek Nation,
And even before that, rights were won back in the Seminole Nation, when the attorney representing them, used a genealogical index from the first book about Freedmen families written 5 years earlier. With both Choctaw and Chickasaw Nation advocates and new researchers have found a home opening doors for those with roots from Tishomingo to Tatum, and from Le Flore to Lukfata.
By writing and sharing the histories that we have found, young people have found a community from which they have a spring board, to launch themselves into a remarkable career of historical research. Pieces are now being written from those who come from the same communities that they study. And many who remain in our ancestral community have become the current voices from the Territory that need to be heard.
They are our people and we belong to them. As we move through this holiday season, and into the New Year, it is hoped that all of us will connect and recognize each other as all members of the same team. The new year promises a year of active research, community preservation, and activism.
We can all thrive together as partners in the same cause.
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