JOINT BASE MYER-HENDERSON HALL, Va., -- I can still feel the hard church pew on a pleasantly warm day with the aroma of southern cooking filling the air. It is a moment etched in my memory as twice a year, my extended family and I attend a reunion at Steadham Chapel on the Poarch Creek Indian Reservation in McCollough, Alabama.
We come from all walks of life – some have served in the military, others have passed down the stories from previous generations about how they walked tumultuous Trail of Tears from Alabama to Oklahoma, but regardless, we all have one commonality: We all share Poarch Creek native ancestry.
Although I don’t resemble my mother’s side of the family with the olive skin tone and dark hair, I still have native Poarch Creek Indian blood running through my veins. The blood lines of the Band of Poarch Creek people have expanded over the centuries.
According to a Department of the Interior federal report on the anthropological genealogy of the Poarch Creek people, several core families derived from a community of ‘half-bloods,’ or descendants of marriages between the Creeks and white residents within the nation, who settled in the Northwest corner of Escambia County, Alabama in the early 18th century.
They remained in Alabama both during and after the vast majority of Creeks were removed to Indian Territory in the 1830's. One of the core families of the highly intermarried Poarch Creek Community that remained was that of Lynn McGhee of whom I am a direct descendant. Many of his descendants are buried in the Steadham Chapel cemetery.
As I walk through the church cemetery while attending the biannual reunion, I read the names of those who are a part of the family, and often reflect on what they have experienced throughout their lifetimes: The Fort Mims Massacre, the harsh removal from their lands, formal educational challenges as well as the fight for equal rights.
Despite all of this, on August 11, 1948, the United States formally acknowledged the Poarch Creek people as an “Indian Tribe.” It is one of 573 federally recognized Indian Nations and its flag hangs proudly in the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington D.C. The nation’s flag is described in detail by tribal member Larry Jackson’s poem “Tribal Symbol” which reads,
Red stands for the red sticks a fighting man
He would fight to the death for his land
The white in the feather meant a friendly clan
They lived near the water and played in the sand
The circle of gold stands for the place we live
With a lovely sunset
And the land has so much to give
Green is for the color of the corn and the trees
Corn for life and trees for seed
Direction of travel is shown by the logs
No matter which you take
It must come from the heart
The line of blood is in the vein.
Throughout all the nations, all is not the same
The feathers are the nations, nations of two
Lifestyles are different, but the words are true
I am a proud of my Poarch Creek heritage and am honored to be a part of the only federally recognized tribe in the state of Alabama. For more information about the Poarch Creek tribe visit https://pci-nsn.gov/.
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