DARREN MC CATHERN - proclaiming "research by proclamation"

...is proclaiming "research by proclamation" and calling you a "Chicken Indian" if you don't agree with him.

"War Trail along the Holston" by Talmadge Davis

"It's easy to attack things without doing your homework... easy to do research by proclamation... but if you want to get at truth, you better do research by investigation." -- Stanton T. Friedman, M.S. Physics 1955 University of California

(Friedman is a noted author, a nuclear physicist and classmate of Carl Sagan. He worked for fourteen years as a nuclear physicist for such companies as General Electric, General Motors, Westinghouse, TRW, Aerojet General Nucleonics, and McDonnell Douglas on such advanced, highly classified, eventually canceled projects as nuclear aircraft, fission and fusion rockets, and nuclear power plants for space.)

We wish to thank Darren McCathern for all his wonderful publicity on his www.comanchelodge.com website concerning the Cherokee sovereignties in Missouri and his slander Will "Blue Otter" Anderson. We have received emails from many many people who hate his bad attitude and wish to associate with a better class of people.

Because of Darren's proclivities towards disrespect of himself and of his relatives (and even traditionalist Original Keetoowah Society elders who descend frlom RedBird Smith) we have received and fulfilled scores of unsolicited requests for free membership, either in the Indian Creek Band, or as members of the Southern Wolf Clans Teaching Council.

We also thank our newest self-proclaimed enemy, Dr. Lucian Lamar Sneed, a man who apparently believes his own press as being "Dr. Lucian L. Sneed Ph.D., Cherokee Historian Executive Director of the Georgia Tribe Of Eastern Cherokee Inc."

Dr. Sneed says he has "documents" which can refute what we say about Gardner Green, but won't produce them. Folks, down on the farm they call kind of negative behavior "Chicken____." Maybe he has just read all the trash on Darren McCathern's website and has swallowed it hook, line and sinker. Or maybe it was because Dr. Sneed found out that an ancestor of his, Rebecca Sneed, who was the wife of Benjamin Franklin Green, is a descendant of Gardner Green! I guess his "Chickamauga" Cherokee Blood doesn't like his "Nancy Ward" Cherokee blood.

You know, we have noticed that otherwise reasonable people, even attorneys like Dr. Sneed who are professionally trained to research, seemingly "check their brains at the door" when they enter the Cherokee arena. Truly, this arena is a very emotional one.

Now folks, Dr. Sneed is a man who, just a few weeks ago, had said on his website (which has now been changed) that any eligible Cherokee was welcome to enroll regardless of any other organization they belonged to... until Bill Chance enrolled in the tribe and made the mistake of posting to Sneed's guestbook. THEN all of a sudden, the rules were changed in Bill Chance's case and he was unwelcome to post.

Now folks, Dr. Sneed had said just a few weeks previous "that no one had ever produced more proof that they were a Cherokee than Bill Chance does!" What has happened in the meantime and why did his Georgia Tribe of Eastern Cherokees enroll Bill Chance if there was a problem? After all, all genealogical information is confirmed by genealogy researchers at the University of Georgia! Why did Sneed ""disenroll"" Chance without giving him a chance to ace his accusers? I am sure the legislators of the State of Georgia will want to take a close look at Sneed's corporate Charter and compare it with his bad behavior... d'ya think?

Upon investigation, we learned from the Director of Enrollment for the Georgia Tribe of Eastern Cherokee, Barbara Walker, that she never even saw Bill Chance's application... and that Dr. Sneed was the person making all the trouble!

Dr. Sneed (an attorney who should know better) also made a phone call to a perfect stranger, (who by the way has MANY more years experience in Cherokee culture than Sneed does) who had, coincidentally, made enrollment application to the Georgia Tribe of Eastern Cherokee, and chewed him out for being in "conspiracy" with Chief Bill Chance, saying that Bill had supposedly filled out this man's enrollment forms. He really raked this man over the coals, folks. THAT IS TOTALLY DISRESPECTFUL and not behavior anyone the age of an elder should engage in. It turns out the man he was excoriating over the phone wasn't even a member of the Green Family, and Dr. Sneed had apparently just gotten some files mixed up! He didn't even bother to apologize! He reamed this poor man on Veteran's Day 2003, the day before Bill Chance received his enrollment card and plaque in the mail!! Dr. Sneed, you owe apologies to some people and need to step down from your post if you can't conduct yourself appropriately!

And all of this happened because Dr. Sneed read a bunch of lies and half-truths on Darren McCathern's website. Yup, checked his brain at the door, he did indeed.

Dr. Sneed first claimed on his original website from early 2003 that (and we have .pdf copies of his original website of it we will use for legal purposes) his bunch has "endorsements" from the Eastern Band of Cherokees, and from the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma based in Tahlequah, OK, and that turned out to be a BIG stretch of the truth. When I asked him over the phone in May 2003 what the "endorsement" consisted of, he said that they were welcome to hunt deer up on the Eastern Band's Qualla Boundary, but never said how his bunch was "endorsed" by the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma.

How now claims on his website that his bunch is "recognized" by the Eastern Band, Tahlequah, which is hogwash because both of these federally recognized tribes passed a "joint resolution" against Sneed's tribe and all other state recognized tribes using the word "Cherokee" back in 1993. Wilma Mankiller was VERY angry at the State of Georgia and at Sneed's tribe.

Sneed also claims "recognition" by the Cherokees of California, and some others, but when they find out from close mutual friends how Sneed has been treating Cherokee people, I am sure he won't be welcome to link to them.

BACK TO MC CATHERN

You know, when I first ran across Darren's website, I thought it was very informative and he was doing our Chickamauga people a great service UNTIL I saw his disrespectful attitude towards other Cherokees. He was calling those who don't have his so-called experience "Chicken Indians." I emailed him very nicely and asked him why he wanted to be so disrespectful. We had a nice email conversation, but he made no changes in his bad attitude or his website. Then this little coward attacked me on a personal level. He even put my physical address on his website, in violation of his own webservers terms of service!

Darren has false and misleading information on his website's FAQ, claiming that Cherokees would not possibly settle in Missouri because it was Osage Hunting Grounds, and they considered it taboo to do so. Well folks, there was NO STATE OF MISSOURI at the time covering most, if not all, of Darren's FAQ's, and what is "Missouri" now was actually what was then Illinois and Louisiana. See proof here.

Well, we have another news flash folks... the Osages hunted the White River country also, and the Cherokees had no compunction to settle there! A minimum amount of Internet research proved Darren wrong! Proof of what I say (including a map of Osage hunting trails going into the 1817 Arkansas Cherokee Reservation) can be found here.

I consulted a highly respected traditionalist Keetoowah Nighthawk Society elder, who reviewed his website and the information about the Keetoowah Nighthawks on it, and he commented that some of it was false, and said "Anyone who claims to be a Cherokee expert is neither."

I thought about that for a minute, and laughed out loud. He was saying , in effect, that no one can know everything there is to know about our Cherokee people, who are very furtive and who have literally experimented religion-wise with just about everything under the sun, so no one can authoritatively argue anything different. He said we just need to be respectful of each other. He said that Darren's oral histories on his website are just as valid as the Gardner Green Families oral histories.

But I am glad I held my piece about his violation of my privacy and his terms of service... because once folks read Darren's rantings and ravings, and saw that his agenda was the same as that of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, folks just started beating down our doors! We simply could not have accomplished this unparalleled growth without his publicity!

Darren... like they say in Hollywood, "All publicity is good publicity - just spell our name right"

"By their fruits ye shall know them." Darren McCathern, claims to be a descendant of Cherokee Chief Springfrog, but his own Comanche relatives he claims in Texas never heard of him. His pictured "Indian" ancestor Viola looks white, as many Chickamaugans today do, so we won't judge him based on that. As for our ancestors pictured on this website... they do look like Indians.

He insults the Gardner Green/Isom Franklin family, basically wanting you to believe he knows more about the Green Family than did the Indian Court of Claims and the Dawes Commission knew at the close of the 1800s. The U.S. Government came to completely different conclusions concerning the Green/Franklin family group... but of course the U.S. Government WAS privy to all the affidavits of the hundreds of descendants of Gardner Green... so they must be wrong... right?

This is what the commission said: Miller Report Document # 5145 William Neal states..." It SEEMS EXTREMELY UNLIKELY (emphasis ours) that the Gardner Green on the roll of 1835 was the same person who is claimed as the ancestor of applicant herein, as applicants' ancestors was between 95 and 115 years old in 1833, according to the testimony, affidavits etc, and had a son Benjamin Green who was 74 or 75 in 1835, and grandchildren as old as 47, and a great grandchild born in 1808. The Gardner Green on the 1835 Roll was enrolled with a male under 18 who was probably his child, although that is only SUPPOSITION (emphasis ours), it being IMPOSSIBLE (emphasis ours) to ascertain from the roll, the relationship of persons in any one family group."......"From the above it appears that Benjamin Green and his sons, John, James and Isaac and his daughter Dicey Boyd were living in Kentucky and Missouri long prior to 1835-that they had left the Eastern Cherokee Tribe, if they ever belonged to it, long prior to the treaty of 1835-6 and if Cherokees at all, should be classed as OLD SETTLERS.

So that puts to rest anything Darren has to say about Gardner Green. The 1835 Henderson Roll was not a census roll, or we would have more information. It was in reality an emigration roll, and is also referred to as the "Trail of Tears Roll."

It simply cannot be proven exactly how old Gardner was, but we have a pretty good idea. He is buried in an unmarked grave near six other people un unmarked graves in Georgia, but the family knows exactly where it is.

Darren also attacks other Chickamaugas in Tennessee, reasoning somehow that Chickamaugans must not have feet or even cars, because they are not in the same places they were 200 years ago... so they must be frauds!

McCathern claims Chickamaugan pride and traditionalism, but clearly espouses the BIA party line of "recognition" and points the finger of fraud at those who can't or won't meet the BIA criteria! WHY?

Something is wrong with that reasoning folks! IN MY OPINION, I smell A big ego OR MAYBE EVEN an agent provocateur?

Federal "agents" do lurk in the "Indian recognition woods" folks... perhaps hired by persons or groups unknown who would like to see no other Cherokee groups recognized! The Eastern Band recently spent hundreds of thousands of dollars resisting the Western Cherokee Nation's recent moves for recognition! They also attempted to bully small Cherokee groups living in remote areas in North Carolina into moving onto the Qualla Boundary. Read Why. Maybe the Western Cherokee Nation is a threat to the cash flow of the Eastern Band if they get federally recognized. McCathern doesn't think so... he says they are a fraud. Well, they certainly can't be both a fraud to Darren AND a threat to the Eastern Band! Maybe the Eastern Band knows something Darren doesn't know?

This is politics as usual in Indian-land folks. The Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma resisted the Eastern Band's federal recognition years ago, and now they are bosom buddies issuing joint resolutions against other Cherokee seeking State Recognition! Once they belonged to the same federal club, they ganged up on all the state recognized and unrecognized groups in a so-called "Joint Resolution" (of two completely separate Indian governments?) They named all kinds of groups... and right at the top of the list was one individual... David Michael Wolfe of the Echota Cherokees. Read why.

Some federal agents may possibly even be forced to work for Uncle Sugar so as to stay out of jail... or not have federal child abuse warrants served by the FBI, like one person we know of in Missouri who has an active federal warrant from a South Dakota reservation for a major crime!

McCathern quotes B.I.A. recognized Chief Leon Jones of the Eastern Band of Cherokees, who actually insults Chickamaugans AND KEETOOWAH NIGHTHAWKS who hold to traditional naming customs in that quote! McCathern pokes fun of traditional Cherokee Adoptions! He makes fun of persons with low blood quantum when he knows that there is an ancient "one drop" rule of determining who is a Cherokee!

He calls people who disagree with him "Chicken Indians." He pulled down his website after John RedHat Duke confronted him in a very respectful manner, and his website came sneaking a few weeks back later on... so who's a chicken Indian now?

Many other errors exist in his webpages. When these were pointed out to him by a Keetoowah Nighthawk elder, McCathern ignored it.

FOLKS LETS FACE IT... MC CATHERN IS THE ENEMY OF TODAYS CHICKAMAUGAN PEOPLES! HE ONLY WANTS ATTENTION AND TO MAKE MONEY OFF OF YOUR DNA TEST. HE IS DOING THE SAME THINGS HE ACCUSES OTHERS OF TO KEEP THE "ONUS" OFF OF HIM.

IF MC CATHERN IS A CHICKAMAUGAN, WHO ARE BY DEFINITION AGAINST FEDERAL RECOGNITION, WHY DOES HE WANT YOUR BLOOD CATALOGED AND YOUR IDENTITY KNOWN BY THE U.S. GOV'T?

Simply put, according to 70 year old Original Keetoowah Nighthawk AniGilohi elder John Duke, Mc Cathern is not a Cherokee by the definition of what a Cherokee is. He is just an A.I.M.... an ___hole in moccasins!

McCathern believes that everything that can be known about Chickamaugans that HID in Missouri AFTER statehood can be researched, by him, in books... or it simply can't be true! Where does this guy get all the time? Doesn't he have a job, or is he on a federal payroll?

McCathern was even asked to cease and desist by John Red Hat Duke, a Long Hair Clan elder of the Original Keetoowah Nighthawk Society who has a CDIB... but still McCathern persists in spreading his hate. Red Hat said to him "Those who claim to be "Cherokee experts" are usually neither." The 70-year-old elder also indicated that some of the information on his website was totally incorrect concerning government recognition.

McCathern's "opinions" also contradict the scientific findings of Dr. Tim Jones of the University of Arizona, who is a National Science Foundation fellow, a White House Fellow, and has total access to archaeological records of the U.S. Department of the Interior. Dr. Tim Jones, Ph. D. hold two doctorate degrees, one in Archaeology, and one in Ethnology and is the founder of a new branch of Archaeology. McCathern claims her never heard anyone call Chickamaugans HOSTILES but apparently he never spent any time among the Eastern Band elders, because many of them DO call Chickamaugans HOSTILES! I can go on and on...

We are not saying we disagree with everything he says about the Cherokee in Missouri and Arkansas... in fact he is right on about much of what he says about some of them... but it is up to THE CHEROKEE PEOPLE to handle frauds in their own way... like the way that John RedHat Duke handled Lola Scholl... traditionally.

The Cherokees in Missouri and Arkansas have a lot to learn about being Cherokee, sure... and they have elders willing and able to lead them. They are coming out of a 7 generational bad dream, and they need time, time to re-learn.

...they don't need hateful venom spewing folks like Darren McCathern. I the old days, four warriors would have just given him a headache!

...but, suffice it to say, in McCathern's mind, if McCathern doesn't know about it, it just ain't right folks!

He is just a poor soul, to be pitied, because the only people that will fellowship him are just plain hateful... like him.

The Darren McCathern's of this world do have a function... they are like the Peace Eagle or Vulture, and they are like the flies. They are attracted to garbage and negativity, and the Cherokee folks who just can't or won't let go of negative ways will be attracted him, and not to us.

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