Copyright © 1999 NLThomas
All Rights Reserved

Freeman Owle is a lecturer and storyteller from the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians. This is a true story he told in November 1996 at a Native American awareness program.

A few years ago, Freeman Owle went to Cincinnati to make a presentation before a university group. He told about the Trail of Tears and how one set of his great-grandparents had escaped from the march with their infant child, crossed back over the Mississippi River, and returned to find their Georgia home burned to the ground. Realizing that they could no longer stay in Georgia, they moved to Birdtown, a community on the Cherokee Reservation in North Carolina where Freeman was raised and where he lives today.

Mr. Owle also told the students that there likely will never be a Cherokee named Andrew because of the many deaths of Cherokees and people of other tribes during their forced relocation to Oklahoma...deaths attributed to President Andrew Jackson and his anti-Indian policies. [As it turns out, there were several named Andrew even back then.]

Following the presentation, several students stated that they wanted to help do something on the reservation. He said he had just the project and arranged for them a come down in a few weeks. The group of about 10 students arrived late one Friday night and called to tell him that they had checked into a hotel and would be ready to go the next morning. Early the next day he took them to the home of an 81-year old Cherokee woman who for the first time in her life was unable to plant a garden and grow the old Indian corn that had been with her family for many generations. Freeman equipped them with hoes and, under the watchful eye of the elderly woman, began to dig long straight rows in the rocky ground.

About 10 am, most of the students had stopped to get a cold drink and take a break under a shade tree, except for one girl who kept working. Freeman asked her if she wanted to take a break and she replied that she was fine and kept working. About noon, the students stopped to eat lunch, except for the one girl who kept working. Freeman went to her and asked if she wanted to eat lunch with the others. She said no, that she wanted to keep working. He told her "Joy, you need to take a break and get something to eat and drink." Putting his hand on the hoe, he pulled it gently from her hands. As he did, he saw that her palms and fingers were covered in blisters, many of which had already broken.

With her eyes turned downward, she said "You don't know who I am, or anything about me, but I need to keep working. I have to give something back to the Cherokee people." Looking up with tears welling in her eyes and her lip trembling, she continued "You see, Andrew Jackson was my great-grandfather."