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Joyce Rock lives with her husband Calvin,
who is Cherokeee, in Muskogee, Okla., and is a PFLAG board member; she can be
reached at joyce_rock@hotmail.com.
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HOME > VIEWPOINT > COLUMNS
By: JOYCE ROCK
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THE CHEROKEE NATION is in a quandary right now over the issue of same-sex marriage.
Under a compact with the state of Oklahoma, marriages recorded by the Cherokee
Nation will be recognized by the state. Cherokee law is very vague on gender
issues in its marriage laws. The Cherokee terms used in the marriage ceremony
translate as “provider” and “cooker,” not “husband”
and “wife.”
Last May, a lesbian couple used these definitions in applying for and receiving
a marriage license from the Cherokee Nation. After their marriage ceremony,
the couple asked the Cherokee Nation to file their certificate of marriage with
the state.
The Cherokee Nation court refused to accept the marriage certificate, claiming
tribal authorities did not know when they granted the license that it was for
a same-sex couple.
In the midst of a court battle over the issue, the Cherokee Tribal Council
passed a new law defining a marriage as “between a man and a women,”
but the laws cannot be made retroactive.
As a result, there is one single same-sex marriage certificate waiting to be
filed.
WHY IS THIS such a hot-button issue for the Cherokees, as it would be for any
other Native American tribe? When our son came out, one of the first places
I went to ask questions was “the stomp grounds.”
This is where the traditional Cherokee worship, and I wanted to know what the
elders and leaders there said about someone being gay. What I learned was that
these wise elders said nothing.
Homosexuality was not important to the definition of an individual, they said.
Certainly opposite-gender sexual relationships were the most common form, but
same-sex couples were not unknown.
These gay couples existed, were recognized, and were an accepted part of society.
In tribal history, being gay was not viewed as something bad. In truth, many
Native American societies viewed these individuals with respect and considered
them a third gender.
WHY HAS THIS changed? In a word: acculturation.
European cultures have made a lasting impression upon all Native American societies.
It is Europeans who brought to Native communities the idea that anything out
of the ordinary was an aberration and must be destroyed.
As the Cherokee people were infiltrated by other cultures and removed from
their native lands in the Southeast U.S., many of their customs began to be
eroded.
Cherokee marriage and family structure has been changed drastically by this
acculturation. Traditionally, the most important rules regulating marriage dealt
with exogamy, or marriage within or outside the clan.
Sexual relationships between people of the same clan were strictly forbidden.
Clan lineage was through the mother, not the father, and the clan was an extended
family.
CHRISTIAN MISSIONARIES PLAYED the most influential role in changing Cherokee
family life, as they strove to save the souls of “the poor heathen people.”
The majority of these missionaries were of the Baptist faith and preached a
fire and brimstone type of religion.
Children were removed from their families and put in boarding schools, where
they could not speak their native languages or practice their cultural
religions.
After the Trail of Tears that removed the Cherokee from their native lands,
their society was repressed for many years. This made them susceptible to outside
influences.
Today’s Cherokee Nation is much different from that encountered by Europeans
years ago. While there are still traditionalists who practice the religions
of their ancestors, they are in the minority.
Most political Cherokees today identify as Christian and the faith that has
had the most influence on the tribe is Southern Baptist.
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