Our burial grounds in Georgia have been desecrated. We are a family consisting of many generations of Chiefs, Tribal and Warrior. Our documented history goes back well over 600 years. Many headstones remain but their names have been covered over with concrete. There is no known date or timing when these atrocities occurred. Many graves have been plowed under by farmers so beneath the cotton, corn, soybeans, and wheat lay our ancestors.
We remain humble that Old Henry, the Grand Chief of the Euchees on the South Carolina side of the Savannah River, still reigns supreme as he did in life. His headstone sits on a little hill in the distance and now, 100 years later, the ban has been lifted and the right of passage completed. Now that his maternal grandson carriers the torch, many ask what the Euchee/Yuchi desire.
We ask for acknowledgement by the United States federal government and their tribal allies for the murder and rape of our Euchee/Yuchi ancestors during Andrew Jackson’s time in the military and as President of the United States. We ask that a federal committee be formed to work with an independent group to re-examine and validate the treaties of old and find out who really signed them, as well as on whose behalf and what tribe. We want our ancestors land returned to our tribes.
Our holdings were sparse compared to other tribal nations, but what we held in the Savannah River Valley was rightfully ours. We deserve to be duly compensated at today’s fair market value. We demand the bones and artifacts of our ancestors in the Savannah River Valley be return to us so they can be given a proper burial and the artifacts place in a museum of our own. Lastly, we are a sovereign nation and should be given or granted federal acknowledgement by United States Government. We did not ask for the rape and murder of our people. We do not desire to hear about any false claims of Euchee court cases in the 1950s.
We, the Savannah River band of Euchee Indians, were historically apart Yamassee Alliance, for the purpose of war as many other nations such as Muscogee, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Catawba, Apalachee,Alachicola, Pee Dee, Waxhaw, and many others that united together with the yamassee to fight against indian slave trade. The Creek Nation there are some bands of Euchee that became members of the creeks. We are Uchean not Creek,. These facts are well documented and understood. As a result of this, many (though some are not), of our ancestor blood cousins and decedents are located in Florida, and Kansas today, as well as many other parts of the country where they have migrated to over the years. Our ancestors who remain in the Savannah River Valley were protectors of the family.
They were warlike in nature and in spirit. They did not travel the trail of tears. They stayed and fought and as a result, this tribal band remains today along the Savannah. We must set the record straight and not be labeled as “colored” or “mulatto” (meaning admixture of American Indianl). We caught pure hell during the days of Jim Crow, the KKK and the Civil Rights era.
Lastly, when all is said and done, we will continue, as we have always done, to be productive citizens, maintain our level of automony, live on our ancestral lands, eat healthy foods, drink clean water, breathe fresh air and live in peace with our brothers and sisters of humanity