I know I am Cherokee.
I’ve been told that since I was a child;
But we didn’t tell anyone…
and my elders, shamed,
never filed for documentation.
As if that could change the way I
Feel in my inner self, and feel still to this day
In those sad times of depression,
it seemed a sin to be poor,
and to have been a poor mixture
would have shamed even more.

People speak of the Trail of Tears
and I feel pain deep inside,
for the people who came before me,
and for myself, my blood denied.

Sometimes I feel I’m a stranger here
as if there’s a missing part.
I know it’s a loss of heritage
and the ache of my native heart.
June Younggren
June Younggren

This is a published poem that I wrote about my feelings on the subject several years ago
This is a published poem that I wrote about my feelings on the subject several years ago