07/29/2025
Believe it or not the big man sitting to the left with the dark cap on is Chief of the Southern Cherokees. He is a big guy standing way over 6 foot tall. He came as guest speaker twice. He and his wife Darla were there. For many years he has been involved in securing part of the Cherokee nation for the southern Cherokee. Which right now they have half the Cherokee reservation in Oklahoma. The southern Cherokee during the civil war under Stand Waite were the only group of Native American who fought in the civil war with the south and never surrendered to the north, instead they went into hiding in Missouri. And the southern Cherokee of today are their descendants. I was contacted by Big Steve back in 2005 when my booklet on the Chief Roger’s and the Shawnee was published, the Shawnee shared part of the Cherokee reservation,, and I got to know Big Steve and many of the tribe that lives around Rolla Mo area. We became good friends over the years. Big Steve is also the southern Cherokee historian and public speaker. For many years the main Cherokee didn’t want to acknowledge the southern Cherokee for various reasons, but that was due to politics within the tribe over the years. These are their history that many outsiders don’t know. As far as it connects to old cove, we had Shawnee’s in our history here at old Cove area as well as Shawnee town that existed before Moselle existed nearby. The Shawnee under Graham Roger’s grandson of Chief Roger’s who was captured as a boy from his white parents and is buried at Shawnee town outside of Moselle, his grandson Graham was allowed by the Cherokees in Oklahoma to relocate the shawnees out of Kansas and move onto the Cherokee reservation. The Shawnees had been outlawed from living in Missouri and forced into Kansas until they finally had a place in Oklahoma.
