book chronicles an
against great odds.
"Sustaining the
Cherokee Family: Kinship
and Allotment of an
Indigenous Nation," by
the UNCP historian and
scholar of American Indian
history, was published in
September 2011, by UNC
Press. It is a project of
UNC Press' First Peoples:
New Directions in
Indigenous Studies.
In words and
photographs, Dr.
Stremlau's book examines
the Cherokee Nation in
Oklahoma in the late 19th
policy of "allotment." The allotment program was the means by
which the federal government divided Cherokee land among
individual stakeholders, but for Dr. Stremlau it became a lens
through which to view kinship and culture of the tribe throughout
its history.
"By contextualizing the story of allotment into the larger fabric
of Cherokee life, I've brought order to the story of an important,
misunderstood policy that continues to have an enormous impact
on Indian communities today," Dr. Stremlau said. "The evolution
of allotment was complicated; the administration of it was a
mess, and the outcomes have been disastrous.
"Against that chaos, I emphasize the consistency of family
life and explain how Cherokees adapted to remain a people
connected by the values and behaviors associated with kinship,"
she said. "I told a story of people surviving in difficult times."
Using census data, government documents, newspapers, scant
tribal records and two oral history projects from the 1930s and
1960s, Dr. Stremlau wove together her story.
"I also was really lucky that descendants of the tribe shared
family photographs with me," she said. "This is not a Hollywood
movie but a good story. It is not a story of the law; it is a story
of how people survive unjust laws. Every chapter begins with a
family story emphasizing this theme."
The allotment process required the federal government to
investigate and publicly document the private lives of Indian
landowners, a process that "caused heated conversations
between Cherokees and government agents, to say the least," Dr.
Stremlau said.
"When the land was privatized, it became easier for non-
Indians to buy or rent land and to extract natural resources
without paying Cherokee people a fair price. The policy was
meant to eliminate the Cherokee culture by making it impossible
margins," she continued.
Before allotment, land ownership was communal, Dr. Stremlau
explained. "They didn't own the land as individuals but as a
nation; individual families owned and were able to distribute as
they saw fit the resources from the fields they farmed, from the
forests in which they hunted, or from the streams in which they
fished," she said. "Resources were shared widely among kin, the
circle of the extended family, especially among siblings. Family
finances were controlled by women, particularly elders."
By privatizing the Cherokees' land, Stremlau explains, the
government expected extended Cherokee families to fragment
into the nuclear families idealized in Anglo-American society.
Instead, Cherokees surprised everyone and adapted, Dr. Stremlau
said. They continued to support one another, including selling
land if necessary.
"To a large degree, families who maintained reciprocity and
yet still incorporated elements of the new economy survived,"
she said. "These are hardworking people. If not for the resilience
of Cherokees' kinship system, family-oriented values and labor
ethic valuing hard work for the benefit of the extended family,
Cherokees would not have survived this government experiment
in wealth consolidation."
The loss of access to communal land and resources
impoverished the tribe, but it also nurtured the Cherokees'
interdependence. Dr. Stremlau maintains that the persistence of
extended family bonds allowed indigenous communities to keep
a collective focus and resist the policy of assimilation during a
period of upheaval.
The city girl from Chicago's south side struck gold in
the solitude of the Cherokee Nation. This process has been a
wonderful experience for which she said she is grateful.
"I was fortunate that the First Peoples project had a slot for a
book," she said, "and they were very nice to a first-time author."
Her book has been well-received, with positive early
reviews. "Complex" and "well-written," wrote Bancroft Prize-
winning historian Margaret Jacobs of the University of Nebraska.
"An evocative story" and "an intimate account," said Richard
Allen, a policy analyst for the Cherokee Nation.
Dr. Stremlau teaches in UNCP's Department of History and
Department of American Indian Studies.