Please click the banner below to visit our sister site for more information.

Our mission statement is:  The Cherokee Healing and Wellness Coalition is committed to enhancing the lives of people by honoring and reclaiming the seven Cherokee core values especially by the reduction of substance abuse in a comprehensive manner.  The seven core values are:  spirituality, harmony, education, sense of place, honoring the past, strong character, and sense of humor.

In 1838, the US Army forced the Cherokee people to leave their homeland in the Southeastern US and travel, through terrible conditions, to Indian Territory in what is now Oklahoma.  Most Americans know that thousands of Cherokee people died on the Trail of Tears, but few people recognize its lasting impact on the descendants of those who survived the removal, and those who remained behind.

Healing and Wellness Coalition members who are enrolled in the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) and non-enrolled members want to unite with the Cherokee Nation and United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee in Oklahoma in sponsoring a journey to healing by forgiveness.  The journey will begin with a 1 ½ day conference in Tahlequah, Oklahoma.  Participants will then symbolically retrace the Trail of Tears in reverse from Oklahoma to North Carolina by car or bus, stopping at significant locations performing healing ceremonies at each place, and ending up with a 1 ½ or two day conference in Cherokee, NC.  Tentative dates for the journey and conferences are May 19-26, 2012.

The Journey to Forgiveness and Healing is an effort to address how historical events, i.e. Trail of Tears and boarding schools have affected the Cherokee people for generations and how these events caused an almost near loss of our culture and identity primarily as the result of the forced removal, assimilation and acculturation process.  Research indicates these historical events alone have had catastrophic psychological/emotional effects on those who actually experienced them. Therefore, the trauma that has been passed down through the generations is related to the substance abuse, domestic violence, and various health and mental problems that continue to plague Cherokee families today.

By inviting the young people in this community to participate in this journey, the Healing and Wellness Coalition hopes to educate and inform those in attendance how to break the cycle that is the cause of many of these problems.  It is our goal that this event will be a life-changing experience for all participants and especially for the youth who are our future.

Conferences will include nationally known and local speakers, Tribal leaders, community members and presentations on the removal and its impact on the Cherokees generationally. We plan to discuss  how self destructive behaviors spring forth as the result of a traumatic history in the form of unresolved anger, physical, emotional, sexual abuse, drug and alcohol dependence, wounded spirits, complicated grief, inability to maintain healthy relationships,  inability to express feelings and caring emotions to family and relations in an appropriate manner.

The Coalition is committed to giving those in attendance an opportunity to openly address issues that have affected their lives personally, professionally, spiritually, physically, mentally and emotionally.  We want to give participants an opportunity to release emotions and express feelings of how they perceive the Trail of Tears affected Cherokees as a people. We hope that all who participate will on some level achieve a sense of peace within themselves.  We hope to model combating these cycles to tribal members and to other cultures across Indian country and beyond to non-Native cultures who have suffered oppression.

Expected outcomes of this event are:

• To support and assist breathing new life into developing an overall cultural awareness of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and Cherokee tribes in Oklahoma.
•  To teach tribal members and other groups who have experienced oppression through a traumatic history, how when one experiences trauma it affects the following generations through ill health and emotions.
•  To educate how self destructive cycles spring forth from any traumatic history and take the form of anger, abuse, drug and alcohol dependence and other health problems, broken spirits, resistance to relationships, an inability to express feelings and caring emotions to family and relations.
•  To produce a resource guide to be used by others who have suffered oppression to learn the devastating effects of historical grief and intergenerational trauma.

If additional information is needed or for any questions, please contact Coalition Chairperson Beth Farris at 828-421-9855 or gsmw_beth@yahoo.com or Project Coordinator Patty Grant at 828-554-6549 or patty.grant@yahoo.com.