Category: Blog
Beginning in February 2020 there is going to be a change in how the daily prayer and word of the month is posted.
Instead of me picking a picture that ‘catches my eye’ with our daily prayer and word of the month I would like to begin highlighting some of our artisan’s crafted items. I would like all of our artisans to please email me or private message me via Facebook, pictures of your crafted items. I will then pick a picture to post with our prayers each day for as long as I have pictures to choose from. The only requirement is that you must be an enrolled citizen of our tribe and have a valid email address that can be included with your picture for anyone wanting to inquire about any of your crafted items they may be interested in. If I have time to include them on our website each day I will make every effort to do so, but my schedule may not always allow me to do this. This is your opportunity to show off whatcha got. Let’s see how long we can show off your beautiful work.
Thank you! Principal Chief Judy Dixon
dixonzoo@aol.com
I dropped the ball once again. I had every intention of posting our word of the month and got as far as the word for August -U na do da quo nv hi (pronounced oo nah doh dah kwoh nuh hee) – Monday. But then September came sneaking up on me and preparations for putting on the End of the Trail PowWow in Waterloo and I neglected to put up our word for that month – Ta li ne i ga (pronounced Tah lee nay ee gah) – Tuesday. As September snuck away in came October and our word for that month was Tso i ne i ga (pronounced Joh ee nay ee gah) – Wednesday. Then came the holiday season with our word for November – Nv gi ne i ga (pronounced Nuh gee nay ee gah) – Thursday. Finishing the year off with Tsu na gi lo s di (pronounced Joo nah gee loh ss dee) – Friday.
Here it is January and our new word of the month is U na do da qui de na (pronounced oo nah doh dah dwee day nah) – Saturday. What a mouthful!
Next month we will begin practicing the Cherokee word for the month. So February starts our new calendar of practice and maybe 2020 will be the year I remember to post our word of the month. I have an idea I am working on to go with this. Stay tuned and lets see where this new year takes us and if my idea works out or not.
Thank you for all your support and patience!
Chief Judy Dixon
My head is still reeling from the news that our dream is now a reality. We are owners of 5.8 acres of land just outside Guntersville city limits. It has already been cleared but is in need of being bush hogged. We have someone who is already prepared to get this done. We are all super excited and ready to start working on what needs to be accomplished so we can set up a temporary office and prepare to hold PowWow on our land, but first we have to wait for the closing to be completed. The attorneys handling the closing are trying to get this accomplished before the end of the year. So while we are waiting for this to take place everybody is working on a ToDo List. I am going to make an effort here to list as much of what will need to take place as I can.
ToDo List for UCAN tribe to establish temporary office at 221 Pleasant Hill Road, Guntersville, AL 35976
Priority number one will be to get together on the land and decide where to put the driveway and where we will want to locate the temporary office and where the permanent structure will be placed.
Since there are power lines running across the entrance to the property this may be the perfect area to place a parking area
Culverts will need to be purchased and put in place
We have purchased a trailer to be put on the land for storage. We have a great deal of stuff that will have to be stored until we can raise the funds needed to purchase and/or build a permanent structure.
Once we have a general layout of the land we can begin work on getting the power, water and septic tanks put in. We have several individuals with equipment that will help in getting the power and water set up, but we are still going to need all able bodies available to help get this done. The septic system will have to be put in by a contractor. We are already in touch with a contractor about getting this done.
Prayerfully someone will donate a mobile home that we can set up on the land for a temporary office
We have a new address: 221 Pleasant Hill Road, now we need a mailbox. This needs to be one that will stand up to baseball bats and other attacks. My own personal mail box is a large steel pipe made by my husband. It has been backed into, and assaulted with various weapons but no damage is ever done. We have picked up pieces from brake lights and even had to straighten the pole in the ground and add some concrete for added stability from time to time, but it has withstood every attack.
For our protection and the neighbors, we are looking at putting a fence up. This will likely only need to be across the front area. We will need help in researching the best place to purchase this. A suggestion was made to watch government sites for sales on these.
We will need to check into the phone and internet service.
We need to inquire about County noise regulations in the area so we do not get into any violations when we have our PowWow.
We need to make inquiries about getting our sign placed by the road and also make sure there are no rules governing whether a sign can be placed under the power lines. If we are allowed to put the sign up we will also need to look into having an additional, matching sign made for a two sided sign. We will need material to have the signs placed by the road.
We will be having a planning committee as soon as the closing is done. I am recommending that we set up a canopy, tables and chairs and do this on the land. My husband and I are considering bringing our Ranger so we can ride around the land and get a better picture of what we are looking at for layout planning. That will depend greatly on the weather at the time as to whether we will be able to do this or not.
I am horrible at remembering to take pictures so if you are attending any of the planning meetings or work sessions snap some pictures for us to share. I would like to keep a picture scrapbook of all of this so all can enjoy and be a part of this historical time in our tribe’s history. There are great many of our citizens who do not live locally and would take great joy in being able to be a part of this through pictures.
Any progress or activity that will be going on concerning the land will be posted on our Facebook page as well as our website so please keep checking to see what is taking place.
We are going to need all the able bodied individuals we have available to us to get everything done.
There is a great deal in the tribal office that will need to be packed and stored and a lot that will need to be disposed of, so we will need to look into getting a dumpster in place when we begin the packing stage of this project. The packing will be in stages. 1st stage will be display cases, books and items that are not used frequently and can be stored for an indefinite period of time. The 2nd stage will consist of items that we use occasionally, such as PowWow items. Those will also be loaded into the storage trailer but close enough to the door for easy access. The final stage will be the store front and general office equipment and supplies which will be needed in the temporary office.
Needless to say we have a very limited budget to work with so just because we have been successful in purchasing the land it does not mean we are no longer in need of funds. The land being purchased was just the first step. We now need as much help as all of you can offer us. For those in our tribal family that are unable to physically help with the work being done, you can still be a very big part of this effort. Go to the home page on our website and click on the donate button. If you shop at Amazon, sign in using smile.amazon and select our tribe as your charity to donate to. We also have been set up for donations to come from RADA Cutlery. We have a link on our Facebook page and our website that will allow you to shop from this amazing company and 45% of your purchase will be donated to our tribe. Be sure to select our tribe as the charity you are donating to. This is a momentous time in our tribe’s history and something we can all be very proud of. A lot of hard work went into making this dream possible and there are a lot of individuals that sacrificed of their time to work at fundraiser’s over the last 3 years. Many of you have been shopping at smile.amazon and encouraging your friends and family to do so as well. Since our latest fundraiser with RADA started we have received over $100 in donations from them. Several citizens have donated crafted items or family treasures for us to offer in silent auctions to help with raising funds. I know you are all tired of hearing me say it but I am gonna keep saying it until our final goal of having a permanent office, with a fellowship hall, classrooms and museum are completed…….we need your help. Everybody please donate, shop at one of our fundraisers, pay your communication fees. These are all ways that each and every citizen of this tribe can show their Native Pride and be an Active and Involved Citizen of United Cherokee AniYunWiYa Nation!!!!!!!!!
It is hard to believe how much work goes into making these videos. Thank you AMRV RC&D for providing the funding needed to work on this project and thank you to The Purple Tie Guys Robert Martin and Blake Singleton for doing such a great job on producing this video. We hope to add this video to our homepage (by clicking on About) but until then just click on the link before and it should take you to the video. Enjoy!
We have another item up for auction this month. It is a tomahawk donated by our Vice Chief Lowrey Hesse. We are asking a minimum bid $50.00. You can bid by emailing me at dixonzoo@aol.com. The money from the auction of this item will go directly into our land savings trust fund. If you are the winning bidder and this item must be mailed to you, you will need to mail a check in the amount of your bid and include an addition $15.00 for shipping. It will not be mailed until payment is received. The auction will end November 1, 2019 at 12 noon. Good luck.
Thanks to Sherman Dobson for sharing the information with us about this wonderful company that is offering another fundraising opportunity for our tribe. We are so close to having the money needed to purchase the land but still have a ways to go because of closing fees and additional funding that will be needed to start the work necessary to set up a temporary office. Then the next phase of the fundraising will begin if we are to have a permanent office with additional rooms for our fellowship hall, classrooms for crafting and language classes, a storefront and museum as well. We have many talented individuals in professions that will aid us in this process and they have generously offered their services to help with this effort. Please share this link with all your friends and family. Send it through all your social media accounts as well as email. Using this link will allow your friends and family to purchase the products they want and have them mailed directly to them. A portion of each purchase will go into an account for our tribes fundraiser. We will receive 40% from all purchases made through this link over the next 365 days. Please, please, please, do your part and get this out there. We can’t achieve our goals without your help. It is because of the efforts of all of you that we have made it this far, now let’s rock this fundraiser and make our dreams a reality! All funds received through this fundraiser will go directly into our land savings fund. The link to follow to shop with Rada Cutlery and help our tribal family reach their goal is:
https://radafundraising.com/?rfsn=3188908.4ca76d
Thank you for all your support.
Our last item for auction did not get any response so let’s hope this one will do better. Our item up for auction is a hand crocheted and special design from our sweet friends from the St. Patrick’s Day Parade the McCauley’s. Carol designed and crocheted this beautiful purse for us to auction for our land savings fundraiser. All bids can be made by emailing your bid to dixonzoo@aol.com. Please put silent auction item in Subject line of email.. The bidding will end at noon on September 13th. If you are the winning bid and need for this item to be shipped to you it will not be shipped until payment is received. You must include an additional $10.00 for the cost of shipping to your payment.
