Once a Rebel (16 page)

Bestselling author Sheri WhiteFeather has worked as a retail manager, a video makeup artist and a freelance leather artisan. She credits her husband, a member of the Muscogee Creek Nation, for inspiring many of her stories. Recently, Sheri chatted with us as she took a break from writing her latest book.

Tell us a bit about how you began your writing career.

When I was young, my teachers encouraged me to be a writer, but I didn't get the bug until I was in my thirties and was searching for a new career path. I'd been reading romances for years and the idea of writing a romance bloomed in 1996 when I came across an adult education class entitled “How to write a romance novel.” I took the class and met Judy Duarte. A short while later, Judy introduced me to Crystal Green. After the three of
us formed a very solid, very supportive critique group, we made our first sales.

Was there a particular person, place or thing that inspired this story?

This story was inspired by the fictional Fortune family. I've been a fan of the
FORTUNES OF TEXAS
series even before I got published.

What's your writing routine?

I write full-time. Very full-time. Eight to twelve hours a day. Six to seven days a week. Sometimes I stay up all night. As for my routine—I wake up and go to work. That's it. I wash my face, brush my teeth, put my hair in a messy ponytail, grab a quick breakfast (or lunch, depending on how late I slept in) and park my butt in front of the computer. Then the creative process begins. I take short breaks throughout the day to interact with my family, but I always end up back at the computer until bedtime.

I don't write very fast, so I have to put in long hours to complete my books. For the most part, this is natural for me. I love to write, and I'm a workaholic. But sometimes my schedule is exhausting and I feel like I'm living in a cave. That's why being online and chatting with readers is so helpful. Knowing you're out there makes me feel more connected to the world.

How do you research your stories?

I research every aspect of a book, which often accounts for my twelve-hour workdays. I buy every research book I can find, browse hundreds of Internet sites, join message-board groups and conduct personal interviews. For several books (including this one), I called the FBI and asked them about their procedures. Although they weren't allowed to answer all of my questions, they recommended some FBI-sanctioned reading material that made a world of difference. I can't tell you how impressed I was with their willingness to help.

How do you develop your characters?

My characters are born from the conflict that surrounds their lives. I usually create the hero and heroine first, then plot their story after I have a better understanding of what makes them tick. Once I know what's troubling them, I can help them come to terms with their emotions. Sometimes I feel like a curbside psychologist, which is strange since the heroine in this book
is
a psychologist.

When you're not writing, what are your favorite activities?

I like shopping in vintage stores and dining in eclectic eateries. I love bookstores, too, especially locations with gourmet coffee bars. The
atmosphere relaxes me. There's nothing better than mocha cappuccino, a cozy table and a compelling book.

If you don't mind, could you tell us a bit about your family?

I'm married to a man who is a tribally enrolled member of the Muscogee Creek Nation. He is a talented silversmith, leather artisan and veterinary technician. We have two children, a handsome son and a beautiful daughter. Our son was born in 1986, and our daughter was a “secret baby.” In 2001, a psychic in New Orleans predicted that someone from my husband's family was searching for him and that this “stranger” was extremely important. Several months later, we learned that he had a nearly grown daughter from a previous relationship and she was looking for him. Both of our children are featured in the Photo Album on my Web site at www.sheriwhitefeather.com. Feel free to drop in to see their pictures and read about them.

What are your favorite kinds of vacations? Where do you like to travel?

I don't get to travel that much, but I love taking research trips. My husband and I look forward to the day when we can travel extensively and I can write my books on the road.

Do you have a favorite book or film?

Legends of the Fall
and
Gone with the Wind
are two of my favorite movies. Nora Roberts, Sandra Brown, Lucia St. Clair Robson and Kathleen Eagle are some of my favorite authors. Sherman Alexie's work fascinates me, too.

Any last words to your readers?

Thank you so much for supporting my books. Reader appreciation makes all of those long hours worthwhile. Hearing from my fans is a blessing. I don't have a P.O. Box anymore. We've moved several times and the addresses in my backlist books are old, but I can be reached through my Web site.

Over the years, I've received quite a few letters and e-mails from readers sharing their family histories with me. Some people are registered with their tribe and some aren't. Some don't even know what tribe they're from. Others claim that their great-great grandmother was a Cherokee princess. Others were weaned on stories that their great-great-great grandfather was a famous chief.

I cherish each and every one of those correspondences and appreciate the heartfelt emotion that went into them. Some readers have offered their family histories as research material. One dear reader told me about the half-blood child she gave up for adoption. It's been over forty years, but she thinks of her “baby boy” often.

In this day and age, a lot of us are interested in our roots. People are documenting information
for family trees. But for those of you aspiring to know more about your Native American heritage, take heed. There is no such thing as a Cherokee princess and being related to a famous chief (even if it's true) doesn't necessarily make you Indian. There are millions of people with Native ancestry, but the government and tribes consider someone American Indian if he or she belongs to a federally recognized tribe.

Registering with your tribe depends on your situation. Individual tribes have the exclusive right to determine their own membership. Tribal governments formally list their members, who must meet specific criteria for enrollment. Some require a person to trace half of his or her lineage to the tribe, while others only require proof of descent.

There are a good number of Indians with full-blood and mixed-blood lineage who are unable to register. For example, a Cherokee whose ancestors weren't living in Indian Territory in Oklahoma during the original rolls (dating back to the 1800s) won't be able to prove his or her descent to the Cherokee Nation.

Another example would be a full-blood who descends from too many tribes to have enough blood quantum percentage of any one tribe to meet their enrollment requirements: for instance,
he or she is one-fourth Indian from four different tribes, but all of those tribes require that their members be half bloods.

The scenarios are endless. There are over five hundred federally recognized tribes in the United States, as well as over two hundred federally non-recognized tribes, with many that are petitioning for federal recognition. Individual tribes have their own culture, language, tradition and history.

My husband, Dru, is a tribally enrolled member of the Muscogee Creek Nation. He also has a CDIB card (Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood) from the BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs).

Dru also has Cherokee blood, with an ancestor on the early Cherokee rolls to which his lineage can be traced. But even so, he wouldn't be able to register with the Cherokee Nation because he is already a member of the Creek Nation, which doesn't permit dual citizenship. However, documenting his Cherokee ancestry would increase his blood quantum with the BIA, combining his Creek and Cherokee heritage on government records. Dru has some Choctaw blood, as well, but he is unsure if his Choctaw ancestors are registered.

Our daughter, Brenna, is enrolled with the Creek Nation, but our son, Nikki, has gotten
caught up in red tape because of a discrepancy on his birth certificate. My husband's middle name was accidentally omitted from Nikki's birth certificate, and according to the citizenship board's requirements, the Indian parent's name has to be an exact match. Amending Nikki's birth certificate is not as simple as filling out a vital statistics form and sending in a small fee (which we had hoped for), but it can be done through the court system in the state in which our son was born.

Overall, this isn't a deep issue in Nikki's life. For him, it doesn't change who he is. He knows he is part Indian, just as he is part Italian (from my side).

At some point, he intends to amend his birth certificate and enroll with the Creek Nation or maybe the Cherokee Nation if he decides to pursue the required documents for his Cherokee lineage. Since he is currently unregistered, he will have the option of choosing between the two tribes. When this article goes into print, he will be nineteen years old. There is still plenty of time.

Nikki's great-grandmother didn't register with her tribe until she was an adult, even though her father has been on the rolls since the early 1900s, when he was just a child.

This brings me to the purpose of a person
tracing his or her Native American roots. If you are looking for money, scholarships or any other benefits that you think comes with being Indian, please consider that very few tribal members receive monetary gains (no, they are not all mega-casino owners.) Many reservations have substandard living conditions. The government rarely provides scholarships and assistance programs. And when they do, the requirements are quite strict.

If you are emotionally compelled to connect with your heritage or if you are tracing your roots for your family tree, then your heart is in the right place. But no matter what, it might not be an easy task.

If you are still interested in following this path, here are few tips to help you along the way. Start with basic genealogical research to obtain ancestors' names, birth dates, marriages and deaths, and places where they lived. Interview everyone in your family, as well as family friends. Try to obtain census records, beginning with the most current and working backward. Go to your local library and check the Internet. There is a wealth of information online. I found thousands of Web sites dedicated to American Indian genealogy. There are online classes you can take, as well as sites that offer free information. Quite
a few Indian tribes have official Web sites, so you can poke around and see if they have a genealogy/tribal enrollment section. The Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma's Web site www.cherokee.org refers to a heritage center with a genealogist available to assist people in researching their Cherokee ancestry. This service comes with a fee, so unless your tribe has a genealogist for hire, don't expect them to get involved. Although your tribe can tell you what their registration requirements are, locating your ancestors' names, vital records and tribal enrollment history is your responsibility.

However, if you or an ancestor of yours was removed from your tribe by a non-Native parent or through adoption, you should seek help from your tribe, as many Indian Nations have reunification programs.

For those of you interested in obtaining a list of certified genealogies who specialize in Indian research, write to: The Board for Certification of Genealogies, P.O. Box 14291, Washington, D.C., 20044.

For queries about family records, write to: National Archives and Resource Administration, National Resource Branch, Civil Archives Division, 8th and Pennsylvania Ave., NW, Washington, D.C. 20408.

And don't forget about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints; they have the world's largest family library. Records are available at 35 North West Temple Street, Salt Lake City, Utah, 84150-3400. They also have family history centers throughout the world.

For those of you who live in Canada and are of mixed blood, you have the option of registering with the Canadian government as Métis.

You can contact the Métis Culture and Heritage Resource Centre at:

MCHRC, 506-63 Albert Street,

Winnipeg, Manitoba, R3B 1G4, Canada.

And finally, I posted a list of genealogy links on my Web site for your convenience. I also have an American Indian FAQs section with a hundred questions and answers compiled by Native American journalists. Please feel free to visit my Web site at www.sheriwhitefeather.com.