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GTEC Delegates meet with Governor Kemp and the Georgia Council on American Indian Concerns.
Georgia Tribe of Eastern Cherokee Council Chair Rhonda Bennett, and Georgia Governor Brian Kemp.
After organizing into a Tribe in the 1970's and being recognized by the State of Georgia as a Tribe, there have been several groups who have emerged to call themselves by our name. They have used our name in order to gain grants and other advantages for themselves. Over the years, this led to much confusion among our representatives in the State government. So much so, that then Governor Purdue requested the Georgia Council on American Indian Concerns to do a fact finding report in order to determine the legitimate Georgia Tribe of Eastern Cherokee.
The Georgia Council on American Indican Concerns submitted their report in November of 2007 (PDF). Their findings show the tribe, whose headquarters was in Dahlonega, Georgia, to be the Georgia Tribe of Eastern Cherokee as recognized by the State. These other groups spread disinformation and confusion during our petition to the Office of Acknowledgement (OFA) for federal recognition. The OFA did their own fact-finding study for each group and reached the same conclusion as the GCOAIC. The OFA stated that the group known to them as "Petitioner #41"- Georgia Tribe of Eastern Cherokee was the only tribe that was known to them and that the OFA would not entertain any other correspondence with these other groups. See the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Letter (PDF).
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