For as long as Granny could remember, some of our men-folks worked for the "guv-mint", doing tracking. The state of GA had a prison system called GA chain gang, and it was for this branch of government that my kin/ancestors worked as trackers. They found escaped convicts who had managed to survive in the swamps and for this work were paid in dollars. Quite interesting to remember what our men did with the dollars: they dug holes and buried them! LOL----our folks did not go into town, needed nothing from the town so they buried the money. It was their belief that it was incredibly wasteful to pay with dollars as one could do nothing with it. Now, given good knives or a flat-bottom boat; some snakes to skin, some gators to cut up, a large fish for the village---that would have been perceived as adequate compensation. One day, the guv-mint officials told my folks/ancestors they now had to use tracking dogs, Bloodhounds, to find the escaped convicts. Seems our men took umbrage at this suggestion their tracking was not adequate, and there ended their work for the guv-mint. Note: The above applies to our Village only; Granny was born mid-1800's, her Mama early 1800's, so this imparted information was not of recent occurrence; just thought some might find it of interest. Fran Chinquapin

Its very interesting. Thank you for sharing it Fran. Your story's would be a great "Life Story" to be passed down to your family -----Original Message----- From: cherokee-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:cherokee-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Fran West-Powe Sent: Tuesday, April 15, 2014 9:10 AM To: CHEROKEE@rootsweb.com Subject: [Cherokee Circle] work done by our folks For as long as Granny could remember, some of our men-folks worked for the "guv-mint", doing tracking. The state of GA had a prison system called GA chain gang, and it was for this branch of government that my kin/ancestors worked as trackers. They found escaped convicts who had managed to survive in the swamps and for this work were paid in dollars. Quite interesting to remember what our men did with the dollars: they dug holes and buried them! LOL----our folks did not go into town, needed nothing from the town so they buried the money. It was their belief that it was incredibly wasteful to pay with dollars as one could do nothing with it. Now, given good knives or a flat-bottom boat; some snakes to skin, some gators to cut up, a large fish for the village---that would have been perceived as adequate compensation. One day, the guv-mint officials told my folks/ancestors they now had to use tracking dogs, Bloodhounds, to find the escaped convicts. Seems our men took umbrage at this suggestion their tracking was not adequate, and there ended their work for the guv-mint. Note: The above applies to our Village only; Granny was born mid-1800's, her Mama early 1800's, so this imparted information was not of recent occurrence; just thought some might find it of interest. Fran Chinquapin ======*====== List archives http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/index?list=cherokee ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to CHEROKEE-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message