Estanko Brothers and Sisters . . . and Happy Poskita! My four month camping journey through the Southern Highlands is over. I am now living near Blairsville, GA in a house! The focus of my research was originally to once and for all, determine where Spanish explorers de Soto and Pardo went in the 1500s. That was pretty much accomplished. However, when I discoved that the core members of the Snowbird Cherokee Band looked just like the famous basalt heads and jade figurines created by the Olmecs 3200 years ago, another intellectual journey began . . what was the REAL history of the Cherokees? What I eventually discovered was that both ethnically and historically, the Cherokees were always intwined with the Creeks or the ancestors of the Creeks. In fact, the first group that South Carolina settlers called Chorakees spoke a dialect that mixed Muskogee, Hitchiti, Yuchi and Siouan - but would have been understood by any Creek at that time. Most of the famous leaders of the Cherokees in the early 1800s were of predominantly Muskogean and Scottish ancestry, but considered themselves Cherokees. Only the Ross's and the Vann's were of Scottish and Algonquian-Cherokee heritage. Here is the URL for the ten articles I wrote on the subject. Scroll down to Part One to begin the saga. http://www.examiner.com/x-40598-Architecture--Design-Examiner Have a blessed day! Richard Thornton