There are several great sites geared to those of us interested in this particular research. It is not an easy task, would advise visiting these sites, doing a lot of reading. There are also several mailing lists, such as this Ivester list, who deal with Cherokee and Creek research. Just type in your brower window CHEROKEE GENEALOGY and you will find may interesting ones. The bottom line is documentation. Not the kind that we are accustomed to... but similar. Prepare yourself for perhaps years of work. I too have traveled this road over the years. To no avail, I might add. similar situation with and old quilt made my Fannie Franklin and her daughters and dau. in laws. Appeared to be hand sewsn symbols on this quilt that we suspected might be clues to our heritage. Mailed a close up picture(s) to the North Carolina Cherokee nations and had it looked at by some experts. They were very kind and in a few weeks we heard back from them. They stated that only one of the designs might have been similiar, tu nothing of any proof. You might want to get a good photo or tow of your PINE NEEDLE BASKET and do the same. That sounds really good! Yes, we also found some of our surnames in many of the Cherokee rolls, but surname alone does not prove anything. One must have proof via names of ones ancestry. These mentiond sites will be more detailed and actual applications can be found on-line to print out. There are also mention of several great reference books and genealogies available that will help. and these basic books are not that expensive. There are newer publications and available in libraries and book stores. It is there that one can get a grip on the reality of things. And find a starting place. North Georgia is full of "possible Cherokee/Creek" ancestry stories. And it does not surprize me at all. I am still following my own grandmothers maternal and paternal lines because of this same situation! It may be that the "Great Spirit" allowed many of us to be brushed with tiny traces of this First American Heritage in some small way, but the many generations that have passed, left us little to go on, for many of them were forced to hide their real genetics over the years. And we may never know the real truth. Never-the-less I still feel that out of all these stories passed on to us, that perhaps one of us may find something, yet. Good luck in your search. Drop in anytime... Judy