No.^TSr* ^''^' EASTERN CHEROKEE GROUPS — KUPFERER 303 



SELF-RELIANCE 



Middle Class.- — Self-reliance, self-discipline, and individual endeavor 

 are cardinal precepts of the Protestant Ethic. And it is to these 

 qualities that the Cherokee Middle Class Indians attribute their 

 success; it is to the lack of these qualities that the present status of 

 the Conservative is related, according to the Middle Class. 



"Persistence and personal effort pay off," said one informant. 

 "When my Daddy bought this land, it was nothing but an old broom 

 sage pasture. Now, because we built this business on it, and put 

 everything we had into it, some people are jealous." Another person 

 maintained that, "There could be a lot of rich Indians, but they won't 

 work." In reference to the proclivities of the Conservatives to 

 "loaf," one young person asserted, "I've worked for everything I've 

 ever gotten. If I lost my job tomorrow, I'd go dig ditches or wash 

 windows for a living, but I'd never starve to death." 



Utterances like those above are legion among the Middle Class. 

 But nowhere is their basic orientation better seen than in their criti- 

 cisms of Federal policies toward the Indians. Frequently, older 

 persons of this group refer to a period of 40 or more years ago as a 

 time of plenty : 



Everyone had hogs and cattle, and there was grain in the bins. Now look at the 

 land. It is going back to woods. Somewhere the Indian Service has missed 

 the boat ... it has encouraged dependence. They [Conservatives] can't cut 

 timber without asking; some of them even ask when they should plant their 

 gardens. You take an old bitch who has pupped in the woods; she and those 

 pups won't starve. But a house dog turned out will die . , . that's the way 

 with a lot of them. 



Another elderly informant said, "Why I remember the first time an 

 Indian begged here . . , and the Government is responsible . . . the 

 only thing the Government ever did for the Indian was to take away 

 his [sic] initiative." A nearly White Indian ^® complained: 



The Government keeps them [Conservatives] stirred up. Everything that 

 happens is blamed on the White Indians . . . Do you know for every single 

 Indian there are three Government employees . . . the reason they want to 

 keep the Indians down is so they can keep their jobs. 



A specific Government program that is roundly castigated is the 

 Federal welfare service. Indians of the Middle Class contend that 

 little good will come from welfare programs. "I don't like this 

 welfare business," asserted one woman. "There is work if people 

 would only go to it . . . they are just going to get big corns on then- 

 tails sitting collecting their relief checks . . . and I know kids right 

 now who think they are going to get money from the Government, 



29 Cf. p. 246, for discussion of "White Indians." 



