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5 A Modern Creek Indian Reflection on Weatherford vs.Weatherford et al. Nina Gail Thrower (recorded and transcribed by Robert Thrower) This wide-­ ranging interview has been only lightly edited to preserve its character as a personal document.While the interview provides a personal, modern Creek Indian perspective on Weatherford vs.Weather­ ford et al., the case becomes a springboard for more wide-­ ranging reminiscences that touch on many topics of interest in contemporary Ameri­ can Indian studies. As former tribal archivist and enrollment specialist, Nina Gail Thrower brings to her reflection a very special native voice. It is offered here as an ethnographic source in its own right. ( J. A. Paredes) Saturday,July 11,2009 Atmore,Alabama When I first heard the document [transcript of Weatherford vs.Weatherford et al.] existed, I was so excited. I was just jumping up and down with joy because my ancestors, my direct ancestors, were witnesses in that trial. Since I was working on the research for federal recognition, I thought, “Oh boy, I am going to get to talk to them and ask questions and hear what they had to say,” so I was most excited. The only thing that was so frustrating about Weatherford vs.Weatherford et al., you had to read through so many pages. See, all I had was the actual microfilm, so [I was] reading that monster from page to page on that reader.And my reader didn’t have a printer, you know;it was just a reader. So I’d have to go and write down the question, and it might take me several days before I found the actual answer to that question on the micro­ film. Now, you know, we have a printed version of it and all of that, so you set and go back through the pages, you know, to see. But I thought, “Oh boy, I’m gonna get to hear Moniac and all of them and what they had to say about the situation.” Well, when I finally got to their reply, guess what they said? “I couldn’t say....I don’t have any idea....I don’t know,” and I thought,“Oh crap,sounds A Modern Creek Indian Reflection on Weatherford vs.Weatherford et al. / 167 like Granny Zeffie [Thrower’s grandmother] all over again.” Because,I don’t care what you would ask Grandma Zeffie Rolin, she’d say, “I don’t know. I couldn’t say.” Or if it was something that was really touchy, she’d say, “Well honey if you know that, you know more than I do.” So I thought,“These people,though it’s been generations,have not changed; they still got the same old reply to the same questions that anybody asks.” Same thing with my momma and her sisters. They would never be rude, or whatever; they’d just pass off questions and say, “Well, I don’t know what you say” or “If you know that, you know more than I do.” Aunt Vaden, my momma’s sister, she’d say, “I don’t care what your papers say,” and I’d tell her, “Well, the papers say this, or the document says this,” and she’d say, “I don’t care what your papers said. I know what’s what.” That microfilm,it was a monster,and you try reading that.The microfilm reader [that Thrower had available] was an antique;you could read it,but you couldn’t print from it. And so nobody around had one that printed, and still don’t.And [I] had fought for many years to get a reader that would print.And finally, . . . about two years ago we [Poarch Enrollment Office] finally got one.Man,I printed out that sapsucker just as fast as I could push a button.Before then,Tony [Paredes] had already sent me a printed copy,see.When I first read that, according to my knowledge, it had just been discovered that such a document existed. So we were doing good just to get a micro­ film of it. Now I also had a photo-­ static copy from the microfilm; it wasn’t a real good, clear copy like today’s Xerox copies, but it was a copy of some of that, but it was a copy of the actual film, so you’ve got all this “curtsey” writing and all of these curves to deal with.So,I’d have to read over that printed copy...

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