Families are important to the Cherokee & Creek.  Cousins, uncles, aunts, and grandparents belonged to the same clan and often lived in the same town, close to each other in the past.  A totem may appear near their home to indicate their particular clan.  Members of the Deer Clan might have a deer's skull attached to the top of their totem. Potato Clan might put a potato on top.  Certain men and women, often elders, from various clans who lived in town, were selected to advise the 'mico', who governed it. 

The traditional mixed blood Cherokee lived along the side of their full blood cousins in the pre-1830's in large rural wilderness areas that were isolated communities of families and bands in vast tracks of land through out the greater Southeast of the U.S.

The mixed and full blood elders and ancestors had to make the decision to surrender and turn themselves in so they could survive as a People! They were forced to take missionary surname, embrace a alien Deity and the most hideous of act all... to have forced sexual relations with the white conquerors. The ultimate goal and reason our Cherokee men and women did this to lighten their skin color until they could 'pass for white'. It was the only way as the Real Cherokee People could survive and not become victims of more ethnic cleansing.