The Ross family is steeped in the history of the Cherokee Indian.  Numerous members of my family have been involved with the tribal government and politics for over 200 years, with the most well known of our family being my Great-great grandfather, John Ross.  He served as the (First Elected) Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation from 1828-1866, being re-elected every four years.  He served his people longer than any other Chief (a period of 38½ years).

After a stint in the military in the '60s, living in Florida, getting married and having children, moving back to Tahlequah and attending college and working at various endeavors as a student, I was there when the original movie, "Where the Red Fern Grows" was filmed in 1973.  I not only got to work on the movie, but also appear on screen as an extra several times.  Nearly twenty years later I gained some national exposure with appearances a couple of the episodes of Discovery Channel's award winning 13 part mini-series "How the West was Lost"  (1993) and also had an appearance in the History Channel's "The Trail of Tears" (1994),  by Greystone Productions.

After having moved back to Florida, then Tulsa and Oklahoma City, I returned home to Tahlequah in the early 1980s where in July, 1984,  I became the Curator/Site Manager of the Historic Site George M. Murrell Home and State Park, at Park Hill, Oklahoma.   The Murrell Home is the only remaining ante-bellum home in the State of Oklahoma, and is listed on the National Registry as a National Historic Landmark.  The home was built in 1843-44 by George M. Murrell for his wife Minerva Ross, a niece of Cherokee Principal Chief ~ John Ross.

The State of Oklahoma acquired the home and forty acres in 1948, for approximately $8000, and placed it under the Oklahoma Planning and Resources Board. They spent the better part of two years renovating the home before it was opened in 1950 as a free museum, and remains so today.  It depicts the affluent lifestyle of some Cherokee living in Indian Territory, prior to the War Between The States (1861-65).  For nearly forty-five years the State of Oklahoma saw fit to employ the services of members of the Ross family as caretakers of this beautiful home and property.  My father's sister, Jennie (Ross) Cobb, became the first Curator of the home.  Being an accomplished photographer, many of her early photographs (and personal accounts) aided greatly during the restoration of the home.  As a young girl (11), my aunt Jen, her parents and 3-4 of her siblings including my father (almost 7) moved into the home (aka Hunter's Home) in November 1894 (three days before Thanksgiving) and lived there until statehood in 1907 when another aunt, Lulah (Ross) Henderson, received the home as her Cherokee Allotment according to the dictates of the Dawes Commission.   There were countless members of the Ross family living at the Murrell Home up until 1994, a period of about 150 years.  The Home was often referred to as "The Ross House."

NOTE:  The advent of the 20th century brought many changes to the Cherokee People.  Just after Oklahoma statehood, first time that an individual Cherokee plus all Indians in the old Indian Territory actually owned the lands on which they lived.  Prior to this time, it was tribal land and held in common for all the People.  Since they had never owned land, they had absolutely zero real estate sense, ergo they became very easy prey for most unscrupulous white land developers and white attorneys causing a large portion of Cherokee lands to be lost forever to the white-man.  Thus making themselves very wealthy at the expense of the Indians.  As a cousin, Joanna Parris, said as she neared 100 years living in Park Hill, when asked about how the Indians felt about statehood.  She replied, "It weren't good, it weren't good."

My Aunt Jen and a younger sister, my Aunt Anne (Ross) Piburn**(see below), lived on the property from 1949-1959, renovating and conducting tours, they were instrumental in establishing the home as a destination for tourists to Cherokee country.  After Aunt Jen passed away, my Mother, Marguerite (Clay) Ross became the Curator and Dad, Mother and I moved there in May 1959.  For Dad it was like going home as he had essentially grown up in the home living there from 1894-1907.  Mother was curator from 1959-1966 when she reached the mandatory retirement age of 65.  Upon Mother's retirement another cousin, Macie Osburn, was there from 1966-1984.  It was during her tenure that the home was transferred to the newly formed Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department, Division of State Parks.  Upon the retirement of Macie Osburn, I was fortunate to become Curator, and returned to my childhood home.  Being part of a state agency, the Home was legislatively transferred to the Oklahoma Historical Society in July of 1991.  I remained at the Murrell Home until September of 1994 when I was arbitrarily transferred to Fort Gibson Military Park in Fort Gibson, Oklahoma.  With this not being an equitable transfer, I opted to leave the employ of the Oklahoma Historical Society (OHS) at the end of 1994 and set out devoting my time to sharing my knowledge of the Cherokee people and northeast Oklahoma across the country, by speaking on the history, heritage and culture of the Cherokee in addition to doing genealogical research for those interested in tracing and proving their Cherokee ancestry..

In September of 1997, the opportunity arose for me to move to Arizona to take a position at Casa Blanca Community School, on the Gila River Indian Community (GRIC) Indian Reservation with the Pima and Maricopa tribes.  GRIC is located just south of Phoenix, Arizona in Pinal County.   While at Casa Blanca, I served in numerous capacities with each year evolving into more and more duties/responsibilities.  Then in 2001 I became Transportation Director.  I continued to work with the cultural component for the school.  I would search out various artisans, elders, crafts-people, singers, storytellers, dancers, essentially anyone that could, and would, share their innate talents and traditions with our native students and members of the Community.  As a sideline, and with time permitting, I would speak periodically for various groups, schools, banquets, etc..

After leaving Casa Blanca and the Gila River Indian Community in July of 2003, I began devoting more time to completing a novel relating to my Cherokee ancestors as they were an integral  part of the Removal process during the Cherokee Trail of Tears.  I have let this project sit on the back burner far too long.  Today I am still pursing the completion of this endeavor and will hopefully get to see it published and ossibly turned into a major motion picture ~ or at the very least a movie made for television.

During the latter part of 2003 I worked with an Arizona State Charter School in the Tempe/Scottsdale area - setting up their transportation program, and a couple of other minor projects, all leaving me wanting more than just a job.  Ultimately this took me to the Window Rock Unified Schools in Fort Defiance, Arizona in March of '04, when I became Transportation Director for the District.  Unfortunately, in mid-2004 I was diagnosed with prostate cancer and opted to have the surgery to remove the prostate and hopefully the cancer as well.  The operation was successful, but still today, there are residual effects lingering.  The after effects of the surgery in conjunction with my choosing to return to work (too quickly and far too many hours - 12 to 14 daily), prompted me to resign my position at Window Rock effective March 1, 2005 - I returned to the Phoenix area, where I took employment as a charter bus driver.  It was pretty nice to have a job where I wasn't making life altering decisions 24/7, and so nice to be able to come home at the end of the day and, essentially, leave the job there, and not be tethered to a phone or a radio around the clock.

After nearly three years, of loving the type of work I was doing and the people I was working with, I found myself in a rather depressed mood most of the time and hating the irregular and erratic work hours, with never knowing if I was working the next day or not, which became quite unnerving.  I, ultimately, come to realize that this wasn't conducive to my maintaining a good sense of well being, so I began a search for something better suited to my needs, and came across a company which I felt met my  needs and desires.  So, the first of April (’08) I began working with a small, but growing, transportation company in Scottsdale, Arizona where I am driving a Trolley in 'Old Town' Scottsdale and some charters from time to time.   From what I've observed at this point, this company far exceeds all the expectations of the type of company I wish to be associated with.  They seem to be as excited about my joining their team, as I am to be joining them.  This is a company that won Phoenix Business Journal's A Best Place to Work Award in 2007 & 2009

Life is good and getting better and even more peaceful.  Being a Native Oklahoman there is always that lure tugging at me to return home, and yes at some point in the future I do plan to move back to Northeastern Oklahoma, but there is no definite timetable for this move (as yet), hopefully within the next year  ~ and as for me, the sooner the better.  I'm shooting for mid-2010.

As for my immediate family, my three children (Robert Bruce V, 38 ~ Kelli Lynn, 36 and Heather Margrit, 32) have given me seven grandchildren.  Bruce and his wife Carrie (nee Coleman) are in OKlahoma with a daughter (Tera LeeAnn, 10) and a son (Gavin Robert, 3 mos.).  He's been managing a large hay farm for the past 12 years. Over in North Carolina is Kelli and her husband  Rick Guy who have a daughter (April Lynn {nee Guy} Williams, 25) and a son (Austin Ross Guy, 10).  Kelli's been in the Marine Corps for over sixteen years and was just informed that she'll become a Master Sergeant at some point in the next few (6-8) months.  Heather (32) is in Florida and is a divorced mother of two girls (Jena Rene Kirby, 14 and Chelsea Lynn, 12).  The best of all is that everyone is healthy and doing well.  The worst of all is that they're TOO FAR AWAY FROM ME!!!!  I'm going to rectify that soon...

* * * * * * *
NOTE:  ** Anne (Ross) Piburn is the grandmother of internationally renown Storyteller, Gayle Ross, a Master Storyteller and author of several children's books.  She travels extensively, demonstrating her skills as a most captivating and mesmerizing, Storyteller.  One highlight of her career was during the 3rd Annual National Book Festival held in  Washington, D.C. on October 3, 2003 (213th anniversary of the birth of Chief John Ross) Gayle appeared (also her birthday) at the Library of Congress on the same program as Julie Andrews, Bob Schiefer, Tom Clancy and Stephen Carter when they spoke before: President and Mrs. George W. Bush (Laura Bush is the Founder of the National Book Festival); Cherokee Principal Chief and Mrs. Chad Smith; several members of the U.S. Cabinet and many Members of the 108th Congress.

Earlier in the same year, Gayle appeared on the Millennium Stage at the Kennedy Center in Washington.
If you'd like to view this performance click Here.
(Then scroll down to near the end and click on Play this Performance)

I also have another link I'd like you to check out ~ it's about my Father.  (FYI, he's No. 5 in the pic.) then read down to his stats.  I was very pleasantly surprised when I found this on the Internet ~ especially when I looked up on my living room wall and saw this same picture hanging there.

 

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