Our Mission
To preserve, protect, and perpetuate the heritage, history, and living culture of the Cheraw Monacan people — for those who came before us, for those alive today, and for those not yet born.
Every grant we pursue, every archive we build, every child we teach, and every elder we support is an act of fidelity to that mission. The work is not symbolic. It is survival.
What We Do
Our programs are organized into four areas of sustained commitment. Each reflects a need our community has expressed and a gap our Foundation is positioned to fill.
Program I
The Oral History Project
We are actively recording the testimony of our elders — the children and grandchildren of those who fled Oscarville, who remember what Beulah Rucker told them, who carry the family names and the family stories. These recordings are being archived in partnership with tribal records and will be preserved for future generations. Time is not on our side. This work cannot wait.
Program II
Youth Heritage Education
Working with families and community educators, we are developing age-appropriate curriculum that tells our children the true history of their people — the Fort Christanna treaty, the paper genocide, Oscarville, Beulah Rucker, and the unbroken chain of names and families from Brunswick County, Virginia to Hall County, Georgia. Children who know their history do not grow up searching for it.
Program III
The Archive & Records Initiative
Family Bibles, photographs, land deeds, death certificates, newspaper clippings, church records — the documentary evidence of our community's existence is scattered across attics, drawers, and boxes. We are building a centralized, professionally maintained archive that will serve as the permanent institutional record of the Cheraw Monacan people. Digitization. Preservation. Public access.
Program IV
Annual Gathering Support
Every June, five hundred of our people gather. The Foundation provides logistical, financial, and programmatic support to ensure that gathering continues — that it grows, that it deepens, and that it remains the living heart of our community. No other program matters more than the one that simply puts our people in the same room.
Program V
Community Assistance Fund
Our elders gave us everything. Our families carried the names and the stories through every displacement and every attempt to erase them. The Foundation maintains a direct assistance fund for tribal members facing hardship — medical needs, housing, emergency support. Because sovereignty means nothing if we do not take care of our own.
You Don't Have to Be Cheraw Monacan to Be Welcome Here
Our primary focus will always be our tribal community — the people whose names, families, and histories are the reason this Foundation exists. But we also recognize that understanding is a bridge, and bridges run both ways.
The Cheraw Monacan Heritage Foundation actively engages the general public through programs designed to foster genuine understanding of who we are, where we come from, and what our continued presence means for the broader history of the American Southeast. These are not outreach programs in the charity sense. They are invitations to learn the history that was hidden from everyone — not just from us.
Public Program I
Public Lectures & Educational Presentations
The Foundation hosts and sponsors public lectures on Cheraw Monacan history, the Piedmont Siouan peoples, the Fort Christanna treaty, the paper genocide, and the survival of indigenous communities in the post-Removal South. These events are open to community members, students, educators, researchers, and the general public. Our history is not a secret. It was buried. We are unearthing it — and we invite you to witness that.
Public Program II
Community Building & Cross-Cultural Events
We believe that neighbors who understand each other build better communities. The Foundation organizes and participates in community events that bring Cheraw Monacan people and the broader Hall County and North Georgia community together — not for performance or spectacle, but for genuine connection. Food. Stories. History. Shared ground.
Public Program III
Educational Partnerships
We work with schools, libraries, cultural institutions, and community organizations to bring accurate Cheraw Monacan history into educational settings. If you are an educator, librarian, or program director who wants to bring our story into your space — we want to hear from you. Reach out through our contact page.
We are not here to perform our identity for the public. We are here to share our history with anyone willing to receive it honestly — and to build the kind of understanding that makes erasure impossible a second time.
Programs in Development
As the Foundation grows, so does our capacity. The following programs are in active development and will launch as funding and infrastructure allow.
A Beulah Rucker Scholarship Fund for tribal youth pursuing higher education. A language documentation partnership for the preservation of the Tutelo-Saponi linguistic heritage. A permanent tribal cultural center in Hall County, Georgia.
These are not distant aspirations. They are the next chapter. The Foundation exists to make them real.