Cherokee Nation representatives visit Chicago to do research at the Newberry Library
CHICAGO (CBS) — A team of researchers from Oklahoma has been in Chicago all week at the Newberry Library on the near North Side on a mission to rediscover old stories about the Cherokee Nation.
A week in Chicago is a blur for researchers buried in boxes inside the Newberry Library.
"I have looked at so much. My brain is hurting."
"I am just now in my second box. I think," said Missy Earl.
Missy Earl and her team didn't come all this way to sightsee. She's from Tahlequah, Oklahoma. The group is in Chicago to travel back in time.
"The four blocks I've seen since I've been here has been really nice," Earl said. "We are digging through T.L. Ballenger's collection."
Thomas Lee Ballenger devoted his life to studying the history of the Cherokee Nation.
"This is his life's work," Earl said.
Work that's personal to everyone at a table in the library.
"It's the story of my family. It's the story of my people," Mark Harrison, Cherokee Freedman.
The Cherokee Nation is funding their weeklong mission to rediscover history. The collection includes detailed notes, letters, photographs, and transcripts, some over 100 years old.
"This is from 1866. This was the Cherokee delegation to Washington," Earl said.
"I don't want to go home just yet. This is the good stuff. We're getting to the good stuff," Harrison said.
The Newberry Library collection includes 15 boxes and 14 rolls, as well as a treasure trove of material. Researchers hope to catalog it all and bring back what they learn to the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma.
"We're probably the first researchers to touch these boxes in maybe 30 years," Harrison said.
"For us, it's an honor more so than anything to have community members here going these papers and looking through them," said Analú María López of the Newberry Library.
The collection may be housed in Chicago, but researchers carry history home.
"If you are a lover of history, I mean, this is your kind of stuff. This is definitely my kind of stuff," Earl said.