Ty 'GWY' Wilson is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, a historian, author, filmmaker, artist, and community advocate from Tahlequah, the Nation’s capital. Born and raised in Tahlequah’s Lee Street neighborhood. The last predominantly Black Cherokee neighborhood in the 1970s and 80s. Ty grew up inside Cherokee life, shaped by the churches, families, and elders of Northeastern Oklahoma. His identity was formed in the community long before paperwork or politics entered the conversation.
Ty’s work centers on the history of Black Cherokees and Cherokee Freedmen. He is one of the founders and president of the Cherokees for Black Indian History Preservation Foundation. He serves on the Cherokee Nation Freedman History Advisory Committee and on the Board of the Oklahoma Blues Hall of Fame. Ty is the co-editor and a contributing writer for Oklahoma Black Cherokees. He is the author and editor of 1st: American: Cherokee. A bilingual Cherokee-English kids' book designed to help preserve the Cherokee language. Ty is also the author of Cherokee Freedmen: We Are Cherokee. This book is part of the BLACK CHEROKEE series, an ongoing effort to document and defend the stories of Black Cherokees as integral to the Cherokee narrative.
A multidisciplinary creator, Ty is an entrepreneur, jewelry maker, photographer, songwriter, and poet. He uses film, music, visual art, and the written word to carry forward the voices of the people and places that raised him. His love of the arts led him to produce and perform in the documentary The 1st Annual Cherokee History Symposium. The name "GWY," taken from the Cherokee syllabary spelling for "Cherokee," honors his Native American lineage and embodies both his personal journey and his commitment to telling Cherokee stories from the inside out.
Ty’s work centers on the history of Black Cherokees and Cherokee Freedmen. He is one of the founders and president of the Cherokees for Black Indian History Preservation Foundation. He serves on the Cherokee Nation Freedman History Advisory Committee and on the Board of the Oklahoma Blues Hall of Fame. Ty is the co-editor and a contributing writer for Oklahoma Black Cherokees. He is the author and editor of 1st: American: Cherokee. A bilingual Cherokee-English kids' book designed to help preserve the Cherokee language. Ty is also the author of Cherokee Freedmen: We Are Cherokee. This book is part of the BLACK CHEROKEE series, an ongoing effort to document and defend the stories of Black Cherokees as integral to the Cherokee narrative.
A multidisciplinary creator, Ty is an entrepreneur, jewelry maker, photographer, songwriter, and poet. He uses film, music, visual art, and the written word to carry forward the voices of the people and places that raised him. His love of the arts led him to produce and perform in the documentary The 1st Annual Cherokee History Symposium. The name "GWY," taken from the Cherokee syllabary spelling for "Cherokee," honors his Native American lineage and embodies both his personal journey and his commitment to telling Cherokee stories from the inside out.
Cherokee Freedmen: We Are Cherokee is a powerful work of nonfiction that reclaims a long-silenced history at the heart of the Cherokee Nation.
Written by Cherokee citizen, historian, and community leader Ty “GWY” Wilson, this book traces the story of Cherokee Freedmen from pre-U.S. Cherokee kinship systems through slavery in Indian Country, the Treaty of 1866, the Dawes Rolls, Oklahoma statehood, and the modern legal battles over citizenship.
Raised in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, during a time when Cherokee identity was lived through community rather than paperwork, Wilson brings lived experience together with historical research, treaty law, court cases, and oral history. He exposes how federal classifications and blood quantum reshaped Native identity, and how those systems were never meant to define who is Cherokee.
More than a legal history, this book restores the people behind the paperwork—elders, families, church leaders, and community members whose names were reduced to “et al.” and nearly erased from memory.
Clear, grounded, and deeply human, Cherokee Freedmen: We Are Cherokee affirms a truth rooted in history and community: recognizing Cherokee Freedmen descendants does not weaken Cherokee identity; it strengthens it.
Being Cherokee is not about fear of dilution. It is about honoring commitments, kinship, culture, history, and truth.
Written by Cherokee citizen, historian, and community leader Ty “GWY” Wilson, this book traces the story of Cherokee Freedmen from pre-U.S. Cherokee kinship systems through slavery in Indian Country, the Treaty of 1866, the Dawes Rolls, Oklahoma statehood, and the modern legal battles over citizenship.
Raised in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, during a time when Cherokee identity was lived through community rather than paperwork, Wilson brings lived experience together with historical research, treaty law, court cases, and oral history. He exposes how federal classifications and blood quantum reshaped Native identity, and how those systems were never meant to define who is Cherokee.
More than a legal history, this book restores the people behind the paperwork—elders, families, church leaders, and community members whose names were reduced to “et al.” and nearly erased from memory.
Clear, grounded, and deeply human, Cherokee Freedmen: We Are Cherokee affirms a truth rooted in history and community: recognizing Cherokee Freedmen descendants does not weaken Cherokee identity; it strengthens it.
Being Cherokee is not about fear of dilution. It is about honoring commitments, kinship, culture, history, and truth.