Jeremy Turner
Name: Jeremy Turner
Tribe: Choctaw/Cherokee
Tribal Position: None
Profession: Firefighter/EMT
Education: B. A.in Biology from Purdue University
Favorite Sports: Football and wrestling
Hobbies/Special Interests: Hunting, fishing, trapping, and horseback riding
Religion: Traditional
Ways you celebrate being an American Indian: 18th Century French and Indian War re-enactments, and pow wows.
Ways you preserve your culture and heritage: By doing re-enactments of the French and Indian War and the American Revolution. I also speak to groups and at schools about my culture.
Do you speak your tribal language? No
Misconceptions: That we all get money from casinos. That we all lived like the plains tribes in “Dances with Wolves.” I don’t like how movies portray Natives as just bloodthirsty savages, who only wanted to kill & “scalp” people. Most people do not realize that our ancestors were just trying to protect their families and their way of life. Our wars were no different than the war that the U.S. is engaged in now. We were just trying to keep the European invaders from destroying us and our homes. American Indians have been fighting terrorism since 1492!
Offensive words/actions: When people pretend to give the “war cry”. The way that movies (Westerns) wrongly portray the way we spoke then & now.
Jeremy Turner at home.
Jeremy Turner at Anthony Wayne historical marker dedication.
