Martha Cheryl Harrison Baker was born on October 1, 1948 in Houston, Texas. Her parents and five siblings grew up on the road as they moved from base to base with their father, who was in the armed forces. Along with her parents, both sets of grandparents had big impacts in Baker’s life.

Her grandparents on her father’s side were Native Americans. Her grandfather was full blood Cherokee and her grandmother, half.

Some pivotal points in Baker’s life include her graduation from an Aurora, Missouri, high school in 1966, her conversion to Catholicism at age 18, her graduation from nursing school in 1969, receiving her bachelor’s degree at Missouri State University in 1983, her master’s at Mizzou in 1989 and her Ph.D at Mizzou in 1999.

She has two children, Cheryl and Greg, with her husband, Leon.

Baker grew up in a culture where it wasn’t “cool” to be Native American, but through her journey she has brought Cherokee spirituality and practice into her daily life and was elected to a leadership role of the White River Band of Cherokee in 1999.

Read all of Baker’s story and the rest of the Ethnic Life Stories Project stories by clicking here.

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Music is Bach Cello Suite no. 3 by Colin Carr from the Free Music Archive.

Episodes are edited, recorded, mixed, and published by Diana Dudenhoeffer.