My grandmother was 100% cherokee and how to I find out my benefits?

Her name was Elizabeth Louise Goins and was in a Tennessee orphanage with her sister Jewel Goins. They later went to Muskogee, Oklahoma where they are both buried. We have been told since we didn't have a cherokee # to identify us, we have no recourse insofar as what we are entitled to as her heirs. I have a living mother and uncle and 3 cousins and for years we have been trying to find out what our rights and benefits are. Please help us in this endeavor.