Madness Monday - The Standards For Sound Genealogical Research apply to Cherokee Genealogy Too

I have been taking a break from this blog in order to research and work on some other projects concerning Cherokees, but due to some recent comments, I think it is important to start writing here again on a regular basis. It is apparent some people simply do not understand exactly what makes one Cherokee. In my mind, it is pretty simple...one must descend from a Cherokee in order to be Cherokee, but some people just don't seem to get it. The fact that people want to do their Cherokee genealogy without following the Standards For Sound Genealogical Research drives me "mad"!

People offer all sorts of "proof" to show they are or someone else is Cherokee. They say their family escaped the Trail of Tears or hid out to avoid removal. They say their family refused to enroll. They say they speak the language, know the customs or follow the traditions. One reader even said it was obvious Johnny Depp was Native American because he directed and starred in a movie called "The Brave", has an Indian tattoo and has constantly spoke of his ancestry since early in his career. Probably the craziest thing I have heard came from a woman who insisted her grandmother was Cherokee because she was a mystic and wore moccasins!

Maybe to some, these claims sound logical, but to anyone who knows and understands Cherokee history, true Cherokee history, these claims are absurd. They don't understand that, even if their family did escape the Trail of Tears, hide out to avoid removal, or refused to enroll, their ancestors would still be found on earlier rolls. They don't understand that speaking the language, knowing customs or following traditions are things that can be learned by anyone and offers no proof of ancestry. They don't understand that there is no law preventing a white man from claiming to be Indian, starring in and directing a movie about Indians or from getting an Indian tattoo. They don't understand that these New Age beliefs and hippie-like attire are not Cherokee. And, they don't understand that Cherokee genealogy is exactly the same as any other genealogy. It must be verified and supported with evidence.

If you are one of those people who believes you will never be able to verify your Cherokee ancestry because there are no records or because the records were lost or the records burned up in a fire, I urge you to learn some actual Cherokee history instead of listening to what others say. The Cherokee people are possibly the most documented group of people in the United States and one of the most documented in the world. I have said it before and I will say it again, Cherokee genealogy is extremely easy and in my opinion, easier than the genealogy of whites. After all, the government kept track of Indians. Whites were allowed to move about and do whatever they wanted without the government recording it or keeping track of them.

In closing, I would like to share a few truths --- There are 30+ rolls of the Cherokee people dating back to before the forced removal. There are rolls with the names of those who did not remove from the east on the Trail of Tears. Not enrolling on the Dawes Roll was not an option - people were arrested and forced to enroll or informants gave the information for them. Because of the previous rolls, the Dawes Commission knew who to look for and inquire about. If your family is not found on any of the rolls of the Cherokee people, then there is only one logical conclusion to make - they were NOT Cherokee. All the other claims and reasons people give (many listed above) don't hold water and certainly don't adhere to the Standards For Sound Genealogical Research. The ONLY thing that makes one Cherokee is decent from a real Cherokee who is found in the historical documentation of the Cherokee Nation. Basing your genealogy on anything else means you are writing a work of fiction based on what you want to believe rather than what the evidence shows. "Genealogy without proof is mythology."

Those are my thoughts for the day,
Thank you for reading,

CC
The Granddaughter

copyright 2010, Polly's Granddaughter - TCB

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Ancestor Stealers

Recently, I have noticed a new trend among those claiming Cherokee ancestry--"ancestor stealers". Instead of providing a well researched, documented family tree to verify their ancestry, quite a few people are now basing their "Cherokee ancestry" on fabricated family trees. These trees quite often have the names of real Cherokees in them, but there is no connection between the Cherokee and the person who put the tree together.

For example, I saw a tree this week from a person who claimed to be the descendant of the well known Cherokee Nancy Ward. At first glance, the line of direct descendants seemed fine, until you noticed that Nancy Bean, a real descendant of Nancy Ward, was listed as the mother of William E. Bean., the tree creator's great great grandfather. The problem with that information is that all of Nancy Bean's children had the surname Johnson, her married surname. The family is extremely well documented and Nancy Bean Johnson had no son named William, let alone one named William E. Bean.

Normally, I might think the mistake was an honest one, but in this case, I don't believe it was. The woman the tree belonged to is touting herself as a person who is revitalizing and teaching the Eastern Cherokee language dialect. She gets involved in anything she sees online that says it is Cherokee. Her daughter has won an essay award meant for Native American children and has started crafting Indian style items. This woman has several fabricated family trees online where she makes it look as if she does descend from a Cherokee from very distant history. It seems no matter what it takes, she is going to try to convince people she is a Cherokee.

Often I am asked why we Cherokee people get so mad about wannabes. Well, the example above is one of those reasons. Unless you are truly a Native American, I don't think most people can begin to understand the length some frauds will go to in order to try to claim to be one of us. We understand that there are some people who truly just want to learn their ancestry, but we are also aware of many people who don't care what their actual ancestry is--they are going to claim to be Cherokee, no matter what they have to do--even if that means stealing someone else's ancestors and claiming them. This makes the true descendants of that person angry.

If you are researching your ancestry looking for verification of a Cherokee family story, please only use information that you can support with documentation. Be extremely wary of ANY family tree you find online. You don't know where that information came from and you don't know the goal of the person who posted that tree. Even if they are not an "ancestor stealer", they could be very bad at genealogical research.

No matter who your ancestors were, whether they were Cherokee or other, they deserve to be remembered and honored by you. By claiming someone other than those you actually descend from, not only will you be an "ancestor stealer" but also denying your true ancestors the place in your family history they deserve.

Those are my thoughts for today.
Thank you for reading.

CC
The Granddaughter

copyright 2010, Polly's Granddaughter - TCB

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The Dawes Roll is Not the Only Proof

Often times, people will claim they are Cherokee, but they can never prove it because their ancestors are not on the Dawes Roll. They claim their ancestors hid from the Dawes Commission and refused to be enrolled. Or, they claim their family escaped the Trail of Tears and hid out or passed as white. To some, these stories may seem logical or realistic, but to those knowledgeable in Cherokee history, those stories seem absurd. There is so much documentation on the Cherokee people throughout history, it would be nearly impossible for one not to have been recorded as Cherokee on some document or roll. Recently, my friend, David Cornsilk, responded on a message board to a person (CR) who seems to think the Dawes Roll is the only document containing any information about Cherokee ancestry and also believes (his words, not mine) "those who ... ... followed the Dawes commission around like a dog hoping to get some land have descendants who get to claim to be Cherokee."

To this, David responded with, "There were many full bloods, some of my ancestors included, who refused to enroll on the Dawes Roll. They followed Redbird Smith's orders and avoided enrollment; at least until their neighbors testified for them. I think the point that CR is trying to make, which is only partially correct, is that some Cherokees did not get on the Dawes Roll. This we know is factual. However, just because something happened in the past does not mean it happened to his ancestors.

There are many tragedies and triumphs of the Cherokee people. The names of our ancestors do not just appear on the Dawes Roll. They appear on the 1896, 1894, 1890, 1880, 1876, 1851 (3 rolls in that year alone), 1835 and 1817 rolls. There are a number of other documents created inbetween that list the names of Cherokees living at those times. There are documents from the early 1800s including missionary records that mention the names of Cherokees whose descendants are among those enrolled in subsequent years. My ancestors are nobody special. Just your average Cherokees. Yet their names appear on EVERY roll and in every document. My blood kin through collateral lineages are listed throughout the Cherokee records. That is how it is for real Cherokees.

On the other hand, the fakes, not naming any names, find absolutely no ancestors or kin of any kind among our people no matter what record we look at or how far back in time we go. The bottom line here is proof. And whether CR or anyone else dislikes the Dawes Roll because their ancestors names do not appear there is not important. That Roll, despite whatever flaws it may have is OUR history, our record, the names of OUR ancestors appear there. And the same can be said for every Cherokee record that predates it. Those records belong to us because the Cherokee tribe of Indians belongs to us and none other.

Fakes and wannabes claim their ancestors were hiding from the Dawes Commission, then I ask where are the names of your ancestors in any record that would have alerted the Dawes Commission to search for them? They claim their ancestors remained east of the Mississippi after the Trail of Tears. Yet my ancestor Collins McDonald, his in-laws (who were Cherokees), his Cherokee wife and his Cherokee children actually did remain in Georgia. They appear in numerous records, not passing themselves as whites, although they could have. They were living as Cherokees and their names appear in the 1848 and 1851 Rolls of Eastern Cherokees, just the same as all the other Cherokees who remained. Yet the fakers and wannabes have no ancestors on those rolls. Why? Because their ancestors were not Cherokees!

Before the Trail of Tears a roll was made that lists 16,000 Cherokees who were destined to be removed. Again, my ancestors names are there, the fakers who claim their ancestors jumped off the Trail of Tears are nowhere to be found. In the early 1800s missionaries came among our people to educate our ancestors and convert them to Christianity. They made copious notes in journals of the children they taught and the families they met. My ancestors are mentioned throughout those journals. My ancestors are listed as students in the mission schools in Georgia in 1820. Are the fakers and wannabes listed? No, their ancestors cannot be found there.

Logic does not reign supreme in the mind of the wannabe. They twist our history and torture the names of our ancestors to fit their own family scenarios. They invent parents for Cherokees long since dead who cannot protest this bastardization of their family names. The fakes call out names such as Moytoy the first through the fifth, Great Eagle, Tamedoe, Cornblossom and other blasphemous corruptions of our ancestral heritage to make themselves appear to be Cherokees, and all of this without so much as a shred of evidence to connect themselves to a Cherokee, let alone a Cherokee to the fabricated names they force upon us.

If any part of our heritage belongs to the fakers and wannabes it is the heritage of theft that has left the Cherokee Indian landless and poverty stricken. Ethnic Identity Theft is the ultimate form of genocide. The white people and their descendants who invaded and colonized our homeland in the Southeast are no longer happy with just owning the land we once called home. Now they must rise up and steal our name."

So my fellow genealogists, the next time you hear someone give a reason as to why they cannot prove they are Cherokee, think about the information David shared with us. If a person cannot find one iota of evidence to support their family story, then it is highly unlikely they have any Cherokee ancestry at all. It is just that plain and simple.

Those are my thoughts for today.
Thank you for reading.

CC
The Granddaughter

**A very special thank you to David Cornsilk for allowing me to use his writing.

copyright 2009, Polly's Granddaughter - TCB

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Tombstone Tuesday - Remembering Uncle John F.

Johnson Fisher Carey, the youngest child of Dick and Nancy (Fisher) Carey, Cherokee Nation citizens, was born September 19, 1934. He attended Valley School and Wyandotte Indian School as a boy. He later enlisted with the U.S. Marine Corps and served in Korea. Johnson was named after his maternal grandfather, Johnson Fisher, but was called John F. by his family. Because he was the baby of the family, he was adored by his siblings. Like his seven brothers, he excelled at music, art and athletics.

John F. was a wanderer after he left the military and one day, he hopped a train on one of his exploits. He never made it to his destination. On September 24, 1978, he was murdered by a group of hobos and thrown from a train in Wyoming. After several months, his body was returned to his brother, Aaron, in Oklahoma. He is buried in an unmarked grave between his brothers, Mike and Donald Ray.

John F. never married and never had children.

copyright 2009, Polly's Granddaughter - TCB

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Currently Researching These Surnames

The Cherokee family names I am currently researching are Tucker, Keener (or Kenah), Birdchopper, Scott, Henson, Whitekiller, Shade and Cochran. These families were all from the Lost City/Melvin/Hulbert area at the time of the Dawes/Miller Rolls. Not all are related to each other and not all are related to me. If anyone is researching these family names and needs help, contact me and I will be glad to help if I can. Also, if anyone has information about these families they would like to share, that is always welcome!

Thank you.
Those are my thoughts for today.
Thank you for reading.

CC
The Granddaughter

copyright 2009, Polly's Granddaughter - TCB

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Stealing the Identity of Indians

On my father's side, I have ancestors who immigrated to the United States from Germany. I don't speak German and I don't know anything about German history other than the few things I have learned from world history classes. When my German ancestors left their native country to become citizens of the United States, they had to renounce their citizenship to their old country and swear their allegiance to their new one. By doing so they not only forfeited their own citizenship and rights to their native country, but also that of all their descendants.

What if I decided I wanted to be German, but since the government there would not recognize me as a citizen, I started my own nation called "The German Nation of the United States"? What if I sold citizenship cards to other people who were also not accepted as German citizens? What if I and my fellow "Germans" started having gatherings where the public was invited to share in our versions of German culture and learn our versions of German traditions? What if we sang songs in our version of the German language? What if we told our family stories and said they were part of German history even though those stories were in direct contrast to actual German history? What if we said we were the "free Germans" who refused to be held under the iron fist of Hitler or any other German government? What if we petitioned the United Nations for recognition as our own nation? Would this be absurd? Of course it would. Would it be an insult to real German people? Of course it would. If someone did something like that, it would be viewed as terribly wrong and people everywhere would oppose it.

If it is wrong to do this to a recognized nation in the world, then why is it okay to do it to a federally recognized Indian nation? Federal recognition is not something handed out willy nilly by the government. Recognition is a legal term that means the United States recognizes a government-to-government relationship with a tribe. Tribes exist politically in a “domestic dependent nation status” with the government of the United States. Federally recognized tribes have historical interactions with the United States through treaties and agreements. These tribes must also have continuous American Indian identity in a distinct community. In other words, these tribes, as a whole, must have continuously identified as American Indian and lived in a geographically defined community that was specific to that tribe.

For Cherokees, this means after the forced removal, one had to be living either in Indian Territory or among the Eastern Cherokees in North Carolina. There were no other Cherokee communities in the United States that had a government to government relationship with the United States. Any former citizens of the historical Cherokee Nation had renounced their citizenship and had become citizens of the United States, just like any other person who had left the nation of their birth. This means they not only forfeited their own citizenship and rights to the Cherokee Nation, but also the citizenship and rights of all their descendants.

There are only three federally recognized Cherokee tribes in the United States, the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. But, there are over 200 fake Cherokee tribes masquerading as authentic Indians. These fake tribes are often composed of people who have no documented connection to the historical Cherokee Nation. Despite this, these people claim to be Cherokee and start their own "tribes" since they are not accepted by any of the three authentic tribes.

These "tribes" offer membership with little to no proof of any Cherokee ancestry required. They hold gatherings and pow wows where they "teach" their ideas of Cherokee history and tradition. They sing in bad versions of the Cherokee language and tell their family stories as if they are actually part of Cherokee history even though there is no proof to verify what they claim. These "tribes" call themselves the free, disenfranchised or lost Cherokee. Often the people in these tribes claim their ancestors refused to "sign the roll" or refused to bow down to the government. These tribes clog up the federal recognition process with their attempts to become accepted and recognized as Cherokees. Is this absurd? Of course it is. Is this an insult to real Cherokee people? Of course it is. But, people do this all the time and few people, other than real Cherokees, see anything wrong with it.

Well, there is something wrong with it. These people are making money by impersonating Indians and in my opinion, it is both morally and criminally wrong. After all, if I made money by pretending to be a well known person, I would probably be arrested for criminal impersonation. These fake tribes should be no different.

The authentic Cherokee tribes are made up of descendants of those listed on either the Dawes or Baker Rolls. Those rolls include the names of citizens who stayed with their nations; helped clear and farm their nations' land; helped build their nations' businesses and schools; participated in their nations' governments; and defended their nations in times of war and unrest. Through their loyalty to their nations, those Cherokee citizens paid the price for their descendants to have the right to call themselves Cherokee. No one else has that right. In the past, everyone wanted to steal our land. Now they want to steal our identity. What is next? Our first born child? Oh, wait, that's been done already..........When will these crimes against Indians stop?

Those are my thoughts for today.
Thank you for reading.

CC
The Granddaughter

copyright 2009, Polly's Granddaughter - TCB

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Surname Saturday - The Cherokee Fishers

My great great great grandfather, Johnson Fisher, was the first generation of my Fisher ancestors to use that surname. On the 1852 Drennen Roll, he was listed simply as Johnson. His father was listed as Fisher. No surnames were attached to either of them. By the time the two men enlisted and fought with the 3rd Regiment of the Indian Home Guard, they were using the names Fisher Hatchet and Johnson Fisher. As you can see, Johnson Fisher took the first name of his father as his surname. This was a common practice among the Cherokees when asked for a surname. Since he was Johnson, the son of Fisher, he became Johnson Fisher on records recorded by English speakers. Later, when the children of Johnson Fisher applied for the Guion Miller Roll, each stated the name of their father was Johnson Fisher and the name of their paternal grandfather was Fisher Hatchet.

To people who are used to researching their ancestors who always used both a given name and a surname, they assume it is nearly impossible to trace Cherokee ancestry. This is not true. There are many records of the citizens of the Cherokee Nation. Sometimes family groups are listed on the rolls or censuses. The Old Settler Payment rolls list the names of a person's heirs and the relationship the heir had to the original payee. The Guion Miller applications often have both the Cherokee and English names of the parents and grandparents of the applicant. Sometimes even the names of aunts, uncles and cousins are listed.

Often times, people will claim to have Cherokee ancestry but then say they can't prove it because there are no records. Hopefully by sharing the history of my Cherokee surname Fisher, I have helped dispell that myth. I have tried to show how our Cherokee ancestors can be traced, even when the family did not follow the traditional naming conventions of the English. It may take a little more time and require a little more work, but Cherokee genealogy is not impossible.

Those are my thoughts for the day.
Thank you for reading.

CC
The Granddaughter

copyright 2009, Polly's Granddaughter - TCB

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Don't Pretend You Know Us

Not long ago, I read an article in a small town newspaper about Oklahoma. The writer had a lot of negative things to say about the state. He said the terrain looked like something you would see in the pictures from the Mars Rover. He also said they really play up the "Native American thing" there. He talked about dilapidated houses and said the Native American way was "a gun in one hand and a bottle of whiskey in the other." At the end of his article, he even said Oklahomans would make good pets!

I am not sure if the article was the worst attempt at satire I had ever seen or if it was the true feelings of the man, but either way, I was highly offended. But, I have heard other outsiders say similar things about any area that is inhabited by a large population of Native Americans. Because of this, I feel the need to address such ideas and misconceptions. I cannot stand back and allow such things to be said without adding my own insight on the subject.

My mother lives in Oklahoma and I travel there as much as possible, because in my opinion, there is no other place like it on the face of the Earth. It is the land where my people, my Cherokee ancestors, rebuilt their lives after being forced from their homes by the United States government in 1838. It is the land where they lived and loved and died. It is the land where my great grandpa cut hair for a living and where my grandpa played the fiddle to entertain his family. It is the land where my great grandma danced around teasing my aunt and the land where my mother was born. It is the land of my people and it is precious to me.

Of course they "play up the Native American thing there". That is because there are Native Americans, or as my family calls ourselves, Indians, there. Before Oklahoma became a state, half of that land was called Indian Territory. And, I guess the land is rather barren and might resemble the pictures you see from the Mars Rover. But, you must remember, it is the land the government gave the Indian Nations long ago. Why did they give it to the Indians? Because it was seen as having little value and it was the land no one else wanted.

So, my ancestors and many other Indians moved to that untamed land and started new lives there. They built their homes, cultivated the rocky soil and raised their families. The Indians from the Five Civilized Tribes did not live on reservations. Their land was considered nations within a nation. They had their own governments, constitutions and laws. They had businesses, schools, jails, and everything else the whites had.

When whites started to see how good the Indians were doing, they decided they wanted to live there too and they started squatting illegally in Indian Territory. By 1890, the whites in Indian Territory far outnumbered the Indians. In the early 1900s, after pressure from all the whites, the government took the land back to include it as part of a new state. They broke up the Indian nation land through allotments. Ownership of the land was a new concept to Indians therefore much of their land was quickly stolen or cheated away from them by greedy whites. So, once again, those families had to start over....just like after the Removal of 1838.

Then, as if enough Indian land had not already been taken away, in the 1940s, the Corps of Engineers decided to put in the lake. And, they had to condemn lots of Indian land. So, many of those Indian families who had managed to hold on to their allotments were forced off their land by the government yet again. And, yet again, those families had to start over.

My family has a humble little home in Oklahoma. To outsiders, I am sure it wouldn't look like much and I imagine they would find some reason to make fun of it. But, that is because they would see it through the ignorant mind of an uninvited visitor. Anyone who knows the history of the house and the land would appreciate what it stands for and what it means to the family that owns it.

The house stands upon the land my beloved cousin bought after she had to leave her grandmother's allotment in the 1940s. My grandpa helped build the little house that stands on that land after he came home from serving in WWII and spending six months in a POW camp. That is the house and land where my Cherokee family and ancestors spent time and lived. It may not look like much to others, but it is priceless to us.

Maybe outsiders see some parts of Oklahoma that they feel are just not as modern as the rest of the United States. Too bad they don't take the time to explore the history of those places to discover why things are that way. Much of what people talk about sounds like poverty stricken areas to me. If one wanted to learn why there is so much poverty, they might discover that the oppression of the Indians is not just something that happened hundreds of years ago, but something that has happened repeatedly and even within modern times.

There are people living today who were forced into Indian schools and not allowed to speak their native language or follow their native traditions. These schools were not pleasant places. The goal of these schools was to make the Indian child as 'white' as possible. Today, many native languages and traditions are dying because of such acts by the government. Indian children were taught that being Indian was a bad thing. Imagine growing up believing that your whole sense of identity is bad! How much damage would that do to a young mind?

These acts of oppression led to things like alcoholism, poverty and depression. Maybe that is why some people think it is in the "Native American tradition" to do things with "a gun in one hand, and a bottle of whiskey in the other." But, these people are wrong. This is not a Native American tradition. Stop and look around the United States. There are very few Native Americans, but there sure are a lot of guns and an abundance of alcohol. People are falling back on a stereotype of Indians and it is nothing short of racism.

Personally, I find nothing funny about racism. If the writer of the article I mentioned had written that he had visited Harlem and said the people who lived there would "make great pets", I have no doubt, that column would not have been published. I don't understand why a column written about Oklahoma, which is known as "Native America" should be any different. Such comments and opinions show that little has changed since the whites started invading our nations hundreds of years ago. Since we don't look or live as you do, we are viewed as inferior and a topic of disgust or entertainment. This is unacceptable.

It is time outsiders realize they cannot bend and twist and shape us into the image of themselves. We have repeatedly overcome attempts of forced assimilation. We have repeatedly rebuilt our lives after everything has been taken away. Maybe we are not where we want to be yet, but we will get there. Until then, please refrain from making judgments about Native Americans. If you don't know our history, then you don't know anything about us. Please don't pretend you do.

Those are my thoughts for today.
Thank you for reading.

CC
The Granddaughter

copyright 2009, Polly's Granddaughter - TCB

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Wordless Wednesday - "The Old Country"

copyright 2009, Polly's Granddaughter - TCB

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Tombstone Tuesday - In Cherokee - Alsie Sanders

Cherokee baby - Alsie Sanders

This stone is in the Cherokee font. About 70-75 years ago, Looney Henson translated the stone to his niece. He told her the stone said "Alsie Sanders, daughter of Joe and Maudie Sanders." Alsie was a baby when she died. The stone is very small -- only about 12 - 18 inches tall.

Those are my thoughts for today.
Thank you for reading.

CC
The Granddaughter

copyright 2009, Polly's Granddaughter - TCB

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Can you tell by looking?

"I have a picture of my great great grandma and you can tell she is Cherokee by looking at her. She has long black hair and high cheek bones." I have heard this more than once and I bet you have too. Often times, people who have family stories of Cherokee blood use the "you can tell by looking" line when all the documentation says their ancestors were white. Like I have said before, I have seen full blood Cherokees, mixed blood Cherokees and whites my whole life. I can't tell by looking who does and who does not have Cherokee Indian blood and I don't think most other people can either. So, today, I have set up a quiz called "Find the Cherokee Indians". All you have to do is look at the picture of the person and then decide whether you think they have Cherokee Indian blood or not.




How do you think you did?

There are 10 pictures of people who were listed as Cherokee by Blood on the Final Dawes Roll. Those people are found in pictures B, F, R, S, T, V, Y, Z, AA, and FF.

There are 13 pictures of people who descend from someone listed as Cherokee by Blood on the Final Dawes Roll. Those people are found in pictures C, H, I, J, K, M, N, O, P, Q, U, BB, and CC.

There is one picture of a person who died before the Final Dawes Roll, but her descendants are found on the Dawes Roll as Cherokee by Blood. That person is found in picture D.

The people mentioned in the three groups above are the only people in the pictures who have Cherokee Indian blood.

The people in pictures A, DD and EE are white. The people in pictures G and L are Creek. Those in pictures E, W, and X are Yankton Sioux.

Hopefully, this little quiz helped show you CANNOT tell one's heritage or nationality by looking at them. And you sure can't tell that your ancestor was Cherokee from a picture! If you want to find your true family heritage, it is best to put the family stories aside as well as the pictures. Dig into historical documents such as census records, tribal rolls and immigration papers to determine the race or nationality of your ancestors. That will be a lot more accurate than a guess based on what you think your ancestor looks like from a picture.

Those are my thoughts for the day.
Thank you for reading.

CC
The Granddaughter

copyright 2009, Polly's Granddaughter - TCB

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Cherokee Genealogy - Part 3

There are lots of places to find more information about your Cherokee ancestors. I have already posted information about the Dawes and Miller roll applications, but I wanted to share some other sources I have used to find additional information on my family.

If you know you are Cherokee and have ancestors listed on the Dawes Roll, you should find those ancestors listed on the 1900 US Census as living in Cherokee Nation, Indian Territory. This is the first US Census that included the Cherokee Nation. If you don't know if your family is listed on the Dawes Roll, then you should pay particular attention to where your family was living on the 1900 US Census. If they were not living in Cherokee Nation, then they most likely are not going to be found on the Dawes Roll. Since the Dawes Roll listed those who were citizens of the Cherokee Nation, only those living in the nation legally are included on it. Any Cherokee who might have left the nation prior to the Dawes Roll will not be listed. Any intruder who was not a legal citizen will not be listed on it. If anyone needs a look up on the 1900 US Census, I have a link in my sidebar where you can post a query and get a FREE look up.

Two of my personal favorite sites to search for information on my Cherokee ancestors are The Doris Duke Collection and The Indian-Pioneer Papers which are which are part of the University of Oklahoma Western History Collections. I usually just enter the surname of the family I am researching and it pulls up several interviews. Of course, they are not always about my ancestors, but sometimes they are. I found an interview by a traveling preacher who said my great great grandfather was the "best Indian friend he ever had". I also found an interview that told about a man that had a falling out with one of my ancestors. The man went to kill him and my ancestor killed him instead! Though none of that information really helps complete the data in my family tree, it did give me insight into the life and times of my family.

Some of my most helpful information has come from Cherokee elders who lived in the same areas of my family. I don't "interview" them, per se, but just visit with them about my family. I do take notes, and sometimes have a list of questions I want to ask them, but not always. Usually once we get the conversation started, the information just starts flowing. I always knew my great grandma's mother died young, but had no idea why she died. While talking to an elder one day, she made a comment about how sad it was my great grandma never knew her mother who had died in childbirth. That was when I finally solved the mystery of my great great grandmother's death! About eighteen months after my great grandma was born, her mother died in childbirth with the next child. If I had not talked with this Cherokee elder, I might have never solved that mystery.

Some other places I have found a little information on my family are The History of the Cherokee Indians by Emmet Starr and articles from The Cherokee Advocate. If you get lucky, you might find something about an ancestor in Gideon's Indian Territory Biographies (not a full list). Sometimes you can even find a tidbit of info in the Chronicles of Oklahoma. All of these sources are free or fairly low cost (the cost of a phone call to an elder or the cost of copies of an article) and worth checking. So, have fun searching and let me know if you have a question or need help.

Those are my thoughts for the day.
Thank you for listening.

CC
The Granddaughter

copyright 2009, Polly's Granddaughter - TCB

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The Myth of the Cherokee Grandma - Part 1

I bet you are wondering who Polly is, aren't you? Well, she was my Cherokee grandma. I know, I know, just about everyone has a Cherokee grandma, but mine is real. I know her name and where she was born and where she died and who her parents were and who her husband was and who her children were. She was born to citizens of the Cherokee Nation East and moved with them when they relocated to Indian Territory. She was listed on every Cherokee roll that was taken from the time of her birth in the 1830's to the Miller Roll. Her existence is well documented and I have a paper trail that leads from her all the way to me.

If I seemed to have gone overboard on what I know about my Cherokee grandma, it is only because so many people claim to have one. Of course all my Cherokee friends have Cherokee grandma's or else they wouldn't be Cherokee, but there are a lot of other people who claim to have Cherokee grandmas too. If you are Indian, you have undoubtedly met at least one of these people in your life. Since you are Indian, these people seem to feel obliged to tell you about their Indian grandma. They rarely have a name to go with this grandma. They just know they have an Indian grandma, often Cherokee, often full blood. They have always heard stories about her.

The story is almost always the same. Here is "The Myth of the Cherokee Grandma".

I had a Cherokee grandma. She was a full blood. Not sure how far back she is in the family tree, but she was able to escape the Trail of Tears and then marry my grandpa. She was able to pass for white so the family never talked about her Indian blood because it was not good to be an Indian back in those days. Later generations didn't talk about her much because they were ashamed of her being Indian. We have tried to research her, but can't find anything about her because records on Indians were so rare.

This is a VERY common story. Oh, there will be a few minor differences to each story that is told, but the ultimate point of the story is to explain why the person cannot tell you who their Indian grandma was and why they cannot register with one of the three Federally Recognized tribes. When someone tells me this story about their family, I always wonder if they realize I have already heard this story at least 100 times before. I wonder if they have any idea how many other people tell a very similar story. And, I wonder if they realize, it is not mathematically possible for every person in the United States who claims to have a Cherokee grandma to actually have one. The historical Cherokee Nation just wasn't that large.

So, I know I might have gone a little overboard on stating what I know about Grandma Polly, but I didn't want her to be perceived as one of those mythological Cherokee grandmas some other people have.

Those are my thoughts for the day.
Thank you for reading.

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