MOCCASSIN

 

CHEROKEE : DAWES ROLLS : COUNT CONTROVERSIES : WHO GOT LAND

The Dawes Rolls were controversial in their time. They were a census of Native Americans. As we have seen, over time who was or was not a Cherokee, deserving of Tribal Membership, varied. At one point anyone who was Black and lived in the territory was a member of the tribe - if they were recognized or declared within 6 months. However some Cherokee had held slaves while others married Freedmen.

Excerpt page 116 - "On January 31, 1899. a vote was held to determine what to do with the proposed Dawes Commission Treaty; the conservatives lost by 2, 015 votes in their efforts to reject all agreements with the commission.  This draft agreement, though accepted by the tribe, was nonetheless rejected by Congress as insufficient.  An agreement was finally settled upon and adopted in 1902. In 1901 the Dawes Commission began working towards compiling the final tribal rolls to decide who got land allotments.  The commission ultimately broke down those residing on Cherokee land into three categories: Cherokees, whites, and freedmen. All told, the counted inhabitants of the Cherokee Nation numbered 41,824 total including 4,919 freedmen, 8703 "full blooded" and 27, 916 "mixed bloods"  There were over 1,000 freedmen who had previously been citizen 

Tribal Government ENDED.

The Cherokee (and other tribes) had their own rolls and were not in agreement with the governments, for they had expelled people or revoked tribal membership in the past, and the government tried to compare the two rolls as well.

Excerpt page 122 -

"The final Cherokee Nation rolls included 36,619 Indians, including 27,916 "mixed bloods" and 8,703 "full bloods" In addition, the commission included 286 whites and 4.919 freedman, bring the final total up to 41,824. These were made citizens of the Untieds States and (the state of) Oklahoma."

These past weeks, I've excerpted some important part of Cherokee Nation Citizenship by Aaron Kushner, a highly recommended book. There is more to the story, and if you find this of interest, please get yourself a copy or demand that your library get a copy for the shelves.

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MOTHERS DAY : A DAY TO SAY THANK YOU TO THOSE MOTHERLY PERSONS WHO NURTURED YOU

 

It's time to remember the motherly people in your life who raised you.

Ask her some questions about her own mother, your grandmother.

What stories have you never heard before?

LAKE COTTAGE

What a lovely old image, curtesy of Graphics Fairy.

When did you last go on vacation?

Did you go on vacations as a child? Where to?

What is your fantasy vacation?

 

ANCESTRY WORSHIP GENEALOGY

 

CHEROKEE : THE 1833 BEGINNINGS OF THE DAWES ROLLS : CRIMINAL WHITE SQUATTERS and the INDIAN PROBLEM : INCOMING SETTLERS THREATENED TRIBAL OWNERSHIP OF LAND

What a book this is!  I'm so glad author Aaron Kushner did not give into political correctness (as it is today) or go sentimental on us as he reported the complications of Cherokee Nation Citizenship.  So very many Americans are today seeking the truth of their ancestry and family history and many of them have heard they have some tribal ancestry as well. I would say that the Cherokee may be the most famous of all the tribes.

Excerpt page 107 -

"In 1883 a group of Eastern humanitarians, led by Senator Henry L. Dawes, began meeting regularly to discuss the "Indian problem."  They observed the influx of white settlers into Indian Territory and the lack of stable law enforcement therein; since the Cherokee Nation and other tribal nations could not prosecute crimes where an American was involved, lawlessness spread like wildfire, especially among white squatters."

Excerpt page 108 - William Ross was the leader of the Cherokee at that time.

"William Ross argued that their system (of communal tenure) created no "landless paupers" or "absent landlords" to brutally eject them; the Cherokee had among them poverty but not starvation.

By 1890 the white settlers were outnumbering the Cherokee and they wanted to acquire property. 

Excerpt page 110 -

"Undeterred by the Cherokee Nation or the half-hearted attempts made by the United States to escort them out, non-citizen whites continued to pour into the Nation. The most dangerous of these were those who advanced "some fantastic claim to citizenship, and who loudly demanded every privilege enjoyed by the Indians" despite tribal authorities repeatedly denying them access. Cherokee leaders soon found themselves operating a minority government in their own territory.  The United States census of Indian Territory of 1890 listed 56,309 inhabitants in the Cherokee Nation. 29,166 were coded white. 5,127 were coded Black, and 22,015 were coded Indian.

Excerpt page 111 -

"Up until 1887, Cherokee leaders had successfully resisted American pressures for allotment and territorial assimilation.  In 1887, Congress passed the General Allotment Act, better known as the Dawes Act, to turn the I*Indians into private land holders,.  By allotting land to individual in tribal nations, the thinking went, the total lands allotted would not equal the total acreage held in common by the tribes, the remainder would be left for white settlers and corporations to consume.  The Dawes act, however, did not app;ly to the Cherokees, Choctaws, Creeks,m= Chickasaws, or Seminoles because of prior Treaty agreements. Nevertheless, the writing was on the wall."  (These were the Five Civilized Tribes.)

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CHEROKEE AFTER THE TREATY OF 1866 : EASTERN BAND CITIZENS OF THE STATE RATHER THAN THE CHEROKEE NATION : LEAD UP TO THE DAWES ROLLS

In 1866, by defining who was a member of the Cherokee tribe/Nation, the Cherokee also determined that they could remove someone from the tribe.  This caused conflict as well... In 1866 it went to the Supreme Court

Excerpt page 105 -  "... The United States Supreme Court decided in the case of Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians v. United States and the Cherokee, Nation, Commonly Called Cherokee Nation West. ... the court ruled that, since Cherokees in North Carolina had "refused to join their countrymen in the removal to the lands ceded to them west of the Mississippi," they could claim nothing belonging to the Cherokee Nation in Indian Territory.  These people had, in effect, legally cut themselves off from the common fund of the Cherokee Nation.  The Cherokees in North Carolina were considered to be "citizens of the state."

Was there total cooperation with this by Native Americans or governmental agents? NO! And forced removal was called a refusal to go to lands ceded to them!

The Cherokee were now in conflict with the United States as the Treaty allowed for a couple railroads to run through their Territory and they were considered to be backward and against progress when they did not easily give up their lands. Their traditional way of life held that land was held in common. So there again, if a particular Cherokee was for giving up land to make way for "progress" rather than stay put, it was a tribal issue and a political one. Did it always have to do with just how "red" someone was?

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LOS ANGELES PUBLIC LIBRARY 100 YEAR ANNIVERSARY : MY RECENT VISIT : GENEALOGY AND HISTORY DEPARTMENT

I was recently able to visit LOS ANGELES PUBLIC LIBRARY - CENTRAL (downtown Los Angeles) which has a rich history since 1926. There are a number of museum quality exhibits at that branch and special programs will take place through this year at all branches. Of course, the Genealogy and History Department is my favorite.  Here are some photographs I took that might interest you!  

These "big book" displays featured the various departments 

at Central Library. It's a dynamic display.

"Tucked deep inside Central Library, the History and Genealogy Department is one of the most distinctive research destinations in the Los Angeles Public Library system. The department is home to uniquely curated holdings that chronical the history of Los Angeles, Southern California, and the people who've shaped the region. It has become the deep-dive research into genealogy, regional history, and maps."

"Here visitors can explore Maps of Los Angeles and the world, from nautical charts to Thomas Guides to one of the largest collects of USGS topographic maps in a public library.

Genealogy tools like family folders, county records, and news clippings, many carefully indexed by staff using resources not found anywhere else.

The California Index, a one-of-a-kind, online research tool that points to people and subjects important to Southern California."

CONGRATULATIONS  LOS ANGLES PUBLIC LIBRARY!

WHITE HORSE

 

CHEROKEES and THE CIVIL WAR : FULL BLOODED PRIDE MEANT TO BE OPPOSED TO WHITE SOCIETY : CHEROKEE AFFILIATE WITH CONFEDERACY : TRIBAL MEMBERSHIP CHANGES : TREATY OF 1866

Previously, the Cherokee, Creek, and Osage Nations who had suffered removal (Trail of Tears) from their territories and were now forced to live together  and signed a compact which was intended to establish unity - peaceful relationships and secure the general welfare. It was signed on November 2, 1843. The idea was to protect themselves from the United States.

Excerpt page 80 -

"Notably, Article I, Section 9, provided that "any citizen of one Nation may be admitted to citizenship in any other Nation, party hereto, by consent of the proper authorities of such Nation."

Excerpt page 81 -

"Throughout the 1840's and 1850's, as Cherokees settled into their new territory, the Nation found itself changing demographically... to be "full blooded" meant something more than racial pride; "it indicated a distinct social, political, and economic attitude" opposed to the impositions and relishes of white civilization. Traditionalists generally did not own slaves and largely disliked the practice... The tension (between Cherokee slave owners who were usually partly Caucasian and these Traditionalists) came to a boil by the time the Confederates asked the Cherokee Nation to join the Southern cause..."

The social divisions between Cherokee meant that there were different attitudes about joining up to fight in the Civil War, and because the Cherokee overall were cooperative, pressure was put up on them to do so, for the Confederacy, as the South was their original territory. Abolitionist Christian missionaries were also speaking out in South Carolina, Mississippi, and Alabama - wherever they had churches.

Excerpt page 83 - 

"In May 1861, "Confederate forces annexed the Indian Territory as a military district" and by October of that year, Albert Pike, Confederate liaison to Indian Territory, had convinced each of the Five Tribes (ie. The Five Civilized tribes - Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee (Creek), and Seminole nations) to join the Confederacy.

The Treaty of 1866 came after the participation in the Civil War proved to damage the Cherokee Nation significantly.  As Union troops came through, many defected to the Union side, but the conflict included political divisions within the tribe as well as the consequences of violence.

This Treaty redefined membership and there were significant changes in who could become a member of the tribe - or remain a member, and it emphasized blood. This means that increasingly blood quotients were aligned with political viewpoints.

Excerpt page 83 - 84

... "The new Treaty defined citizenship of the Cherokee Nation as belonging to all native-born Cherokees, all Indians and whites legally adopted by members, all freedmen liberated by acts of their masters, and all free Black persons residing therein."

It's stated by the author, Aaron Kushner, that this Treaty has had ramifications to this day on who is or is not a member of the tribe.

If you are tracing your Native American heritage, please check the changes in such rules or laws as you go back documenting your ancestors, and by tribe. In the case of Cherokee, or perhaps the other nations who potentially agreed to unification in 18 43, who was where in 1866? (Check all Federal and State census...) The Treaty also put into place a time limit or line for those who fit these definitions within 6 months of the Treaty. Because both removal from native lands to new territories and the Civil War, people were displaced, fighting, or traveling, hiding, or had other reasons why they might not have been able to declare themselves or be recognized within those 6 months. 

In the genealogy I mentioned researching in my first post of this series, I found that my client had reason to think that at least some of his relatives (if not his direct line) married into Native American tribes. He also might have had melungeon relatives. Though in the South, he stated that his family had never had slaves and did not believe in slavery. The families he was closely related to did not show up on slave schedules as slave owners.  However a potential branch of the family in the deep south did own slaves. I found that one side of his family did fight for the Union, signing up in other states,  but also that there were Confederate highway robbers among his relatives. Relatives on both sides had married Native Americans. At least one unrelated Native American in their agricultural community - a neighbor so to speak - had owned a good number of slaves. Presently this client likely has relatives who are members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee whose DNA test would show them to have Scottish - Anglo - possibly French Huguenot ancestors. These Cherokee in general were not marched as they remained in North Carolina, in the mountains, married with Europeans.

If you are seeking tribal membership, whatever the tribe, it is my strong suggestion that you continue documenting from the present to the past. Document entire families with birth, marriage, and death records, not just direct ancestry, find anything you can, because you may have success that way showing the lineage going back past the Treaty of 1866.

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POSTS ABOUT THIS BOOK WILL CONTINUE IN A FEW DAYS so STOP BACK!

CHEROKEE : 64 TOWNS : WARLIKE OR PEACEFUL? : SLAVERY BEFORE EUROPEANS ARRIVED : CHEROKEE ADOPTED BUT ALSO SOLD CAPTURED SLAVES : WAS IT RACISM?

Excerpt page 29 -

"By 1700, "the Cherokee Nation" consisted of sixty-four towns," loosely categorized as upper, middle, and lower, towns, depending on their geographical locations.  These towns, or villages, were politically autonomous.  Edmond Atkin, member of the South Carolina Governor's Council and Indian trader, reported on the status of Cherokee towns in 1755, noting particularly the difference between the upper towns and the lower towns. "The upper and lower Cherokees," Atkin wrote, "differ from each other, as much almost as two different nations."  The upper Cherokees were "much more warlike," yet were better protected by the mountains than their southern neighbors, the lower Cherokees, "whose Towns being the most and nearest (are much exposed), are glad to accept the Mediation of the South Carolina Government,: due to their more precarious position..."

The governments were identified by if they were "white" (peace loving) or "red" (war loving). However the Native councils themselves were not as dictatorial as state governments, allowed men and women to speak, even if what they had to say might be unpopular. Consensus, harmony and justice, was the goal. In the cases of murder or incest the council would prevail but punishment for lesser offences were often dealt with by public shaming. 

Excerpt: page 39 - 40

"Slavery existed in parts of North American long before European settlers arrived. Though slaves were traditionally taken as prisoners of war, according to historian Rudi Halliburton Jr., there appeared to have been a commercial traffic in some places as well. From the time of their earliest contact with Europeans, Cherokees had engaged in a practice of "quasi-slavery" and forced adoption among their Indian captives - a practice later used in the treatment of Caucasian and African prisoners as well... ...chattel Slavery as an institution did not exist prior to  European settlement.  Once introduced by English traders, Cherokees were quick to accept the European brand of slave holding as one of the benefits of white civilization. English traders in the seventeenth century began to establish themselves among the Cherokees through marriage and the spread of material wealth...  

Many Cherokees also took to institutionalized Slavery because of the benefits they received from stealing or returning runaway slaves.  English and French colonialists frequently urged Cherokees to sell them slaves stolen from the plantations or villages of their European adversaries. .... The return or barter of runaway slaves became so common that Cherokees were often known colloquially as 'slave catchers." .... "

But was it racism?  According to author Aaron Kushner, not exactly. The Cherokee were more focused on the otherness of both Caucasians and Africans and considered them both inferior... at least early on. Eventually, the tribe tackled with notions that would not see Freedman or  people of African descent as worthy of the same tribal membership status...

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MOUNTAIN COTTAGE

Where do you think this is?