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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PHOTOS FROM WILMINGTON CEMETERY - SECOND OLDEST IN LOS ANGELES - LIST OF VETERANS OF THE CIVIL WAR

I don't believe in photographing gravestones that belong to people I'm not related to, but I did take a couple photos of MEMORIALS in this cemetery.  As stated on the previous post, there are a number of burials of military associated soldiers from multiple conflicts.

Wilmington Cemetery is said to have over 9000 burials but then most must be in unmarked graves. This list of CIVIL WAR SOLDIERS is interesting. I wonder if these are persons who died in the Civil War or who were veterans who had served and if they were all local men.  I also wonder if they ever lived at the Drum Barracks about a mile away.

I claim copyright on these photos but if you're using them for your personal Genealogy book that you're distributing to your family it's OK to use them i.e. noncommercial use.

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AFRICAN AMERICAN FAMILY RECORD CIRCA 1880 SHOWING PROGRESS IN FREEDOM

I love the Before and After the Civil War of the African American farm family illustrated in this chart, which is held by the Library of Congress Collection.  It was produced by Krebs Lithographing Company, Cincinnati, Ohio.  It's a chromolithograph and is circa about 1880, about fifteen years after the slaves were freed.

PRESIDENT GEORGE WASHINGTON's CASKET WAS OPENED

GEORGE WASHINGTON 1837 DISENTERED In 1837, George Washington's Remains Were Disinterred.  Here's What Was in the Casket.

There are commercials so I won't embed but this is a great video and the station "Life on the Civil War Research Trail" is terrific.

THE LAST SLAVE SHIP (CLOTILDA) by BEN RAINES : ANCESTRY WORSHIP GENEALOGY BOOK REVIEW

Subtitled, The True Story of How Clotilda Was Found, Her Descendants, and an Extraordinary Reckoning by Ben Raines

Fifty years after the Atlantic slave trade was outlawed, a ship full of slaves did indeed arrive in Mobile, Alabama. These Africans had faces decorated by scarification in Africa which would set them apart from other Black people already in the slave states. The voyage to Africa - Dohomey - and back was the work of businessmen who were also enjoying the prospect of flaunting the law and winning a bet as well hoping to enjoy wealth from the sell of humans. The descendants of these slaves founded their own town, Africatown, and as communities go, are close, bound by the history of their ancestors. The discovery of the ship was also an adventure, and takes up a good portion of the book.

The sailship Clotilda was built in 1855, and the voyage occurred in 1860, so while slavery was not yet outlawed, bringing more slaves in was.  It was captained by it's previous owner.  The eight-six foot two-masted schooner was not at all the type of ship best used for transporting slaves.  Usually a slave ship held between 500 to 1000 humans.  However - and I know this sounds ironic - but British and American authorities were on the seas looking for illegal slavers - and so this ship was not likely to catch their attention yet there were risks involved of arrest and the loss of their investments.

Page 29 "By the 1850's. thirty-six ships that Britain had assigned to its West African Squadron had captured sixteen hundred slave ships and freed 150,000 Africans en route to the United States. ... in May of 1860, just as he (Foster) was outfitting the Clotilda for its slaving run, U.S. revenue cutters around Key West intercepted three ships headed to port with 1,432 enslaved Africans on board." Page 30 "The outlay of $35,000 often brings $500,000." Page 32 ..."March 3, 1860, Foster kissed his wife goodbye and made the short walk from the boardinghouse (where they lived)...A heavy bag slung over his shoulder hid twenty-seven pounds of gold...

False papers ready, the ship was cleared for a run to St. Thomas...

Page 40 The Kingdom of Dahomey (West Africa) was "well known as one of the most violent and ruthless societies in human history... built on war."

Basically, this tribe of West African people waged war on others just to collect humans they could sell into slavery as a central part of their economy.  Page 40 "Historians estimate the Kingdom of Dahomey may have been responsible for capturing and deporting about 30 % of all the Africans sold in bondage worldwide between 1660 and the 1880's." The British had tried to negotiate with their King that this slave trade be stopped but was not successful.

Once the deals had been made, the ship did not depart immediately. The slaves were taken to Ouidah, and locked up in the barracoon*** for three weeks. This sea port had been build to accommodate the slave trades with forts that had been built by the French, Dutch, Danish, Portuguese, and English, and the newly captured were treated as good as cattle.  The slaves were young adults for the most part. 125 were selected but in the last moments, they Clotilda sailed away with fifteen left on shore, the abandonment costly, because it appeared they might be caught.  Most of these people had never seen the ocean or been on a ship. When they arrived in Alabama they also came into a foreign environment of swamps full of cane plants that grew 30 to 40 feet high, spiders, flies, and mosquitoes, and reptiles. They were held for eleven days, being kept a secret.  The secret could not be kept for long for the departure had been in the national newspapers and the return too. The men faced legal ramifications, which were not severe.

The slaves were sold, and the friendships formed in the months in which they had been held together were maintained.  Some of these people were interviewed and the content of those interviews still exists.

During the Civil war Page 117 "The last battle of the war was fought around the abandoned city of Blakeley, just on the other side of the swamp from the Meaher's sawmill and shipyard at Magazine Point.  You could hear the booming of cannons, which thundered for several days, from Meaher's front poerch, softening up the Confederate lines before the inevitable Union assault....  Sixteen thousand Union troops, including five thousand men in all African- American United States Colored Troops infantry regiments, fought four thousand Confederates for seven days.  In the final battle, the African-American infantry companies joined together, forming the entire right flank of the Union forces.  The African-American troops, comprised of the formerly enslaved and free men alike, suffered the highest casualties at Blakeley, but also won the final, decisive battle."

This book is about adventure and survival.  There is a lot to learn about this time and place in American history from it. 

C 2023  Ancestry Worship - Genealogy BlogSpot

*** A Spanish word that means barracks

CIVIL WAR HISTORY in CALIFORNIA : DRUM BARRACKS IN WILMINGTON and THE BANNING MUSEUM

1862 : Civil War action in California?  Well, not exactly.  In Wilmington California, which is not far from Long Beach and the Port of Los Angeles, there exists a historical site called The Drum Barracks where there was a military presence. If you're a Civil War buff or had ancestors in that conflict, this could be interesting. This historical site has reopened for tours with a reservation and proof of Covid vaccine.

DRUM BARRACKS ORG - WILMINGTON CALIFORNIA

At this site you'll get a good report on why there soldiers and officers on the Union site.  Basically California had become a state  a little more than a decade earlier but only 25% of the population voted for the Union side.  Texans captured Southern Arizona (half the territory) for the Confederacy.  Also a man named Phineas Banning, who was instrumental in the early foundation of a port which would expand greatly in the future, was a Unionist. So he and his peers wanted to keep the state for the Union. Thousands of soldiers were stationed in the area prepared to fight to keep the Confederates out of California and possibly battle in other territories such as Arizona.

If you're coming from a distance, you'll probably want to tour the Banning House at the same time as they are close to each other.

THE BANNING MUSEUM Link includes Virtual tour

Long before Covid shut downs I did manage to tour this house.  The visitor's center has the genealogy of the family on the wall.  The house dates to 1864 and has 19 rooms open to the public.  There is also a barn and other dwellings in the park that are part of the estate.

JEFFERSON DAVIS - AN AMERICAN PRESIDENT : DVD FILM REVIEW

JEFFERSON DAVIS - AN AMERICAN PRESIDENT The Life Story of the First and Only President of the Confederacy a Kultur DVD 


ANCESTRY WORSHIP GENEALOGY FILM REVIEW:

This 3 DVD set was so enlightening! I promise I will watch the film in its entirety one more time! I realized just how ignorant I was of the Confederacy. In this portrait of the man, I learned that until the Civil War Davis first and foremost considered himself an AMERICAN. He was an Army officer, a congressman, the Secretary of War, and a two term Mississippi senator, and one of the greats who found the Smithsonian Institute, and "largely responsible" for the current design on the U.S. Capitol. As things turned out Davis was on the wrong side of the Civil War and lead years of life afterwards in which he struggled to support his family or again live to his potential. Jefferson Davis also had a profoundly tragic personal life, like his old colleague Abraham Lincoln. His life spanned that of the 19th century.

_____

Personally, I dislike that various confederacy statues and historical displays are being taken down.  Just because the South lost?  Or because there is an assumption that the South, and all who were on that side, were all about racism - rather than economics. I realize this is not a politically correct opinion, but I think that if this continues, all the California Missions will be taken down too.  Off the go to "graveyards," but some day they will be refound and unveiled; this has happened in other countries.

Leave them up and learn history!  A tour guide can always make such things part of a discussion.  For instance one tour of a California Mission I took was guided by a fake Franciscan Friar in his brown garb with the rope belt and sandals whose personal opinion was against the Catholic Church. Believe it or not.  Yet I've met a couple Native American ancestry people who think that they are better off because they became Catholics - this is Arizona.

GENEALOGY DOCUMENTS sometimes prove that things taught in classrooms are not true.  For instance, I was taught Mexicans and Native Americans were always friends.
Some Americans believe all Native Americans were peaceful and unified when it fact some of them warred with each other.  Some Native Americans owned slaves, some married them, and I've seen that on census records. The Civil War issues split up some families.

So I like to say that history is "niche specific."

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ABE LINCOLN WITH THE BLUE OF HIS EYE : COLORISTS OF CIVIL WAR PHOTOS BRING HISTORY CLOSER

DAILY MAIL : CIVIL WAR PHOTOGRAPHS COLORIZED  by Alex Greig

British colorist Jordan Lloyd, 27, met fellow colorist Mads Madsen, 19, from Denmark when he started posting on Madsen's subreddit 'Colorized History'...

If you haven't seen this series of American Civil War Photos that have been colorized, you've got to check this link.  Abraham Lincoln, Robert E. Lee, Mark Twain, General Custer... so many others. 

I notice that when I see black and white photos I tend to think of the times they were taken in as very long ago. There is a distance there. When I saw film and photographs that had been taken in color of the World War II era, I realized that wasn't so long ago.  The feeling is the same here.

THE HUNT FOR JOHN WILKES BOOTH : HISTORY CHANNEL : DVD REVIEW by ANCESTRY WORSHIP GENEALOGY

Travel the escape route of President Abraham Lincoln's assasin John Wilkes Booth, as he eludes the biggest man hunt in American History to that point - April of 1865.

What I learned :

Booth may have been the shooter but he was part of a conspiracy that included several - some say many - others.

Booth heard so much anti- Lincoln talk among his confederate fellows prior to the end of the Civil War that he though he's be a hero and easily have a place to hide... So he and his conspirators thought that if they got into the South they would be safe.

David Herold was the co-conspirator who ran with Booth.

Several people - including a woman - were hung for their crime. A doctor who set Booth's broken leg was in prison for years before being granted a Presidential pardon years later.

CONFEDERATE VOLUNTEERS

CIVIL WAR PHOTOGRAPH

ALL OTHER NIGHTS a FICTION OF THE CIVIL WAR by DARA HORN : ANCESTRY WORSHIP BOOK REVIEW

I'm linking to Dara Horn's website here, and it can say more than I can about her amazing Civil War novel, which I just read - couldn't put it down. Stayed in bed most of the day reading, reading, reading...

https://www.darahorn.com/book/all-other-nights

It seems just recently in American history and genealogy that we've come to understand that though a small number of persons of Jewish religion or descent came as colonialists, some of them rose to great heights, including Judah Benjamin, whose picture was on Confederate money because he was the Confederacy’s Secretary of State.

In this novel, the extremely talented writer, Dara Horn, made her day job as a researcher for a history magazine pay off, basing some of her characters on men and women who actually lived in those times. There's a love story running through it too, but I don't want to spoil it for you...

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