Catawba -- Saponi -- Melungeon; Ch. 13: The Sun Rises in the East, and Sets in the West

CHAPTER XIII, THE SUN RISES IN THE EAST, AND SETS IN THE WEST 

Pockets in the East -- Indian Communities East of the Mississippi, 1948; 

per a Report by the Smithsonian Institute

We have just dispelled the lies that the Melungeons were of Portuguese ancestry for fear of the Jim Crow Laws. I was yelping for joy, as I knew this was the exact result you would expect if the original Melungeons were a small band of American Indian, who were dying out. This small remnant community married with Caucasians and Africans, to produce the present population of mixed blood people.

But then they had assumed the straight male line or straight female line would tell them about the Melungeons. However, it tells them only of the ancestry of the LAST male and the last female of the genealogical line. Since ALL of those tested had European surnames, it told of the original Caucasian branch of these families. Surnames tell us of our male line as well. My last name is Hawkins, so my y-chromosomal DNA test, I'd expect, would show my family was English.  Lo and behold, it did! We go back to Kent in the southeastern corner of England.  My Hawkins’ were Saxons. My mitochondrial DNA goes back to my mother's mother's, mother's . . . ad infinitum, mother. Well my Melungeon blood goes through my father, so Mama’s mtDNA would never go back to them. Turns out it goes back to Scandinavia. And the Vikings left a big footprint in England, Ireland. Scotland, and Wales, so that's understandable. The two best known DNA tests won't help me discover my Melungeon ancestors one iota.

Let me remind you about what the Smithsonian Institute said several generations ago. years back. They thought the Melungeons were JUST AS INDIAN as the state recognized tribes of today's Virginia and the Carolinas. I will quote those passages about the Eastern Siouan and some other remnant tribes found in the East, especially in Virginia and the Carolinas. (258)

Annual Report, Smithsonian Institute, 1948; Surviving Indian Groups (258)

This was a report of the remaining Indian groups in the East in 1948. Some of these groups were Siouan and part of the old Yesaw/Esaw Nation. They are the people about which this book covers. Here is what was said about these Siouan groups.

            VIRGINIA

Amherst County Issues

This group of about 500 or 600 mixed blood is located in the central part of Amherst County about 4 or 5 miles west of the county seat. The principle settlements are on Bear Mountain and Tobacco Row Mountain in the Blue Ridge. At the extreme western end of the county is another mixed group of similar origin derived from Indian, White, and in some localities, Negro blood.

Rockbridge County Brown People

To the northwest of Amherst County is Rockbridge County is a small group located on Irish Creek, not more than twelve miles east of Lexington, Virginia, and called Brown People. Their number is estimated at 300, and they show a mixture of White, Indian, and occasionally Negro blood. Like the Issues of Amherst County, they are a group apart from both Whites and Negroes.

Melungeons or Ramps . . .

The Virginia Melungeons are found on the mountain ridges such as Copper Ridge, Clinch Ridge and Powell Valley in Lee and Scott Counties, in the vicinity of Coeburn and Norton in Wise County, near Damascus in Washington County, and in the western Dismal area of Giles County. No estimate of their numbers is available but they probably amount to several thousand. They show dark skin with straight or curly black hair and high cheek bones. The chief family names of Melungeons in the area are Bolen, Collins, Gibson or Gipson, Freeman, Goins, and Sexton.

Thus in 1948 the Melungeons were considered one of the “Surviving Indian Groups” of Virginia! The town of Coeburn, mentioned above as a place the Melungeons settled, was originally named “Gist's Station” – it was named after one of my direct ancestors, Nathaniel Gist. This is NOT the famous Nathaniel Gist, but it is his first cousin of the same name.

But instead of being proud of our American Indian heritage, too many researchers have added muddy waters. dirtying them until you cannot see what lies beneath, claiming our heritage is everything BUT American Indian. Remember Occam’s Razor, add nothing but what is necessary to explain a thing.

NORTH CAROLINA

Siouan or Croatan

This group is said to number upwards of 16,000 persons . . . Physical measurements indicate the presence of Indian, White, and Negro types. There is said to be a tendency for the lighter individuals and families to hold aloof from the darker ones just as in the case of the Nanticokes or Narangassettes. They are found in greatest concentration in Robison County, but occur in considerable numbers in the nearby counties of Bladen, Columbus, Cumberland, Harnet, Sampson, and Scotland. Across the border in South Carolina they occur in Marlboro, Dillon, Marion, and Horry Counties.

The family names of these people are Allen, Bennet, Berry, Bridger, Brooks, Brown, Bulter, Chapman, Chaves, Coleman, Cooper, Cumbo, Dare, Graham, Harris, Harvie, Howe, Johnson, Jones, Lassie, Little, Locklear, Lowrie, Lucas, Martin, Oxendine, Paine, Patterson, Powell, Sampson, Scott, Smith, Stevens, Taylor, Vickers, White, Willes, Wilkenson, Wood, and Wright. . . .

The state [North Carolina] has recognized their special status and they are endowed with a special school system from both Whites and Negroes.

Miscellaneous Indians of North Carolina

In northeastern Person County on the Virginia border in located a group . . . who number about 400 persons. They also occur just across the state line in Halifax County, Virginia, around Christie and Virginilana. The chief family names are Coleman, Epps, Martin, Shephard, Stewart and Talley. The state of North Carolina maintains an Indian School for these people . . . The Person County Indians may be descendants of a small band of Saponi who, according to early census reports, inhabited Granville County, North Carolina (from which Person County was later set off.).

In northeastern North Carolina, in Dare and Hyde Counties, and in Roanoke Island are to be found a few Indian remnants of the Machapunga Tribe mixed with White and Negro blood. Their family names are Pugh, Daniels, Berry and Prescott.

Somewhat west of Person County in Rockingham County, the census record of 1930 reports a considerable number of Indians. The identity of this group is not known.

SOUTH CAROLINA

[p. 422] Four major geographical groups may be distinguished, namely i.] Catawba, on the northern border; ii.] Croatans, also on the northern border; iii.] Red Bones and other groups on the capital; and iv.] Brass Ankles in coastal areas. Altogether these groups may total over 10,000 persons . . . They have lost almost everything that would distinguish them as Indian except their physical appearance. The latter is of course greatly modified by mixture with White and Negro blood, yet these people are recognized locally as being distinct from both White’s and Negroes. They have their own mixed blood schools . . .

The chief family names among these mixed-bloods are Boone, Braveboy, Bunch, Chavis, Creek, Driggers, Goins, Harmon, Russell, Scott, Swett and Williams.

Catawbas

The remnants of this tribe are located at a small settlement on the banks of the Catawba River in York County, about 9 miles southeast of Rockhill, the county seat . . . The 1930 census returns 159 Indians in York County. Their blood seems to be mostly a mixture of White and Indian.

Conclusion About Melungeon Indians

Everyone of the groups of families on the list above in Virginia and the Carolinas, is state recognized . . . except the Melungeons. We are no different than they are, and we show family ties back to both the Lumbee and various Siouan groups along the Virginia/North Carolina border. While all the other descendants of the outlying bands of the Catawba were contacting state governments trying to get state recognition as Indian, the Melungeons were arguing over whether they were Portuguese, Turkish or Jewish!

State Recognized Siouan Tribes in Virginia and the Carolinas, as of January 2018 (259)

Here is a list of Siouan tribes recognized by the states of Virginia and the Carolina’s, found on a website online I hope the list is accurate and all inclusive. There has been a sort of a revival of the people being able to access their culture. West of the Mississippi River, I am afraid just the opposite has happened. 

Virginia

Monacan Indian Nation -- https://www.monacannation.com/

CURRENT NEWS! As I write, I hear congress just passed a bill making the Monacan federally recognized. I don’t know if that man sitting in the White House has signed it yet or not, though. https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/senate-sends-bill-recognizing-six-virginia-indian-tribes-to-president-trumps-desk/2018/01/11/80c56260-f6f3-11e7-b34a-b85626af34ef_story.html?utm_term=.95f419472017 

North Carolina

Haliwa Saponi Tribe -- http://haliwa-saponi.com/

Lumbee Tribe of Cheraw Indians -- http://www.lumbeetribe.com/?lightbox=dataItem-j0130tq82

Occaneechi Band of Saponi Indians

Sappony Tribe

Waccamaw Siouan Development Association

South Carolina

Pee Dee Tribe of South Carolina

If I have left anyone out, I apologize. Knowing me as I do, I probably did.

Not Everyone in the East has Legal Status

The group left out, who doesn’t have legal status as “Native American”, are those people associated with the Melungeons of southwestern Virginia, northeastern Tennessee, and eastern Kentucky. That is because of all the people who have mistakenly called our ancestors “Portuguese adventurers”. It will take a great deal of time to undo the damage those stories have done. A good friend told me about a newspaper article dated 1901.  Many Melungeon families moved from southwestern Virginia and northeastern Tennessee to Magoffin County, in eastern Kentucky. This newspaper article is about them. It confirms the status of these people of being of Catawban/Saponi heritage. Here are a few excerpts from it.

A correspondent writing from Salyersville, Ky says:

It is not generally known there are Indians scattered all over the mountains of Kentucky, but in nearly every county in the eastern section may be found families named Cole, Perkens, Mullins or Sizemore, many in some-way related to “Old Billie” Cole, a Catawba Chief, who came here from North Carolina and settled in Floyd County nearly a century ago. (260)

So even as late as 1901 some groups still knew they came from the Catawba in North Carolina.

The Sun Sets in the West

A Few came West Early, Immigration to Arkansas of the “Lungens”     

The first occasion where the term "Melungeon" occurs that anyone has discovered at this point is from “A History of Baxter County, Arkansas” by Mary Anne  Mesick. It was written after the fact. In reality the term "Melungeon" had already been used by the time the author uses it in this case, but she speaks of an earlier time when the term "Lungen" was used. For this reason, I am mentioning it first. My family also immigrated to Arkansas at an early date. A second time the word is found is in the minutes of Stoney Creek Primitive Baptist Church. My family also attended that church, and our names are mentioned quite a lot in those church minutes.

p. 4. In this chapter, the author lists several Indian tribes that at one time lived in Baxter County, and lists several that are not tribes at all. Others NEVER lived in Baxter County, or if they did it was long before contact with Europeans. Some tribes that were there are Osage, Delaware, Shawnee, Kickapoo, and Cherokee, the last four arriving early in the 19th century. And she does list them. (261)

p. 5. She mentions that while Arkansas was still claimed by Spain, the Spanish encouraged the displaced American Tribes to settle on their lands in Missouri and Arkansas. She speaks of the Cherokees living along the White River. Now these displaced tribes settled on what the Osages had considered their hunting grounds. Warfare was inevitable. After a few years this became American soil. Ms. Messick speaks of a Major Jacob Wolfe who in 1810 established a Trading Post and Indian Agency in Baxter County, saying he is called the father of Baxter County. (262)

p. 6. Now we come to the pages that mention the “Lungeons”. She says “. . . another Jacob came up White River in search of fortune and adventure.” She calls him a son of Old Erin (Ireland), lately of McMinnville, Tennessee. He and a man named McDonald, four slaves, and four other men poled a flat boat up White River until they found a spot to their liking. The exact spot of their first trading post, which has been lost. Then the author states “in the unpublished manuscript of my late father, Herbert A. Messick, he writes this concerning his great grandfather Herbert A. Mooney . . .” We now know the origin of this source. A man was telling family stories, and they were passed down from earlier generations. (263)

In the next paragraph she continues; “By the fall they had constructed one log building, for the store and two cabins for living quarters. The four men who had come with Mooney were men of Mystery, referred to by old timers who knew of them as “Lungeons”. They were neither Negro nor Indian and in later years Jacob Mooney was ostracized for living with these “foreigners.” (264)

I so wish the author had given her father’s exact words from his unpublished manuscript. One can easily twist the meaning by changing a word or two, something the person paraphrased that can be taken in a different light than intended. She places the word “foreigner” in parenthesis. She assumes them of Mediterranean heritage, saying; “Could these men have been Melungeons – the mysterious people of the hills of Tennessee who have recently been identified as being Mediterranean’s possibly of Jewish lineage, and who lived in America prior to Columbus’s discovery of the “New World”? How can anyone think these things? Unbelievable.

She continues with Mooney and McDonald (one of the items they took with them to Arkansas was a Whiskey still – moonshine is also indigenous to Arkansas) creating their own whiskey from local ingredients. "Whisky" suggests to me a Scottish or Irish ancestry, not Mediterranean. They soon returned to Tennessee. Both men later joined Ol’ Hickory (Andrew Jackson) during the War of 1812, serving near New Orleans. She says that after nine years, Mooney returned to Arkansas with a wife and four children. 

At the bottom of page 4, she speaks of Mooney’s return to a place now called “Mooney’s Landing”. She mentions going up White River to a place called “Bates Town”. That’s got to be Batesville, in Independence County. In the record of my William Wayland, it mentions him being an overseer to a road in 1819 going to White River at Batesville. William Wayland is one of my g-g-g-grandpa’s. His parents attended Stony Creek Primitive Baptist Church. He was a son of Nevil Sr. and Keziah (Gibson) Wayland.

Friday, November 26, 1819, William Wayland is appointed overseer of the second road of said township . . . [note: it is talking about Strawberry River Township -- about 20 miles from Batesville. Batesville is on the banks of the White River] . . . (265)

Tuesday, January 15th, 1822 -- P 13, Samuel Crow is appointed overseer of the road leading from Donaldsville to White River [note: there is no Donaldsville in that area -- must have been a short-lived community] . . . in place of William Wayland . . . (266)

Since the events of this chapter of that book occurred in 1810, and it says he was gone 9 years, it seems to be saying he returned to Batesville about 1819 as well. William Wayland and this Jacob Mooney might well have bumped into one another near White River, near Batesville, but who can say? This was a scarcely settled country in 1819.

p. 7. Things get even more interesting. She says . . . Wolfe had performed several weddings for Mooney’s men and Quapaw Indian maidens.” Well, four of Mooney’s men were “Lungeons”. Had these “Lungeon” men married into the Quapaw Tribe? The Quapaw are a small Siouan tribe, indigenous to Arkansas north of the Caddo, west of the Chickasaw (when the Chickasaw were in Mississippi), and south of the Osage. They now reside in Northeastern Oklahoma.

Here is the second reference she makes to the “Lungeons”. She says “Mooney continued to commute between his wife in Tennessee and his trading post in Arkansas until his death in 1832. By the time he moved to Arkansas for good, his former slaves and the “Lungeon” men had died and most of their families had moved west with the other Indians . . . later, Jacob Mooney had lived near the Whiteville Church, and is buried there. When the cemetery was fenced, Mooney’s grave and the graves of the mixed bloods who lived with him were left outside.” (267)

Interesting it says the families of the Lungen men moved west with the other Indians. Are the "Lungens" the mixed bloods whose graves were left outside the fenced in cemetery? It says they were buried outside the consecrated grounds with the “mixed bloods”. It sounds as if some of these Lungeon men’s descendants had married those Quapaw women, and their descendants moved west with them. Remember the Quapaw were NOT the only tribe in Missouri and Northern Arkansas. So were the Delaware, Miama, Shawnee, and others. 

The Story of Hosea Morgan

I found an interesting document online. This article is about what happened to a Catawba man who moved to Indian Territory/Oklahoma and Arkansas. 

In 1834 Hosea Morgan was from Arkansas. He said he was Catawba, and he wanted to live in the Cherokee Nation, West, in Oklahoma. He was given a flat denial – NO! They said he looked Spanish but he said he was Catawba Indian. Remember most of the bands associated historically with the Catawba had been largely assimilated by the time of the French and Indian War 1756-1763 or the Revolution two decades later. There are records of Catawba serving in both conflicts. They were becoming more mixed-blood each generation. Unless they wanted to marry their cousins (and there were tribal taboos against that) they married either local Whites or Blacks. We are talking about a few hundred, maybe a thousand or so, survivors scattered over a dozen locations from Virginia to South Carolina, in the beginning. After several generations, their numbers grew larger as their blood quantum grew smaller. 

Go here -- https://www.galileo.usg.edu/ . Log on as a guest and scroll dowm to “86. Native American Documents” and click on there. If you search for appropriate key words you will find the document below.

Image 4. Hosea Morgan Document

 

Aquohee Dist Apr. 3. 1834,

To the Gentlemen of the Delegation. 

Gentlemen.

I take the liberty to inform you that Hosea Morgan who kept my mill has had the field and houses assessed to him as an emigrant to the Arkansas. And Major Curry Gave the good will of it to a White man named Roland Terry.

I waited on Major Curry and stated the case to him and I had many witnesses Present to prove my right to the place and that the man who had the place assessed was no Citizen of the Nation nor had any right of claim whatever to enroll as a Cherokee.

The old man is supposed to be a Spaniard but calls himself a Catawba Indian. His wife is said to be Negro.

John Smith his X mark

Test -- E Jones

We the undersigned certify that a man named Hosea Morgan Having the appearance of a Spaniard but representing himself to be a Catawba Indian having spent many years among the Spaniards and having with him a Negro family, came into this District six or seven years ago or there abouts.

On his first arrival he applied to the Council for permission to reside in the Nation as a Citizen but was refused About two years ago Mr. Smith obtained a permit for him to attend his mill. But he has never made any pretentions to have any right or title to land or Citizenship in the Nation till he was received as an emigrant to the Arkansas.

Now we respectfully but earnestly protest against, persons having no Cherokee blood and possessing no sort of title in our country being allowed to alienate portions of the land in this way which we conceive to be utterly unlawful for our own acknowledged citizens to do.

Signed on behalf of a full meeting of the Citizens of the Dist.

Test. -- Situagi his X mark, Sweetwater his X mark, Peter his X mark 
Mr. Morgan asked permission to reside in the Cherokee Nation as a citizen, but was refused. (268)

The Treaty of Nation's Ford, 1840

The removals of the other southeastern tribes that had taken place throughout the 1830s, culminating in the Cherokee removal throughout the winter of 1838-1839 that became known as  the “Trail of Tears.” South Carolina decided they didn't want any Indians left in their state either. They decided to give them to North Carolina. Unfortunately, no one bothered to tell the North Carolinians, and they refused to take them in. This treaty is known as “The Treaty of Nation's Ford. I found this 1840 treaty between the state of South Carolina and the Catawba Nation.

A treaty entered into at the Nation's Ford Catawba between the chiefs and headmen of the Catawba Indians of the one part and the commissioners appointed by the legislature of South Carolina and acting under the commissioners from his excellency Patrick Noble, Esq., Governor and Commander in Chief of the State of South Carolina of the other part.

Article First – The chiefs and headmen of the Catawba Indians for themselves and the Nation. Hereby agree to ??? sell and convey to the state of South Carolina all their right title and interest to their boundary of land lying on both sides of the Catawba River and situate in the Districts of York and Lancaster and which are represented in a plat of survey made by Samuel Wiley, and dated the twenty-second day of February. One thousand seven hundred and sixty-four, and now on file in the office of the secretary of state.

Articles Second – The commissioners on their part engage in behalf of the state to furnish the Catawba Indians with a tract of land of the value of five thousand dollars, three hundred acres of which must be good, arable lands which must be purchased for their use in Haywood County, North Carolina, or in some other mountainous thinly populated region where the said Indians may desire.

Article Third – The commissioners further engage that the State shall pay the said Catawba Indians two thousand dollars annually for the term of ten years. The first payment to which is to be paid on their removal and on the first of January each and every year thereafter until the whole is paid. 

Please note they were selling 144,000 acres and would be returned an un-mentioned number of acres, three hundred acres of which had to be good land. Their new lands were to be “in the mountains”. (269)

Some Catawba agreed to live with the Cherokee in Haywood, North Carolina. Haywood County is the location of the Cherokee in Western North Carolina. The Catawbans were expected to live with their ancient enemy, the Cherokee. The fact that the North Carolinians were not informed that the South Carolinians were dumping the Catawba on their doorstep, didn't help things. This was a treaty between the state of South Carolina and the Catawba. Most of the Catawba living amongst the Cherokee quickly left. They lost their lands in South Carolina, but the land they were promised in North Carolina never materialized. They were left wondering about, looking for a place to stay. This state of affairs could not continue forever.

The Indian Appropriation Act of 1848

In 1848 some of the Catawba tried to come to Indian Territory per the U. S. government supplying money for that purpose at that time. Brown writes in “The Catawba Indians”, p. 323 “On July 29, 1848 the 73rd Congress appropriated $5,000 to defray the expense of the move [to Indian Territory].” Chief James Kegg wrote a letter to President James Polk at that time and said there were 42 Catawba families who wanted to use that appropriation to move west. He said (p 324) “We humbly beg his Excellency the President . . .to remove us west of the Miss[issippi] under the act of the late Congress.” (270) Still on page 324, Brown writes, “Whether the President ever saw the letter is problematical.” In the next paragraph Brown writes that the Cherokee were asked if the Catawba could live amongst them and it says: “The answer from John Ross and the Cherokee counsel was a firm NO. But before the reply was received, the Catawba themselves expressed a preference for living among the Western Chickasaws . . . [who] at one time had invited the Catawba to settle amongst them. Government representatives promptly opened up negotiations with the Chickasaws among whom – the agent was told, some of the Catawba’s descendants were already settled.” It continues to say: “The principal men of the tribe assured the agent that the Catawba would be welcome, but only the council had the right to invite them, officially. But when a Chickasaw Counsel meeting was held in February of 1849, the Catawba proposal was voted down. This change of sentiment was attributed to the sudden death of old Chief Albertson, a strong advocate of the Catawba’s.” (271) We have a substantial number of Catawba Indians with no land base and no home. Many on the rejected Cherokee rolls were in reality, Catawba mixed-bloods. 

Blumer continues to say neither Congress nor the Catawba were in a hurry to be removed. By the late 1850s they were just getting all the paperwork for removal to take place, but the Civil War erupted, and all eyes were focused elsewhere. Their eyes were refocused on Indian Territory only when in the 1890s or so Congress was talking about the Allotment Act, which would take away "excess" Indian lands. Mixed blood Catawban Indian peoples in the East, from the Atlantic to the Appalachians and beyond started wondering why they were never given any land in Oklahoma, lands they’d been promised decades earlier. (272)

In “Catawba Nation, Treasures in History,” by Thomas J. Blumer, (pp 52-53) he writes: “The Treaty of Nations Ford is a simple document. Article One conveyed the 144,000-acre reservation to the state of South Carolina. This article was of course, carried out with the full acquiescence of the Catawba. Article Two provided the Catawba with a new tract of land far removed from White settlements. Article Two, caught in a political vacuum between North and South Carolina, was never fulfilled. Article Three regarded payment for the 144,000 acre reservation. South Carolina never made proper payment and the debt remains unsettled.” (273)

He also talks of many Catawba who left the reservation, some to settle with the Eastern Cherokee, some just left for points unknown. No one knows how many Catawba left, or how many there were. People had been leaving the Catawba Reservation and assimilating, for years, for generations in fact.

Recall that by this time ALL members of ALL the bands began to call themselves “Catawba” rather that Esaw, or Wateree, or Sugaree, Pedee, Saponi, or other bands. They had for the most part, died out, are could no longer defend themselves, and simply became “citizen Indians” and assimilated into Caucasian culture where that was allowed. Still they all united under the banner of the Catawba Nation where possible, as well. Slavery (until 1717), disease (small pox epidemics @ 1697, 1728, 1737, 1759, and @ 1780, and others unknown epidemics during Spanish times), warfare (Tuscarora, Yamassee and other wars 1711-1717) and assimilation (post 1720) had all done their damage, and left pitifully small remnants scattered here and there, hardly to be remembered at all.

The “Western Catawba Indian Association” of the 1880s-1890s

Several years back, I exchanged several emails with Dr. Thomas Blumer , who was a well-known Catawba historian. He has since sadly, passed on. I emailed him family photos and our family stories. He became interested in us, and we emailed back and forth for a couple of years. He told me of an effort to form a “Western Catawba Indian Association” both in and near Fort Smith, Arkansas in the 1890s. By the 1890s we had left that area and we were living in the Chickasaw Nation. Still, he peaked my curiosity Chapman Milling said in “Red Carolinians” (274); By the Indian appropriation act of 1848, $5,000 was set aside to completely remove the Catawba to the Indian country west of the Mississippi. In November of 1848 the heads of forty-two families sent a petition to the Indian Office requesting to be allowed to be removed to the Chickasaw Nation. Nothing materialized because of this request, however. 

Eventually a few families went to live in the Choctaw Nation and in 1855 several Catawba were adopted into the Choctaw Nation. Muriel Hazel Wright (275) wrote “A Guide to the Indian Tribes of Oklahoma” in 1951. In that book, she chronicled a history of all the sixty-nine tribes that either came to Oklahoma, or are indigenous to the state. She was Choctaw herself (her grandfather was a former Principle Chief). She said of the Catawba — another group left the nation during the removal period. In 1897 they formed the Western Catawba Association at Fort Smith, Arkansas. She speaks of some who received Choctaw citizenship in 1853. Ms. Wright said of the Catawba who migrated to Arkansas and Oklahoma – The descendants of some of the Catawba who settled in the Choctaw Nation are now absorbed into the Indian population of Haskell and Le Flore Counties. The descendants of some of those who settled in the Creek and Cherokee Nations have been reported living southeast of Checotah in McIntosh County. The main portion of the tribe live in the Eastern part of York County, South Carolina. There are few Catawba in Oklahoma, and those are counted in the general Indian population of the state. They were last enumerated as a separate tribe in this region in 1896, and their total population in the Indian Territory being given as 132. The largest portion, or 78 lived in the Choctaw Nation, most of them in the region between the present cities of Stigler and Spiro. Seventeen of them gave Checotah, Creek Nation, as their post office, and 15 lived around Texanna, in the Southwestern part of the Cherokee Nation, now included in McIntosh County. In the same year (1896) there were 145 Catawba living in Arkansas, most of them in and around Greenwood and Barber. 

She adds (276) – In October 1848, William Morrison, chief of a band of Catawba living at Quallatown, Haywood County, North Carolina, addressed a letter to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs asking for the appointment of a superintendent to remove his people to the Indian Territory . . . These people expressed their preference for settlement among the Chickasaw, but the Chickasaw council took no action on the subject. [authors note: this was the head of 42 families – another source says this was probably about 80 individuals. The Chickasaw as we have seen, did take action, and rejected the Catawba proposal in February 1848.] (254) In “Red Carolinians” Chapman J. Milling wrote the following (277) – "The Catawba Indian Association of Fort Smith, Arkansas," an organization having a membership of 257 persons, the alleged descendants of Catawba who went West under the act of 1848. The petitioners were distributed as follows in Arkansas and Indian Territory: Arkansas—Greenwood, 44, Barber, 42, Crow, 13, Oak Bower, 6, Fort Smith, 17; Indian Territory and Oklahoma - Checotah, 17, Jackson, 15, Star, 34, Panther, 22, Oak Lodge, 10, Redland, 4, Ramville, 2, Indianola, 3, Center, 4, Ward, 3, Sacred Heart, 1, Steigler, 2. The petition sets forth that these Catawba families had removed west, some as late as 1854, "journeying at their own expense to the country west of the Mississippi River, hoping and expecting to be there furnished with new homes..." Having never been assigned lands, they were "left stranded in that Territory and the neighboring states." They therefore prayed for relief. The government took the position that the petitioners were white men with a trace of Indian blood, and therefore not entitled to relief. The memorial indicates, however, that descendants of Catawba Indians existed in considerable numbers in the Southwest only 44 years ago. Although no Indians are today recorded as Catawba in the state of Oklahoma, there is little reasonable doubt that an appreciable amount of Catawba blood persists in the eastern section of that commonwealth. 

Milling also says in Red Carolinians “Having traced several distinct migrations to North Carolina, Virginia, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Utah, Colorado, we have thus seen that the Catawba Tribe is not so nearly extinct as was supposed and has been frequently asserted. It is true however that the only band having any semblance of tribal status is the remnant in South Carolina . . .” (277) I cannot help but think that had Congress acted, there might be a Catawba Tribe of Oklahoma, too. However, since these families have all scattered today, that is no longer possible. 

I suspect that, like the Sizemore’s, many of these families have forgotten their tribal origins, and think their ancestors were Cherokee. 

The Gentry and Lerblanche Families Arrived in Indian Territory, also about 1848

Here is a story of an extended Catawba Family that also moved to Indian Territory, about 1848, which is the same time as those other families mentioned above. 

I need to explain. There is a link at Oklahoma Historic Society called “Indian Pioneer Papers”. In the 1930s there was a project to try and have old-timers who remembered, what Indian Territory was like before statehood, in the days before there was any law. My great Uncle, Oscar Taylor Richey, wrote about our family. As we'll discover, these Gentry’s and Leblanche’s were mixed-blood Catawba. (278)

Willie Leblanche told a part of their story. The Leblanche and Gentry families had married into each other, and thus both are Catawban. The person who interviewed her said she was from Checotah, Oklahoma. Here are a few words she chose to tell;

“My grandfather was Elijah Hermigine Lerblanche. He was born in March, 1836, son of a Louisiana Frenchman [another Frenchman] and Vicay Genrty, who was daughter of Ellijay Gentry, a White man married to a full blood Catawba Indian. He came from Alabama to the Creek Nation at the age of 12.” Alabama was the home of many Creek Indians already, so she means their family moved from Alabama to Oklahoma (then called Indian Territory) about 1848, several years after the Trail of Tears. So Vicay's mother was full blood Catawba, making her half. This means Elijah, b. 1836, was 1/4th Catawba. Apparently the whole Gentry/Lerblanche clan moved within with the Creek Nation. They are the 17 Catawba listed that lived in and around Checotah by Milling and Wright.

Agent Cooper gives it as his opinion that on assembling of the National Council of the Choctaws and Chickasaws, on the payment of a reasonable sum thereof by the United States or by the State of South Carolina. Remember the State of South Carolina in 1840 had offered the Catawba $5,000 to give up their lands there, but this was never paid. Again in 1848 the Federal Government had offered another $5,000, and it too was never paid. So the Catawba were told they’d receive $10,000 for removing to the West, to Oklahoma – five thousand from the Federal government in the 1848 allotment, and five thousand dollars from the state of South Carolina for their lands in South Carolina per the 1840 treaty. To get the Choctaw to adopt them, they had promised them a parcel of that money. Once the Choctaw adopted 19 individual Catawba, they expected to be paid. But since neither the federal government nor the State of South Carolina ever gave the money, as promised, to the Catawba, the Catawba could not pay the Choctaw. Since the Choctaw were never paid, they refused to adopt any more Catawba. Part of the federal government’s 1848 agreement was that once the Catawba had found another tribe to adopt them, they would pay the $5,000 dollars they owed them. This became an infinite loop designed to take their lands in South Carolina and leave them stranded and homeless. At the same time, Indian lands in Oklahoma were given to settlers in land runs and lotteries. The Catawba had to jump through hoops that were impossible to be jumped through, and some of the same lands they’d been promised were freely given to others, no questions asked.

Some Melungeon Families Were Migrating to Oklahoma, too

It became common knowledge that the tribes time as owners of all of Oklahoma was limited. People known as “Boomers” were advocating for the territory to be opened up to White settlement. Rolls for all the Oklahoma tribes were made, and numbers counted. Each family was to be given 160 acres and excess was to be sold, or just given away in lotteries or land runs. When peoples who descended as mixed-bloods found still living in the eastern half of the United States, many thought this was their chance for having lost their tribal birthright, to be compensated.

Many remnant Siouan groups remained, as are verified in that 1948 document of remnant group in the east. When Dawes and Guion-Miller Rolls were made, and there was talk of Allotment lands in Oklahoma were to be given out only to realize the Catawba were NOT to be given any land. Many tried to apply as Cherokee. They were just seen as non-Cherokee who were trying to get some free land. Carlson wrote down a few of the names of some of these people who tried to apply as Cherokee, and Forest Hazel wrote down a few more names.

Carlson says “. . .In 1896, J. W. Perkins and John Baldwin again petitioned the Federal Government as well as the Cherokee Nation for permission to move as a body to Indian Territory, but the attempt failed.” (279)

This statement has my interest! The following thoughts are my ramblings. This is the same timeframe that Bain and Williamson were attempting to get the “Western Catawba Indian Association” federally recognized in Arkansas and Indian Territory (Oklahoma) where 257 individuals petitioned the federal government. Another record of this organization lists 4,000 members. I wonder if Perkins and Baldwin knew of Bain and Williamson’s attempts, and vice versa? 

Remember, these groups had to have the approval of the federal Government, as well. They wanted lands to settle on, too. But since they had been living as Whites, the government decided they had already assimilated – and many had, why run the risk they’d revert back to acting like “wild men”!? Again, this is just my guess. The immigrant tribes already in Oklahoma couldn’t be persuaded to share their lands with descendants of the Catawba, Saponi and Cheraw, and the government wanted ALL THE INDANS to assimilate, and gradually disappear, as these Eastern Siouan people were in the process of doing. These attempts by many Catawban people to retain their Indian culture were doomed to failure, from the start. There simply would be no “Western Catawba”.

Carlson begins chapter nine, p. 333 by saying; “In the last half of the 1800s, small groups of families and individuals of the Salyersville Indians had been periodically moving out to the Cherokee and Creek Nations in Indian Territory.” (280) Since this is what my family did – I am listening. He continues; “Coincidently, years later in an unrelated matter, many Salyersville Indian families remaining back in Kentucky would get involved in a court claims issue regarding all ‘Eastern Cherokee.’ In the process, they would provide letters, testimonies, and interviews which reveal the size and strength of their families as they addressed the government as a group.” (260) Apparently the people of Magoffin County, Kentucky only heard about the interviews for Eastern Cherokee descendants, now known as the Guion Miller Rolls, until 1907, and the court of claims would make its decision in 1905.

Carlson says, p. 334; For nearly two decades prior to the Court of Claims decision, many people from Magoffin County, both Indian and non-Indian had been sporadically moving in small family groups out to ‘the Nations’ in ‘Indian Territory’. I can add a little something to this. After the Civil War thousands of ex-Confederate soldiers and officials moved to Indian Territory. Parts of the Choctaw Nation even became known as ‘Little Dixie’ because of all these immigrants. Speaking of Louanne Cole, Carlson says (pp. 334-335); “Most of her children moved out to the Cherokee Nation right before and after the Civil War.” Carlson speaks of a grandson of Louanna who attended school in Vinita. I mention this because there was a short article in the Vinita Newspaper talking about an attempt to create ‘a Western Catawba Tribe’ in the 1880s-1890s. Another member of this family moved to Bedford, Oklahoma. Carlson says; “The rest of Siss’s children (Siss was a daughter of Louanna living in Oklahoma) in 1908 would report to the Special Commissioner of Indian Affairs that while they knew the names of Siss’s half brothers and sisters through Louanna (Louanna never left Magoffin County), they did not know their present place of residence, or even if they were still living. (281)

“Around 1880 a number of the Indians and mixed-bloods from Magoffin County . . . would set their sights on removing to the Indian Territory. . . most would go in large family groups. Carlson specifically mentions three families, Daniel and Jahaza Cole, James Jackson Shephard, as well as Shep and Mary Cole’s son, Lewis Cole.” (282)

Carlson also mentions the Howards. He says (p. 336); “Another early connection between the people from the Magoffin County area and Indian territory involved a member of the mixed-blood Howard family who remained closely tied to the Salyersville Indians who later moved out there. This was James Jackson Shephard . . . James left the Kentucky mountains sometime between 1872 and 1880 and sat down in San Bois in Indian Territory.” Carlson mentions several places this family lived over the next few decades, including San Bois, Stigler, Broken Arrow . . . and even parts of western Arkansas. Did you notice what I noticed? Stigler was one of several towns recorded as having Catawba Indian residents as were recorded by the “Western Catawba Indian Association”! Two Catawba were said to live there, but unfortunately their names were not given, per a document published by the 54th Congress, dated 13 Feb, 1897. Interestingly, Carlson says “James would hunt deer and take the dressed meat to sell at places like Fort Smith.” I must note my great grandparents also lived for a time in the 1870s near Fort Smith, but just inside Indian territory, beside Sequoyah and Leflore counties. I wonder if his family knew mine? The “Western Catawba Indian Association” was based out of Fort Smith. 

Carlson speaks of James Shepard finally settling down in his old age at Brushy Mountain near Muscogee in the Creek Nation, passing on in 1916. He adds; “by that point in time the Brushy Mountain area near Muscogee had become the residence of a number of Salyersville Indian families who had since immigrated west. He mentions several members of the Cole and Perkins families had migrated to Indian Territory. He mentions Lewis Cole living in Stroud. He says most of the families that came to Indian Territory were members of the Cole, Perkins, and Fletcher families (p. 338). (283)

Carlson says he doesn’t know why these families came to Oklahoma just before the turn of the century, about 1900, a little before or later. As a student of Oklahoma and Oklahoma History, I think I know.  It had to do with land. Thousands, millions in fact, came to Oklahoma about that time. Parts of Oklahoma were just being opened up for non-Indian settlement from 1889 on. The Western Tribes lost their lands first to land runs and in one case, a lottery. All the rest of the tribes lost their lands through the “Allotment Act”. All the citizens of the Nations were first given 160 acres. The rest was either lost in land runs, land sales, or land lotteries. Oklahoma went from a territory of probably, oh, I don’t know, maybe 100,000 persons in 1880 to a state with a population of about three million persons by 1910. We became a state in 1907. People from all over the country came here to get the excess Indian lands either free or at a cheap price. And a good number of these people were folks like my family, and like those from Salyersville, people who had some Indian blood. Initially they’d hoped to receive an allotment of 160 acres. Discovering they were not eligible, they remained to purchase the excess. Carlson cites some lady who said her family lived in tents and dugouts. So did my family! My aunt wrote me a letter saying her mother (grandma) had spoken of her parents (my great grandparents) living in covered wagons and in half-dugouts. A great uncle also mentioned these things. (284)

Similar Findings from Forrest Hazel

Forrest Hazel worked with some of the family groups in helping them to get recognized as "Indian" by eastern states, specifically Virginia and the Carolinas'. He wrote the following about those Saponi who tried to sign up as Cherokee on the Guion-Miller roll.

"In 1904, the Eastern Band of Cherokee won a settlement with the U.S. government based on violations of earlier treaties. This meant that thousands of persons of Eastern Cherokee ancestry were eligible for part of the settlement, and many of these people applied to the U.S. Court of Claims for a share (Jordan 1987-1990). It is interesting to read these applications, since a significant percentage of applicants were not Eastern Cherokee, but members of other tribes. These persons would now be identified as Lumbee, Alabama Creek, Meherrin, Haliwa, and Occaneechi (Saponi), along with a number of individuals who probably were of unmixed white or black ancestry.

"At least 20 Occaneechi descendants also applied; all were rejected by the commission as not being of Eastern Cherokee ancestry. Among these were Aaron Thomas Guy, born in Caswell County, North Carolina, the son of Henry Guy and grandson of Henry Guy. Henry Guy, Sr., was the brother of Richard Guy, Buckner Guy, and others who moved to Macon County, North Carolina, from the Texas community in the 1820s. Aaron Guy stated that his mother was a free woman of color, born free and raised by the Quakers in Guilford County, North Carolina. There is also testimony from a former slave who knew Henry Guy, Jr., to the effect that he was an Indian, married to a colored woman. Aaron Guy was living in Indiana at the time of his application.

"William C. Wilson, from Wichita, Kansas, also applied. He stated that he was born near Hendersonville, North Carolina, and was the son of Sam Wilson, a "half Cherokee," and Julian Guy. Julian Guy was the daughter of Richard Guy and Martha Whitmore, and Martha's mother was Lottie Jeffries. Wilson claimed that his grandfather, Richard Guy, was a white man, although the Macon County records list him as a "Free Colored head of Household." He also stated that his father, Sam Wilson, could speak the Indian language. Assuming he was not exaggerating to impress the government man, William Wilson's father may have spoken the old Saponi language, or he may have learned Cherokee from his neighbors in Macon County.

"William and Joe Gibson, from Murphy, North Carolina, applied, and the note "Probably Negros" was written on their application. William Gibson stated that his parents "passed as part Indian. No Negro blood in them." He further stated that his father spoke the Indian language. On the bottom of his testimony is a note, presumably written by the agent, which says, "This applicant shows the Indian so does his brother now with him. However, their ancestors were never enrolled." These Gibsons, who lived at various times in Tennessee and North Carolina, probably were also related to the Gibsons found in the so-called Melungeon groups of eastern Tennessee and western Virginia, which appear to have originated in the early mixed-blood populations of the North Carolina Piedmont area." (285)

The “Western Catawba Indian Association” of the 1880s-1890s

The most elusive of the Catawba to research are those that were called the “Western Catawba Indian Association” (286)

Newspaper Articles About the Western Catawba 

These three short articles about the Catawba in Arkansas were written between 1889- 1895, and are found in the local newspaper, "The Fort Smith Elevator". Some people were trying to organize a group of Catawba in the late 19th century. Also found, late in the day, a few lines in an article in "The Indian Chieftain" of Vinita, Oklahoma, dated 1888, when Vinita was a part of the Cherokee Nation. Remember Oklahoma only became a state in 1907. Here are transcriptions of those short newspaper articles.

August 16, 1889, The Fort Smith Elevator, Catawba Indian Association 

The Catawba Indian Association met at Rocky Ridge on the 10th. The meeting was called to order by the President. After the reading of the minutes and the calling of the roll of the officers, transacting other business that came before the order, a call for new members was made and 90 was added to the new list, after which the meeting adjourned to meet at Ault’s’ Mill, three miles south of Fort Smith, the second day of the fair, the 16th day of October, where the delegates and all persons interested will please attend without further notice, as matters of interest will be considered.

J. Bain, President

G. W. Williamson, Secretary (287)

I obtained this material by writing to the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith library. One of their librarians wrote the following: 

Hello Mr. Hawkins,

Attached is a copy of the article you requested. The article mentioned another meeting held on October 16th and I found it in the October 25th edition but the film was so dark I could not get a good print to scan. The text of the article follows. Please let me know if I can be of further assistance.

“October 25, 1889 p. 3 col. 5, From Fort Smith Historical Society publication.

“Attention Catawba’s!”

The Western Catawba’s Indian Association met at Ault’s Mill October 16, 1889, at which meeting a number of new members were added to the Association, thus making it nearly 4,000 strong. They appointed an executive committee which is empowered to transact all business and place the matter before congress. The Association adjourned to convene again at a called meeting of the president.” (288)

Taken originally from 

The Fort Smith Elevator” (newspaper), date probably early Jan 1895.

All Catawba Indians by blood or otherwise are requested to meet at the County Court House in Fort Smith Arkansas on Thursday, Jan 24th, 1895 at 10 o’clock a. m. for the purpose of perfecting the census roll of the Western Catawba Indian Association and the transaction of other matters that may come before the meeting. All Catawba Indians are expected to be present or by proxy as business of importance will come before the meeting.

James Bain, Preset., Geo. E. Williams, Scary,

Western Catawba Indian Association (289)

Please keep the timeframe in mind. The Dawes Act (also called the Allotment Act) had just been passed in Congress meaning the Indians in Oklahoma at least would no longer own all their lands in common – each Indian family was to receive – I think it was 160 acres. Well many more people were asking for this land than there actually were Indians living on the lands in Oklahoma. The Indians and whites both grew suspicious some of the applicants.

We hear of all those on the rejected Cherokee rolls. But we never hear of those who claimed Catawba ancestry. Apparently 4,000 people wanted to claim Catawba ancestry. The final list seems to have had only 257 names, so something happened to the rest, and I have found no list of the names of those 257 persons, nor of the 4,000. I will continue to look.

Also, these 4,000 are not on any accepted or rejected roll, either, as no roll was made for the Catawba of which I am aware. I am hoping to discover the names of those 257 as well as those 4,000. General opinion at the time was they were individuals who had a little Indian blood and had been living as Whites. The idea of giving free land to people who had not gone through the hardships of removal, people who had left them to live as Whites, was a bitter and difficult pill to swallow, for the traditional Indians who had never left the various tribes, and who still had many full bloods. But these mixed bloods had no choice. White families just moved in amongst them, totally surrounding them, and greatly out numbering them. It was suspected that many people applying were simply full blood Whites looking to take Indian lands as had happened so many times in the past. This attitude doomed the petitioners such as these claiming a Catawba heritage, to failure. But what became of them? They seem to have dried up like the water in the branch of a creek during the summer drought. 

I found one more reference; from "The Indian Chieftain", a newspaper from Vinita, Cherokee Nation, Indian Territory dated 1888, located in what is today north eastern Oklahoma. 

The Indian Chieftain, March 1, 1888, Vinita, Indian Territory (Oklahoma), image 2 of 4. It says; 

“The Western Catawba Indian Association, with headquarters in Fort Smith, proposes to petition congress to set aside for the use of all persons of Indian blood, not members of any tribe, a portion of the Indian Territory.” (290) 

I cannot help but remember hearing that dad's grandparents were at one time thinking about signing up for the Dawes Allotments, but "something happened" and they never did. I remember my mother mentioning this, and she had no Indian blood, but her family lived next door to my great-grandparents on my Dad’s side. I wish I knew the right questions to ask back when I was younger, but at the time, I had no idea. Part of my quest in doing research was to find out exactly what happened. Why did they back out, and never even apply for Dawes? This would have been the 1890s or 1900s. 

References:

258. https://archive.org/details/annualreportofbo1948smit

259. http://www.firstpeople.us/FP-Html-Links/state-recognized-tribes-in-usa-by-state.html#starts:

260. Monday, 7th of October, 1901, “The Tennessean”, page 8, out of Nashville, Tn.

Kentucky’s Indian’s – Plenty of them left in the Mountain Section

261. Chapter II; Indian Days and Early Settlers; Immigration to Arkansas of the “Lungens,” From "The History of Baxter County, Arkansas" by Mary Ann Messick

261. Ditto

262. Ditto

263. Ditto

264. Ditto

265. Early Lawrence County, Arkansas Records

266. Ditto

267. Chapter II; Indian Days and Early Settlers; Immigration to Arkansas of the “Lungens,” From "The History of Baxter County, Arkansas" by Mary Ann Messick

268. http://metis.galib.uga.edu/ssp/cgi-bin/tei-natamer-idx.pl?sessionid=0832f53b-6c5a450609-0044&type=doc&tei2id=CH087 

269. http://www.teachingushistory.org/TreatyofNationsFordbetweentheCatawbaandtheStateofSouthCarolina1840.html

270. "The Catawba Indians, The People of the River"; by Douglas Summers Brown, University of South Carolina Press, (c) 1966.

271. Ditto

272. "Catawba Nation, Treasures in History" by Dr. Thomas J. Blumer

273. Ditto

274. "Red Carolinians", by Chapman Milling; University of South Carolina Press 1969, (c) Chapman Milling. First Published University of North Carolina Press, 1940.

275. "A Guide to the Indian Tribes of Oklahoma" by Muriel H. Wright, my edition published by the Civilization81 of the American Indian Series, University of Oklahoma Press, copyright 1951, 1986

276. Ditto

277. "Red Carolinians", by Chapman Milling; University of South Carolina Press 1969, (c) Chapman Milling. First Published University of North Carolina Press, 1940.

278. Ditto

279. IPP papers:  https://digital.libraries.ou.edu/cdm/ref/collection/indianpp/id/5147

280. 'Who's your people?': Cumulative identity among the Salyersville Indian population of Kentucky's Appalachia and the Midwest muck fields, 1677--2000. by Dr. Richard Allen Carlson Jr.; Michigan State University

281. Ditto

282. Ditto

283. Ditto

284. Ditto

285. “Finding Our Indian Blood”; Vance Hawkins; © 2013 Bluewater Publications

286. “Various Eastern Siouan Communities” by Forest Hazel

287. The “Western Catawba Indian Association” was mentioned in several newspaper articles of the time. There were articles in the Fort Smith Elevator dated August 16, 1889, October 16th, 1889, before January 24th, 1895. These accounts are from the Fort Smith Elevator Newspaper. there is a fourth account In the Indian Chieftain out of Vinita, Indian Territory (Cherokee Nation), dated March 1st, 1888.

288. Ditto

289. Ditto

290. Ditto

Images

Image 4.