When I first started researching genealogy, I quickly realized I had to research history as well. One without the other defeats the purpose of “the one”. I had been researching the Cherokee and realized I should have researched the Catawba and Associated Bands as well. I learned a lot through the Saponitown Forum online (1). The Saponi were a band of the Yesah/Esaw people. The only surviving federally recognized group being the Catawba (2). I found my own family ties there. I was fascinated. That led me to Dr. Thomas Blumer (3), a well-known researcher of the Catawba. I was in touch with him for a couple of years. He was fascinated by my story as my family lived in all the places that it was written the Western Catawba had lived. I was interested in his writiings for the same reason. He has since passed on. But he told me of a failed effort to create a Catawba Tribe in Indian Territory, now known as Oklahoma. Now with the internet I can research so much more than I could before. Further research into this led me to discover Muriel Hazel Wright’s (4) book, “A Guide to Indian Tribes in Oklahoma” (5), written in 1951. She was the granddaughter of a former Principle Chief of the Choctaw Nation. Her grandfather was also the man who proposed the name "Oklahoma" as the name of the future state. She speaks of all the tribes found in Oklahoma, both Indigenous and Immigrant. She had two pages on the Catawba. She spoke of a congressional effort in 1848 to get the Catawba to remove to Eastern Oklahoma. In 1853 a few Catawba were adopted by the Choctaw. She refers to another group called the “Western Catawba Indian Association” that tried in 1897 to get the Catawba in Oklahoma federally recognized, but this effort failed (6). Since my family had emigrated to Oklahoma in the 19th century (7), I kept researching into this subject. This report is a part of that research. To better understand it, a bit of history helps. Here is my effort to discover what became of the Catawba, especially those that made the trek to Oklahoma. To do this, we must learn of the history of the people.
Explorers and Daemons
The Spanish arrived in Catawban lands in 1540 with De Soto’s expedition (8). They used Muscogeean speaking translators and guides. Therefore these Eastern Soiuan peoples were initially given Muscogeean names. The Spanish wrote of the great city of Cofitachequi. Hudson said "The main town of Cofitachequi is thought to have been located at Silver Bluff, near Augusta, Georgia, on the South Carolina side of the Savannah River" (9)). "We now know he was wrong." said Blumer (10); “Today we know the site of Cofitachique as modern Camden, [South Carolina]. The Catawba did not abandon its ceremonial center until after the Treaty of Augusta in 1763.” Cofitachequi is a Muskogean word. Blumer says; "In the language of the Catawban speakers who lived there, the place was called Yupaha." The Virginians called the early Siouan speakers “Yesah” (11). After many years, the South Carolina colony was developed. They referred to these people as the “Esaw” (12) until the 1750s. Afterwards, the term “Catawba” was applied to ALL of the bands. However the term "Catawba" initially referred to only one band of the people. This confusion had long term consequences for other surviving bands.
There were three daemons that utterly destroyed the Yesah people. FIRST was the Slave Trade, which ended about 1720. The book “The Indian Slave Trade” by Alan Gallay is a must read (13). At one point (page 299) Gallay says, “What is surprising about these figures is that Carolina exported more slaves than it imported before 1715.” But this tragedy is only part of the problem. The SECOND daemon was war, and it was related to the first. Traders made every tribe and band owe them money by selling them goods they couldn’t make themselves at high prices and buying Indian pelts at a tiny percent of what they were worth. When they couldn’t pay their debt, they were told that if they went to war with their natural enemies to gather slaves, the debt would be forgiven (14). So each tribe gathered slaves of their neighbors. At the end of the Yamassee war, which ended about 1717 – the Indian slave trade came to an end, as there just weren’t any Native people left to enslave any more. The THIRD demon was the Small Pox epidemics of 1697 (15), 1738 (accompanying “The War of Jenkins Ear” between the English and the Spanish – look it up) (16), 1759 (The French and Indian War) (17), and during the Revolutionary War (18). As with slavery, warfare often accompanied the arrival of small pox. There were other epidemics with the arrival of the Spanish earlier (19). There may have been other small pox outbreaks, but these are the ones I have found mentioned in historic records. By the time of the Revolutionary War, a once great nation was on the verge of extinction.
Remaining Bands
There were once many bands of Eastern Siouan people -- over two dozen at least (20). But by the end of the Revolutionary War, there were just a few accounts remaining of the Pedee, the Cheraw, the Saponi, and the more prominent Catawba (21). If we look at a map of Siouan Bands before and after the Tuscarora and Yamassee wars, you will see many bands just ceased to exist afterwards (22). I suspect either the slave trade or disease, or both, brought an end to them. The main band remaining was the Catawba, and by this name all the surviving people were to become known. While mention of the Pedee, Cheraw and Saponi declined, so did the moral of the Catawba proper. Gradually the Cheraw and Pedee morphed into the state recognized Lumbee and other groups, and today there are several state recognized groups representing them and the Saponi as well (23). But only the Catawba still possessed lands as a tribal entity. The others were all simply considered extinct for many years.
In the 1740s the government still considered the Catawba a Nation, as opposed to what are called "the Settlement Indians" in historic maps and records. Per Hudson (24), these settlement Indians were for the most part, composed of Indian Nations that were quickly on the road to extinction, passing first by the way of assimilation. He says; “The settlement Indians consisted of Cheraws (Sara), Uchee's (Yuchi), Pedees, Notchees (Natchez), Cape Fear and others.” Governor James Glenn (25) stated in 1746 the Catawba had about 300 warriors. In 1743 Adair (26) estimates the Catawba had about 400 fighting men. Adair also says the Catawba Nation consists of over 20 dialects, and he lists a few of them – Katabhaw, Wateree, Eeno, Chewah, Chowan, Cangaree, Nachee (Natchez), Yamassee, Coosah (Creek), etc. There is also a map showing a band of the Chickasaw living amongst them (27).
The Natchez came from the Mississippi River and were a Muscogeean group. The "Coosah" are Creek, and the Chowan are Algonquin. It was written (“A Guide to Cherokee Documents in Foreign Archives” -- ?I think p. 215?) of the Yamassee that “they spoke the same language as the lower Cherokee” (28). I’ve heard that the word “Yamassee” is of Muscogeean origin (29). When it was written that some of these people living with the Catawba couldn't understand each other, that was DEFINITELY true.
In 1948 there was a report created by the Smithsonian entitled “Surviving Indian Groups East of the Mississippi” (29). It mentions several Eastern Siouan groups. It mentions just about every group that is now state recognized in both Carolinas as well as Virginia. The Melungeons are the only group on that 1948 list that never became state recognized. In short, go to an English to French translation site and you see the verb "to mix" is "mélanger". Then seek a sight online where you can conjugate the French verb "mélanger" (such as https://conjugator.reverso.net/conjugation-french-verb-mélanger.html ) ; and you will find "we mix" is "nous mélangeons" in French (30). There were thousands of French Huguenots living in Virginia and the Carolinas, including Rev. Fontaine (31)who visited the Saponi Indians (an Eastern Siouan group as were the Catawba), and you see the origins of the term "Melungeons" is a reference for mixed race people. I have also been told the term "Melungeon" might hve been used to describe mixed race Southern Tuscaroran people as well, and included escaped or freed slaves of mixed race. It is possible I suppose, that there was mixing with Whites, Blacks, as well as local tribes -- Tuscarora, Nottaway, Meherin, Nansemond, or other Siouan groups to the south . . . I don't know. But there was a 1948 Smithsonian publication calling the Melungeons an isolated group of mixed-Native Americans. All the other groups in that report who were considered mixed-race, and they are now state recognized tribal entities.
But this blog entry is not about state recognition. It is about what happened to those who migrated to the Indian Territory, to Oklahoma. The next part of this report is about those of us with Catawban roots who came to Arkansas and Oklahoma.
Three Migrations
Early Western Migration (1810-1840)
The first migrations I have found are of a few Melungeon families; and this included part of my family.
In 2010 a DNA project was started to try to determine the origin of the Melungeon people (32). They discovered a reference to “Lungeons” in Baxter County, Arkansas, from 1810 http://www.jogg.info/pages/72/files/Estes.htm; Melungeons, A Multiethnic Population, Received: July 2011; accepted Dec 2011; Roberta J. Estes, Jack H. Goins, Penny Ferguson, Janet Lewis Crain, where they uncovered the following reference -- "History of Baxter County 1873 - 1973" Centennial 1973 edition; Mary Ann Messick. Hardback, 506 pages. Published by the Mountain Home Chamber of Commerce (33).
The author speaks of four “Lungen” men moving to Baxter County, Arkansas with him from Hawkins County, Tennessee, to Baxter County, Arkansas. He leaves then returns to Arkansas in 1819. by the time he moved to Arkansas for good, it states that his former slaves and the "Lungeon" men had died and "most of their families had moved west with the Indians.
I also have Melungeon ancestors who were in Arkansas at that time just off of the White River. They had lived in Scott County, Virginia. When researchers talk about the earliest mention of “Melungeons” in any historic document, they usually refer to the church minutes of the Stoney Creek Primitive Baptist Church (34). My direct ancestors have our surnames plastered all over those minutes. We attended that church before moving to Arkansas. In Arkansas, my family helped organize the first lasting church (35) in Arkansas Territory in 1815, along and near the White River. The Arkansas River was the southern border of the Cherokee Nation in Arkansas. The White River was its Eastern border. While the Methodist Church was established in 1815, the better-known Dwight Mission (Presbyterian) along the Arkansas River wasn’t established until 1818 (36). Two Wayland boys served at Ft. Gibson in 1832 as members of “Beans Rangers” (37), said to have been some of the first troops to serve at Fort Gibson. They had a cousin, my direct ancestor, Sarah Ann Waylands (38), who married Joseph Richey, who also served at Fort Gibson, but a decade after the Wayland boys served there. Fort Gibson is in Oklahoma, then known as “Indian Territory”.
In 1834, Hosea Morgan wrote a letter and said he was Catawba Indian. He was from Arkansas but said he desired to live in the Cherokee Nation. The record said he had a Negro family, meaning I guess, that his wife was Black. 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. (38)
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 also have the following;
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 before moving to Indian Territory.
One friend said he found this family living in California before removing to Arknsas and Indian Territory. So when they wrote that he had "spent many years among the Spanish"; this is probably what it was referring to.
Thus we have at least three documents or stories of persons or families possessing Catawban blood in Indian Territory, even before the forced removal of Eastern Emigrant Tribes.
Middle Westward Migration (1840-1880)
We have a second wave of westward migration of Catawban peoples starting with the 1840 treaty.
The Treaty of Nation's Ford, 1840
By 1840, the Seminole, Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw and Cherokee had all been removed from the American Southeastern states. Only few isolated pockets of mixed-bloods remained in the southeastern region of the nation from these tribes. But there were other mixed bloods that remained East of the Mississippi that had been forgotten. Many of these were those who came to be known as Catawban’s. They were living in regions of the country where the state recognized tribes in Virginia and the Carolinas exist today. There was a time when they wanted these people removed, as well, to Oklahoma. When the state of South Carolina signed a treaty to remove the Catawba, they thought only of the Catawba Nation that still existed as a small tribe in that state. They didn’t consider their relatives, the Saponi, Cheraw and Pedee whose descendants still lived nearby. The survivors of these bands were mostly in North Carolina and Virginia, but there were also others still living in South Carolina, but not on Catawban lands. So the Treaty of Nation's Ford was really intended to remove only on Catawban lands, and not the assimilated satellite bands. There were three articles to this treaty. Remember this was a treaty between the State of South Carolina and the Catawba Nation. The United States government had nothing to do with it. Here are those three articles. (39)
First Article – 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.
Second Article – 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.
Third Article – 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.
So the first article states that the Catawba agreed to cede their ancestral lands in South Carolina. For their part in the second article, the state of South Carolina agreed to purchase land valued in 1840 at $5,000 in Haywood County, North Carolina, for the Catawba to live on. In the third article the state of South Carolina agreed that they would pay the Catawba $2,000 per year for ten years. These payments would start once the Catawba vacated their lands.
Three things went wrong. i.] Haywood County, North Carolina is where the Cherokees of North Carolina still lived. ii.] The state of South Carolina never purchased any land for the Catawba in Haywood County, so there was no place for the people to move to in that county. The agreement stated that the yearly payments would start once the people had moved. It is my understanding that some Catawba moved in with the Cherokee, but that most just returned home. iii.] And thirdly, nobody told the North Carolinians that the Catawba were coming to live in their state.
Although this treaty saw no migration to Oklahoma, it started the ball rolling in that direction. There was another agreement in 1848 that did that. This time it was with the Federal Government.
The Indian Appropriation Act of 1848
I found very little online about any “Indian Appropriation Act of 1848". This is all I came across; “Appropriation for the Indian Department; An act making appropriations for the current and contingent expenses of the Indian Department, and for fulfilling treaty stipulations with various Indian Tribes for the year ending June 30th, 1849, and for other purposes, July 28th, 1848, ch 118; 252 – and this document had only 208 pages. . . . so . . .
I don’t know much about the Indian Appropriation Act of 1848. I can’t find a reference to it online. However Chapman Milling states in “Red Carolinians”, p 257 (39), the following (first speaking of the 1840 treaty with South Carolina);
“The Indians removed themselves in small parties to North Carolina joining the Eastern Cherokee. But North Carolina refused to sell a reservation for their use . . . “ Milling then states most of them were back on their own lands within 18 months. He then states; “By the Indian Appropriation Act of 1848, $5,000 was set aside for the removal of the Catawba Indians now in the limits of the state of North Carolina to the Indian Country west of the Mississippi, with the consent of said tribe.”
So later 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 (40) “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.” Still on page 324, Brown writes, “Whether the President ever saw the letter is problematical."
The Cherokee and Chickasaw say NO
In the next paragraph Brown writes (41) that the Cherokee were asked if the Catawba could live amongst them. Brown writes; “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.” I'd like to mention that my family lived in the Chickasaw Nation before Oklahoma became a state.
A Few are adopted by the Choctaw, and Creek
Murial Hazel Wright (42) wrote; 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 . . .”
In an 1897 (43) congressional document speaking about the Catawban people who came to Oklahoma, there is a little section on the history of this attempt. It supplies the following information about events that transpired in 1848. It states; “Catawba Indians – For the removal of the Catawba Tribe of Indians now in the limits of the State of North Carolina to the Indian Country west of the Mississippi, with the consent of said tribe, under the direction of the President of the United States, a sum not exceeding $5,000: provided no portion of this sum shall be expended for the purpose of removing said Indians until the President shall first obtain a home for them. Amongst some of the tribes west of the Mississippi River, with their consent, and without any charge upon the government.
"In a letter dated November 13th, 1848, John C. Mullay, a clerk in this office, forwarded a letter, dated Oct. 6, 1848, from one George T. Mason, enclosing a request by the Chief of the Catawbas, a memorial of said tribe of Indians at Quallatown, Haywood County, N. C., dated Oct. 4, 1848, on file in this office (misc. M., 280), addressed to the President, signed by William Morrison, chief, and following heads of each Catawba family, viz., Phillip Kegg, Lewis Stevens, John Heart, John Scott, Franklin Kenty, Antony George, David Harris, Thomas Stevens, John Harris, Jesse Harris, Nancey George, Sally Harris, Polly Redhead, Patsey George, Harriet Stevens, Betsy Heart, Cynthia Kegg, Patsy George, Jr., Mary Ayres, Margaret Ayres, Betsey Ayres, Susan Kegg, Eliza Kanty, Frankie Brown, Jinny Joe, Jenny Ayres, Rachel Brown, Easther Scott, Katy Joe, Sally Redhead, William George, Peggy Kanty, Rosa Ayres, Becky George, Polly Harris, Elizabeth Brown, Polly Harris [same name is listed twice], Mary Joe, Allen Harris, Mary Harris and James Kegg, comprising 42 persons, all of whom signed by mark, in the presence of Abram Sellers, George T. Mason., and John T. Gibson, requesting the appointment of a reliable and trustworthy business man to superintend their removal west."
We also have a report that several Catawba were adopted by the Choctaw. The Choctaw Council passed an act entitled “An Act Naturalizing Certain Persons Therein” which was approved November 3rd, 1893, (Choctaw Laws, 1869, p. 124) as follows, viz. (44):
Sec. 11. Be it enacted by the general counsel of the Choctaw Nation assembled, that William Morrison, Thomas Morrison, Sarah Jane Morrison, Molly Redhead, Betsey Heart, Rebeccah Heart, Phillip Keggo, and the infant child of Phillip Keggo, Rosey Ayres, Betsey Ayers, Julian Ayres, Mary Ayres, Sophonia Ayres, and Sally Ayres be, and they are hereby declared, naturalized citizens of the Choctaw Nation, invested with all the rights, privileges, and immunities of Naturalized citizens of the same.”
This same quote says, “Although there is nothing in the act to show the nationality of these persons, you will see by a comparison of the names attached to the aforementioned memorial of the Catawbas, that they are the same persons. This opinion is corroborated by a subsequent Act of said council, approved November 12, 1856 (Choctaw Laws, 1869, p. 153) entitled, “An Act Giving Greater privileges to the Catawbas hereby naturalized).”
Sec. 18. Be it enacted by the General Counsel of the Choctaw Nation Assembled, that the Catawbas who were made citizens of this nation by a special act of Session XX, section11, of 1853, between the Choctaws and the government of the United States.”
So as a result of this Indian Appropriation Act of 1848, no lands were appropriated for the Western Catawba – but a small number of Catawba were adopted into the Choctaw Nation.
There was a family mentioned in the “Indian Pioneer Papers” (45) as having been Catawban-mixed. The “Indian Pioneer Papers” were a Dust Bowl Era project whereby writers were paid to interview old-timers, elderly people who had ancestors who told about the history of their family in Indian Territory.
Willie Leblanche told a part of their story. The Leblanche and Gentry families had married into each other, and 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 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.” Here is a man who was born in 1836 in Alabama and 12 years later moved to live in the Creek Nation. She means to be saying her ancestor moved from Alabama to the Creek Nation in Oklahoma 12 years later, in 1848. It continues to say they lived in Checotah. Remember the date, 1848, the same year some Catawba came to Oklahoma hoping for the promise of lands to settle on. Well it goes on to say this family married into the Creek Nation, so they could obtain Creek citizenship if they were on the right roll, and they were.
Notice the Choctaw approved this adoption of a few Catawbas was dated 1856. The Civil War was on the horizon, and this would end the second phrase of Catawban migration to Indian Territory. The Allotment Act would culminate in the last phrase of this migration.
The Late Migration (1885-1910)
There is evidence for one more migration of Catawban peoples to what was once called “Indian Territory”, and is now known as Oklahoma. Years ago I was put in touch with Dr. Thomas Blumer. He was known for researching the Catawba people. I was interested in a story he told me of Catawban people who went to Ft. Smith, Arkansas, and just inside Indian Territory. I can document my own family in the very same area. Dr. Blumer and I spoke back and forth for only a couple of years, through email, and then I heard no more from him. Since that time, I have heard that he passed away. But some of his emails put me me on the road to researching these people.
The Western Catawba Indian Association
Dr. Blumer got me interested in Ft. Smith, Arkansas. I mentioned the “Indian Pioneer Papers” once before in this blog entry. Well grandma’s brother wrote a little about our family as well (46). Recall Dr. Blumer mentioned some Catawban families settled near Fort Smith. Now the Indian Pioneer Papers were written during the 1930s, and elderly pioneers were asked what life was like in the Indian Nations. My great uncle was interviewed August 23rd, 1937. I transcribed what he wrote. The interviewer wrote the following about our family; “My parents were natives of Arkansas and grew up near Fort Smith which was just across the line from the Indian Territory . . . After they were married in the year 1872, they moved into the Indian Territory, and settled either in Sequoyah or Leflore County. I do not know on which side of the Arkansas River they lived.” Well this is exactly where Dr. Blumer had said those Catawba settled (47)(. In “A Guide to the Indian Tribes of Oklahoma” by Murial Hazel Wright; she states in her section on the Catawba that in 1897 a group tried to form a “Western Catawba Indian Association” in Fort Smith, Arkansas (48). She also stated, “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.” Remember the Lebranche family in Checotah, and now my great uncle says his parents were in/near Leflore County about 1872? In “Red Carolinians” (49) Chapman J. Milling wrote the following; "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. Milling states these people went west as a result of the “act of 1848”. I suspect some might have been in Arkansas long before that, or came later as a result of the Allotment Act or the Dawes Act, rather than the act of 1848. If you add that total up, it adds up to 257 individuals.
Four Short Newspaper Articles
Next I researched to see if I could discover anything near Ft. Smith that would mention this migration. To my surprise, I found three short newspaper articles about this migration to Ft. Smith, Arkansas and a fourth from Vinita, Oklahoma, in the heart of the Cherokee Nation. Here are those short 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
I obtained the following material by writing to the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith library. One of their librarians wrote back 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.
Here is what the article said;
“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.”
Nearly four thousand? Wow! The librarian said said it was hard to read. I wonder if it really said "nearly 400"? I found one other article from the Fort Smith Elevator newspaper. 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
This speaks of a final roll count to be perfected. We know this as whittled down to 257 names mentioned on the final roll, and it was delivered to Congress in 1897. I have never seen a list of those 257 names. What became of it? There was one other very short newspaper article mentioned, and it came from the “Vinita Chieftain” in the Cherokee Nation;
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.”
Nearly four thousand? Wow! The librarian said said it was hard to read. I wonder if it really said "nearly 400"? I found one other article from the Fort Smith Elevator newspaper. 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
This speaks of a final roll count to be perfected. We know this as whittled down to 257 names mentioned on the final roll, and it was delivered to Congress in 1897. I have never seen a list of those 257 names. What became of it? There was one other very short newspaper article mentioned, and it came from the “Vinita Chieftain” in the Cherokee Nation;
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.”
So when put in proper chronological order, the Vinita article is the first. Recall how the Catawba in South Carolina adopted tribal members from many disappearing tribes? It was said in the 1740s and 50s some couldn’t even understand each other? They are trying this tactic again. The two articles from 1889 state they are perfecting a roll of names, and they say at one point, they have 4,000 members. However the 1895 article talks of perfecting a final roll, and the number of names on it drops to 257. We hear of the Western Catawba Indian Association lastly in 1906. Sometime between 1904 and 1910 my family moved away from the Chickasaw Nation to live in Tillman, County, Oklahoma, which had previously been on Kiowa-Comanche-Apache Reservation lands. I remember dad saying his first paying job as a teenager was "riding fence" for a Comanche Rancher, and this job helped his family remain on their farm, so they didn't lose it to the bank during the Dust Bowl.
So when put in proper chronological order, the Vinita article is the first. Recall how the Catawba in South Carolina adopted tribal members from many disappearing tribes? It was said in the 1740s and 50s some couldn’t even understand each other? They are trying this tactic again. The two articles from 1889 state they are perfecting a roll of names, and they say at one point, they have 4,000 members. However the 1895 article talks of perfecting a final roll, and the number of names on it drops to 257. We hear of the Western Catawba Indian Association lastly in 1906. Sometime between 1904 and 1910 my family moved away from the Chickasaw Nation to live in Tillman, County, Oklahoma, which had previously been on Kiowa-Comanche-Apache Reservation lands. I remember dad saying his first paying job as a teenager was "riding fence" for a Comanche Rancher, and this job helped his family remain on their farm, so they didn't lose it to the bank during the Dust Bowl.
The Final Straw
In 1896, after years of preparing documents, families of mixed race Catawbans finally sent to Congress the following; "To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress Assembled; Your petitioners come representing that they are the representatives of the individuals and their descendants who were formerly the members of the Catawba Tribe of Indians that owned and occupied lands in the states of North Carolina and South Carolina; that in pursuance of the policy of the United States to remove all the Indian Tribes to new homes to be provided for them west of the Mississippi River, Congress passed an act July 29,1848, appropriating $5,000 for the removal of the Catawba Indians, with their own consent, to the west of the Mississippi River, and for settling and subsisting them one year in new homes first to be obtained for them (9 stat. L., 264); that nothing was accomplished under this act; that the provisions and appropriations thereof were reenacted in the act of July 31, 1854 (10 stat. L., 316); that some efforts were made to secure for the Catawbas new homes among the Choctaw and Chickasaw Indians in the Indian Territory, and under the encouragement of hopeful results, and of the laws of Congress on the subject, many of the Catawba Indians left their lands and homes in the Carolinas and journeyed at their own expense to the country west of the Mississippi River, hoping and expecting to be there furnished with and located there and subsisted for one year upon new homes; that the Department of the Interior has so far failed to accomplish anything towards securing for the Catawbas such new homes or in doing anything in their behalf as was contemplated and expected under the provisions of the law referred to; that the Catawba's reached the states and territories bordering on the then Indian Territory, where they expected to be settled in new homes, but have been left stranded in that territory and in the neighboring states, where they have had to seek a livelihood s best they could, without any land upon which they could build homes for themselves and families; that they are in great need, and are very anxious to be given lands, homes, or allotments of any of the lands that now are or may hereafter become available for that purpose in the Indian Territory or in Oklahoma Territory; that they desire to be informed as to the status of the tribal lands of the Catawba Indians formerly occupied by the Catawba Tribe of Indians in the Carolinas, and to secure anything that may be due them as accruing them from said lands; and also to receive any other or further relief, help, or benefits they may be found, upon careful investigation of the facts in their case, be entitled to receive in right, justice or equity, from the United States or otherwise in the matter of new homes in the West or as to their lands in the East; and they pray that all these as the facts may warrant, demand and require.
And your petitioners will ever pray.
Fort Smith, Arkansas, December, 7, 1896
James Bain, President of Catawba Indian Association
Geo. E. Williamson, Secretary of Catawba Indian Association
CATAWBA INDIANS The present location and number of those Catawba Indians who went West, expecting to be located on lands west of the Mississippi River by the Department of the Interior are as follows, as furnished by James Bain, president of the Catawba Indian Association at Fort Smith, Arkansas: Greenwood, Ark.,44; Barber, Ark, 42; Crow, Ark., 13; Oak Bower, Ark., 3; Enterprise, Ark., 6; Fort Smith, Ark., 17; Total Ark., 125. Checotah, I. T., 17; Texanna, I. T., 15; Jackson, I. T., 15; Star, I. T., 34; Panther, I. T., 22; Oak Lodge, I. T., 10; Redland, I. T., 4; Rainville, I. T., 2; Indianola, I. T., 3; Center, I. T., 4; Ward, I. T., Sacred Heart, I. T., 4; Steigler, I. T., 2; total 132. Grand total, 257.
Please note Congress was given to understand there weren't that many Catawbans! So they were skeptical. But they had forgotten about others living in Southern Virginia and northern North Carolina who had become known collectively as Saponi. They forgot about mixed race families in and near Robison County, North Carolina, who had been called Cheraw or Pedee Indians. They had forgotten about others closer to the East Coast in South Carolina, who were collectively called only "Settlement Indians". These people had assimilated long before the so-called Five Civilized Tribes assimilated -- they had to, as they were given no lands to be their own after the American Revolution. They had to learn to fend for themselves in a foreign culture, early on. They had to assimilate. Once they were told Catawban peoples could receive lands in Oklahoma with the Allotment Act, some families jumped at the chance. They considered themselves to be as Catawban as those living on Catawba lands. They would later learn that they would be looked on suspiciously, and their words carried no weight. Even so, members of the remaining surviving groups grew hopeful.
Members of the Western Catawba Indian Association wrote the government, asking what was to become of them. Here is the government's reply:
The Government’s Response
For the sake of brevity, here is the crux of the response of the United States government; "I have to say that it is the policy of the government to abolish the tribal relationship of the Indians as fast as possible, and to settle each Indian upon a separate tract of land that he can call his own, to the end that he may become self-supporting and independent of government bounty. It would not be in keeping with this policy, I think, to gather up people who happen to have more or less Indian blood in their veins and are living among the Whites, separate and apart from Indian communities, and incorporate them into a tribe and place them upon an Indian Reservation."
Here is most of the rest of what the government replied;
"Hon. H. M. Teller, United States Senate Department of the Interior,
Office of Indian Affairs, Washington, March 28, 1896
Sir; I am in receipt of your letter of February 22nd, transmitting in pamphlet form a “Petition and Memorial in the matter of claims and demands of the Catawba Indian Association of the United States.” published at Fort Smith, Ark., giving the proceedings of a conventions of Catawba Indians held in that city April 15, 1895, called for the purpose of considering the condition, status and welfare of all Catawba, and all non-Reservation Indians, and to take action in procuring and allotment of land under the forth section of the General Allotment Act of Feb. 8, 1887 (24 Stat. L., p. 388), as amended by the Act of Feb 28., 1891 (26 Stat. L., p. 795).
"This memorial purports to come from the Catawba Indians comprising, they allege, “All persons of Catawba Indian descent, and their descendants, including all persona who have intermarried with Catawba Indians, and all persons of mixed Catawba and White Blood and descent, residing in any of the states or territories of the United States or in the Indian Territory;” claiming further that the United States has never made any provisions for them in giving them a grantor title to large tracts of the public domain as it has done for the Cherokees, Creeks, and other tribes, only giving them a small tract of land in South Carolina, although belonging to the same groups of Indians as the Cherokee and Creeks; the United States of America has made no provisions whatever to occupy and use any part of the public domain belonging to the United States, except the aforesaid small tract of land in South Carolina, unless it be to take allotments under the aforesaid section 4 of the Act of 1887, as amended by the act of 1891, and asking for such Executive action or congressional legislation as may be necessary to secure equal rights with other Indians to share in the public domain belonging to the United States.
"In your letter, transmitting this petition and memorial, you state that you are requested to ascertain (one) whether or not the Catawba have any tribal lands in the states of North or South Carolina to which the tribal title has not been ceded or extinguished; (two) whether there is any reason why these individual Indians may not take up lands in severalty on the public domain as provided in said section four of The Act of 1887.
"You suggest that arrangements might be made whereby they could take land in severalty within the Kiowa and Comanche and Wichita Reservations, Oklahoma Territory, when the unallotted lands of said reservation shall be opened to public settlement, or between the time of the ratification of their agreements, and the issue of the president’s proclamation opening the same to settlement, or even before the ratification of said agreement, etc." [Vance's note: a document exists which I have copied saying my great grandpa, Jeffrey Hoten Richey, took out about 1902 or 3 (I forget the exact year) a lease from the Kiowa Agency for land for cattle grazing. Oklahoma became a state in 1907, so this was just a few years before statehood. My ancestors had been living on lands leased from the Chickasaw for a couple of decades by this time.]
The government spokesman rambles on and on, then says; "A right to the soil of the country was grounded upon the acknowledged truth of this doctrine, that the earth was made for man, and was intended by the creator of all things to be improved for the benefit of mankind. These wild lands therefore, were not recognized as the separate property of the few savages who hunted over them, but belonged to the common stock of mankind.?" Basically he's saying lands Native Americans are and have always lived on lands belonging to all of mankind. It was not theirs any more.
He rambles further, stating; “The Catawbas are now reduced, from habits of indolence and inebriation, to very few; their numbers do not exceed 110 of every age.” However he was speaking only of the Catawba Band of a greater nation, the Yesah or Esaw, as we had earlier been known. There were survivors of other bands who did not live with the Catawba proper anymore. Catawba had become a generic name used to describe all the people in this time in history. This government agent used it to say they represented the entirety of the people, and it really didn't didn’t. The Catawba were the last few full bloods and mixed bloods; but they'd forgotten there were others, mixed blood survivors of warfare, the slave raids, small pox epidemics, and assimilation.
The government agent states the Catawba are a Canadian Tribe (I edited that out and forgot -- sorry) . . . which is definitely not the case. One band, the Tutelo, went to live with the Six Nations, their ancient enemy. Maybe he was talking about this. But the people were from parts of the Carolinas and Virginia.
Senator Teller, in submitting said petition, requested that it receive due attention and that he be advised as to what steps were necessary to have such change effected. Now I quote what I quoted earlier, for emphasis;
He was informed on the 16th of January, 1896, on the return of said petition, "That it was now the policy of the government to abolish the tribal relations of the Indians as fast as possible, and to settle each Indian upon a separate tract of land that he can call his own to the end that we may become self-supporting and independent of government bounty. It would not be in keeping with that policy to gather up people who happen to have more or less people who happen to have Indian blood in their veins and were living among the Whites separate and apart from Indian communities and incorporate them into a tribe and place them upon an Indian Reservation. A copy of the General Allotment Act of 1887, and the Amendatory Act of 1891, with a copy of the rules and regulations indicating the manner of procedure to obtain an allotment of lands upon the public domain under the fourth section of said act were sent to said petitioners for the information as the said section wisely provided for Indians who were not living upon any reservation at the date of the passage of said act, or for whose tribe no reservation of land had been created by allowing them to apply for and to secure to themselves land upon the public domain whether surveyed or unservayed."
The last half of that last paragraph is interesting. It mentions the last half of the Allotment act of 1887 and an amendment to it in 1891 (49).
Thus the federal government ignored the plea of a handful of mixed race people for lands of their own. The Western Catawba Indian Association had whittled their numbers down from 4,000 to 257 in the hopes of having a better chance at recognition, but that did no good. Some of those people are found on the rejected Cherokee, Creek, or Choctaw rolls. Many of those rejected names came from the Carolinas and Virginia, where clearly the Cherokee did NOT live. They do NOT explain all those on the rejected rolls, but it explains some of them (50). For instance There was a William P Bevins, #8584; on the rejected Guion-Miller rolls who wrote; "I remember one Elisha Blevins, who said that Old Ned Sizemore came from the Catawba River, or the Catawba Reservation, as he called it. Elisha Blevins has been dead some time. Wesley Blevins also testified in 1896 to the same affect." These people applied for Cherokee citizenship simply because the Western Catawba Band had been disavowed. No such organization seems to exist any more. So while most of Oklahoma was freely given to settlers in various land runs and a lottery, mixed race people of a proud but disappearing people -- received nothing but scorn and ridicule, and were referred to first as "intruders" and later as "wannabes". The Sizemore's are the one surname taken by the y-chromosone DNA records by those tested as "Melungeons" that came back as Native American DNA. Since it is so unlikely that a male Catawba DNA exists from the mixed-race Melungeon to this day, after generations of mixing with other races, is extremely fortunate. My personal ancestors never signed up for Dawes or Guion-Miller rolls. I remember hearing they started to sign up, even got an application, but that they got mad about something -- I do not know what. In the end, they never filled out the forms they had. I don't know the details.
The effort failed and the Western Catawba Indian Association disappeared from official records, and from history. It is interesting that there was an effort to live on the lands of the Apache, Comanche and Kiowa. My family's ancestors settled there about 1905 or so, in southwestern Oklahoma, where I still live. Before that my family settled in the Chickasaw Nation by the late 1880s, where it was also stated some Catawba had settled. Again, nothing mattered. In 1872 we were near Fort Smith on the Arkansas/Oklahoma border. Low and behold, it was also stated the Catawba hat came to Oklahoma had settled there as well. It was said the Catawba lived in Leflore County, and my great uncle said that was one of the counties we may have lived in for a while (he said Leflore or Sequoyah County. My great aunt wrote a letter to grandma that suggests they lived at one time in the Choctaw Nation that she saved.). It doesn't matter, though. The effort was a failure. The government said no.
ADDENDUM -- Maps, Family Files and Photos
Here is are maps of the Carolina's both before and after the Tuscarora and Yamassee Wars of the early 18th century. Notice many tribes no longer exist after the end of this period. This paved the way for further colonization of those states. The first map is from the end of the seventeenth century. If you click on any of the the map, they will get larger.
This map is dated about 1720, after both the Tuscarora and Yamassee wars. This left the western half of Virginia, and much of both Carolina's devoid of peoples. It was after 1720 that much of the colonization of central and western North Carolina took place. As you can see, the original people are no longer there. Where did they go?
Here is the map than mentions a band of the Chickasaw's living with the Catawba in 1750. Perhaps this was known by Chief Albertson, and that is why it said he was a champion of the Chickasaw adopting the Catawba.
Below is a tintype of Great-great grandma Harriet (Gist/Guess) Brown (c) 1818-1886). She married David Brown in 1841. I believe the baby to be my great aunt Ettie, grandma's sister as it was her that saved this photo. We can't prove that she is the baby, though. The baby would be her grand-daughter if that is the case. I am not sure where or when it was taken.
This photo was taken and is found in a book entitled "A Centennial History of Methodism in Arkansas 1815-1935" (51). They cut out Jonathan's face from the family photo above. The Methodist church in Arkansas was on the White River, and thus was in the Cherokee lands in I. T. three years before Dwight Mission was founded. Thus the church my family helped found was the first in Arkansas and the first in Indian Territory, when Indian Territory included half of Arkansas. This is mentioned in "Chronicles of Oklahoma". as well. (52 & 53) I include this photo because it puts a name to the face, as do Dad's drivers license, and the two school photos of the two Richey (grandma's brothers) brothers. It is a little better documentation. My ancestor, Sarah Wayland, was Jonathan's first cousin. She married Joseph Richey in 1848.
This is the page and article from which the mention of Jonathan Wayland came, that I scanned above. If you "click" on it it will expand, so you can better read it. As you can see, my ancestors were fully integrated and assimilated. But that doesn't take away from our mixed racial heritage.
Here is great-grand-ma Josephine (Brown) Richey (1854-1932). I have no earlier photos of our Browns. She married Jeffrey Richey (1851-1926) in 1872. This photo was given to me by the same person who gave me the tin-type of Hariet above. Great-aunt Ettie's daughter-in-law gave it to me. The man in the photo is Uncle Andrew Hawkins. It was taken in Tillman County, Oklahoma, in SW Ok. It was probably taken about 1930. The person who saved this didn't know who he was, so when they made a copy, he was partly cut out of the photo. But I'd seen this photo before and I was told that he was dad's older brother, Uncle Andrew. That car is an old Model-T Ford and this photo was taken during the Dust Bowl era from their home in southwestern Oklahoma. She was Harriet (Guess/Gist) and David Brown's daughter.
This is grandma, Loney (Richey) Hawkins (1886-1963) standing in front of a honey-suckle vine in Manitou, Tillman County, Oklahoma. I remember as a small child her taking me to that vine, and showing me how to pick a flower from it, and how to suck the sweet honey-like nector from it.
These are pictures of Dad, 1915-1992. One is an old WW2 photo, taken from Schofield Barracks, Oahu, Hawaii, where he was in the 13th Feld Artillery. He witnessed the Pearl Harbor attack from that location 7 Dec, 1941. As long as he lived, he told his version of the Pearl Harbor attack. He spoke of standing outside in a chow line while waiting to be served breakfast as Japanese planes flew over low. strafing them. They scattered in all directions. His version was a lot longer. The second was taken from his last drivers license records. I scratched out his social security number.
These are pictures of Dad, 1915-1992. One is an old WW2 photo, taken from Schofield Barracks, Oahu, Hawaii, where he was in the 13th Feld Artillery. He witnessed the Pearl Harbor attack from that location 7 Dec, 1941. As long as he lived, he told his version of the Pearl Harbor attack. He spoke of standing outside in a chow line while waiting to be served breakfast as Japanese planes flew over low. strafing them. They scattered in all directions. His version was a lot longer. The second was taken from his last drivers license records. I scratched out his social security number.
Here are my mother -- her maiden name was Elmyra Louise Plaster (1915-2002) and father. Dad's name was Alpha Omega Hawkins (1915-1992). Dad is tri-racial (We used to think Cherokee, but research has shown us evidence we are Saponi/Catawba; African ancestry is of unknown origin), but mostly Caucasian (English and Scots-Irish); while mama is 100% Caucasian -- German, English, and Scots-Irish.
Uncle (dad's brother) Euel Lee Hawkins burial site at the American Cemetery, in Normandy, France. He died 8 years before I was born. I still remember dad saying sadly, "Nobody wanted to be buried overseas." I will never forget that. It is difficult to read what is on the cross, but it can be done with the proper software. It reads, Euel L. Hawkins, Cpl.; 315 Infantry, 79 Div.; Oklahoma, July 18, 1944. In wikipedia (54) it says the 79th infantry landed on Utah Beach June 12-14, 1944. So they landed in France a week after D-Day. I was told he died near St. Lo, Normandy, France.
.
And this is me from a couple of years back, 2015. Our family gets whiter every generation, and I am trying to document the change, from generation to generation. I don't want our future generations to forget who we are, nor who we were.
My DNA test results
Okay, that's not much! Margin of error says we may have up to about 11% Native DNA, and as much as 13 or 14% sub-Sahara African; but the most likely value is about 3% Native, and 7% African. Caucasian DNA could range as low as 80%, but most probable value is close to 90%. That includes a range of between 1/128th minimum to about 1/8ths, maximum, Native. Sub-Sahara African's most likely values range from about 5/32nd maximun to 1/128 minimum. I know these non-Caucasian values aren't much, but they are present.
I think it is too late for us now. We Catawban peoples who came to Indian Territory (Oklahoma) are now too assimilated for anyone to care about us. Our blood lines are more Caucasian than Native, a fate many others might share one day, in future generations. I am older and I won't be writing much longer. They decided "Oh, we descended from Portuguese, NOT Natives", giving them an excuse to just forget about us. Even though we aren't and never were mostly Portuguese . . . it doesn't matter anymore. That was just a LIE -- we have far more English blood than Portuguese. Earlier generations didn't want to admit African ancestry. Now I think most of us accept it. We have far more African blood than Portuguese. The Iberians (Portuguese and Spanish) are largely descended from the Moors and Goths. Moorish (northwestern African, meaning MORoccan and MAURitanian) and Western Gothic (Visigoths -- German) blood lines and their DNA looks a lot like West African and Anglo-Saxon (also German), while our Native blood lines gets diluted more and more every generation, and is quickly vanishing altogether. I'm older now. As a small child, I saw elderly ancestors from grandma's generation who looked mostly Native American; and I see descendants who are children that look mostly Caucasian today, who are questioning whether they have any Native American blood at all. I just want them to see that we existed once upon a time -- we were real and NOT faking it, that's all. When I see people saying "we're still here" I wonder if that will ring hollow for some of yall, too, in 200 years, as it does for us today. I'm not optimistic, I find few that care, I'm tired.
Can you take my word for it, that I once saw snow here?
I once thought we had Cherokee ancestry . . . but strong evidence exists suggesting an Eastern Siouan ancestry back to the Catawba and Associated Bands. It is overwhelming. It appears many (by no means all) on the rejected Cherokee rolls actually go back to Eastern Siouan peoples of mixed race heritage. I don't want that heritage to be forgotten -- but I suspect that it will be forgotten, or the reports and old family stories won't be believed, for many of us. As the snow melts and we forget that it was once here, so does history disappear that can't be accurately documented. That's why I am trying my best to document our families and the history that brought us here.
I don't see snow on the lawn right now, but I can remember seeing it. That's why I have researched these things, and why I am writing this down.
Can you take my word for it, that I once saw snow here?
"Uh, uh . . .? Well . . ."
I suspected as much.
CITATIONS
1. https://saponitown.com/saponitown-forum/ -- When I first came upon this forum, I thought it unlikely I had any Saponi ancestors. Some people there said I had Saponi ancestry. I was polite, yet thought it was just a wild goose chase. Eventually however, I discovered my family was right there and we had the right surnames. There came a point when I could no longer deny it.
2. http://catawbaindian.net/ -- The link to the Catawba Nation. Originally they were called the Yesah or Esaw people. After both Spanish and English invasions, the slave trade and numerous Small Pox epidemics ravaged the people, the number of people dwindled to a handful. After the Tuscarora and Yamasee wars, the term "Esaw" was mostly abandoned, and the people became known by the name of the principle surviving band, the Catawba.
3. Dr. Thomas Blumer --https://sc.edu/about/system_and_campuses/lancaster/documents/native_
american_studies/archives/native_american_studies/tj_blumer/blumer_collection.pdf -- renown Historian of the Catawba culture.
4. Muriel Hazel Wright -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muriel_Hazel_Wright
5."A Guide to Indian Tribes in Oklahoma"; University of Oklahoma Press, (c) 1951, (c)1986
6. http://vancehawkins.blogspot.com/2018/10/catawba-saponi-melungeon-ch-14.html --In a document entitled "The Catawba Tribe of Indians, 54th Congress, 2nd session, Doc. 144, February 23rd, 1897", we see why the Western Catawba never came into existence. This document says it all, really. Most of the people were seen as mixed blood people, and the government basically said we had been living off reservation, so why change that?
7. http://vancehawkins.blogspot.com/2015/12/wayland-connection-to-melungeon-gibsons.html . This blog entry is largely about the connection my Wayand's have with teh people living on teh Virginia/Tennessee border/ known as "Melungeons", who I have shown on numerous occasions to be Saponi Indians; https://cdm17279.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p17279coll4/id/45406/rec/1 -- article from Chronicles of Oklahoma stating the first church in Oklahoma was a Methodist Church Circuit Church along White River whose first Pastor was Eli Lindsay; Volume 7, No. 4 December, 1929 BEGINNING OF METHODISM IN INDIAN TERRITORY J. Y. Bryce ; Here it should be noted that Walnut Ridge Methodist Church has drawn some if its most staunch Methodists and strongest leaders from pioneer families in the western district of Lawrence County. It will be remembered that the Spring River Circuit, which includes part of Western Lawrence County, was the first pastoral charge organized in Arkansas in 1815 by the Rev. Eli Lindsey. It was this same year that Nevil Wayland came to Arkansas and his son, Jonathan Wayland. They, with Hugh Rainwater and Terra Stuart and their families, organized a Church on Flat Creek. Jonathan Wayland became a local preacher and so did Hugh Rainwater. To the present generation of Waylands and Rainwaters (many of whom have held membership in Walnut Ridge) belong the distinction of being descendents of the first Methodist Church organized in Arkansas. Also found in Lawrence County, Arkansas Journal.
8. The; Southeastern Indians, by Charles Hudson, p. 103-116.
9. ditto, p. 110
10. The Catawba Indians; the People of the River, Douglas Summers Brown; University of South Carolina Press. (c) 1966
11. ditto
12. ditto
13. ditto
CITATIONS
1. https://saponitown.com/saponitown-forum/ -- When I first came upon this forum, I thought it unlikely I had any Saponi ancestors. Some people there said I had Saponi ancestry. I was polite, yet thought it was just a wild goose chase. Eventually however, I discovered my family was right there and we had the right surnames. There came a point when I could no longer deny it.
2. http://catawbaindian.net/ -- The link to the Catawba Nation. Originally they were called the Yesah or Esaw people. After both Spanish and English invasions, the slave trade and numerous Small Pox epidemics ravaged the people, the number of people dwindled to a handful. After the Tuscarora and Yamasee wars, the term "Esaw" was mostly abandoned, and the people became known by the name of the principle surviving band, the Catawba.
3. Dr. Thomas Blumer --https://sc.edu/about/system_and_campuses/lancaster/documents/native_
american_studies/archives/native_american_studies/tj_blumer/blumer_collection.pdf -- renown Historian of the Catawba culture.
4. Muriel Hazel Wright -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muriel_Hazel_Wright
5."A Guide to Indian Tribes in Oklahoma"; University of Oklahoma Press, (c) 1951, (c)1986
6. http://vancehawkins.blogspot.com/2018/10/catawba-saponi-melungeon-ch-14.html --In a document entitled "The Catawba Tribe of Indians, 54th Congress, 2nd session, Doc. 144, February 23rd, 1897", we see why the Western Catawba never came into existence. This document says it all, really. Most of the people were seen as mixed blood people, and the government basically said we had been living off reservation, so why change that?
7. http://vancehawkins.blogspot.com/2015/12/wayland-connection-to-melungeon-gibsons.html . This blog entry is largely about the connection my Wayand's have with teh people living on teh Virginia/Tennessee border/ known as "Melungeons", who I have shown on numerous occasions to be Saponi Indians; https://cdm17279.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p17279coll4/id/45406/rec/1 -- article from Chronicles of Oklahoma stating the first church in Oklahoma was a Methodist Church Circuit Church along White River whose first Pastor was Eli Lindsay; Volume 7, No. 4 December, 1929 BEGINNING OF METHODISM IN INDIAN TERRITORY J. Y. Bryce ; Here it should be noted that Walnut Ridge Methodist Church has drawn some if its most staunch Methodists and strongest leaders from pioneer families in the western district of Lawrence County. It will be remembered that the Spring River Circuit, which includes part of Western Lawrence County, was the first pastoral charge organized in Arkansas in 1815 by the Rev. Eli Lindsey. It was this same year that Nevil Wayland came to Arkansas and his son, Jonathan Wayland. They, with Hugh Rainwater and Terra Stuart and their families, organized a Church on Flat Creek. Jonathan Wayland became a local preacher and so did Hugh Rainwater. To the present generation of Waylands and Rainwaters (many of whom have held membership in Walnut Ridge) belong the distinction of being descendents of the first Methodist Church organized in Arkansas. Also found in Lawrence County, Arkansas Journal.
8. The; Southeastern Indians, by Charles Hudson, p. 103-116.
9. ditto, p. 110
10. The Catawba Indians; the People of the River, Douglas Summers Brown; University of South Carolina Press. (c) 1966
11. ditto
12. ditto
13. ditto
14. History of the Old Cheraws; Alexander Gregg, 1887, 1905; Book Renaissance. www.ren-books.com
15. ditto
16. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Charleston
17. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Sullivan%27s_Island
18. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Francis-Parkman. I am not sure I remember where I obtained these references. I can't find where I wrote them down. I did write down that it was in the writings of Francis Parkmen. This article about him says; " (born Sept. 16, 1823, Boston, Mass., U.S.—died Nov. 8, 1893, Jamaica Plain, Mass.), American historian noted for his classic seven-volume history of France and England in North America, covering the colonial period from the beginnings to 1763.
19. ditto
20. ditto
15. ditto
16. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Charleston
17. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Sullivan%27s_Island
18. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Francis-Parkman. I am not sure I remember where I obtained these references. I can't find where I wrote them down. I did write down that it was in the writings of Francis Parkmen. This article about him says; " (born Sept. 16, 1823, Boston, Mass., U.S.—died Nov. 8, 1893, Jamaica Plain, Mass.), American historian noted for his classic seven-volume history of France and England in North America, covering the colonial period from the beginnings to 1763.
19. ditto
20. ditto
21. ditto
22. ditto
23. ditto -- letter from Amherst to Bouquette
24. ditto
25. ditto -- letter from Amherst to Johnson
26. ditto --
27.Map is shared above in "Addendum" section. Between pp 32-33, The Catawba Indians, people of the River, by Douglas Summers Brown, (c) 1966, University of South Carolina Press.
28. (born Sept. 16, 1823, Boston, Mass., U.S.—died Nov. 8, 1893, Jamaica Plain, Mass.), American historian noted for his classic seven-volume history of France and England in North America, covering the colonial period from the beginnings to 1763.
29. I found the first photo of Jonathan Wayland on page 66 of a book entitled "A Centennial History of Methodism in Arkansas, 1815-1935". The actual photo was shared online by one of his descendants.
22. ditto
23. ditto -- letter from Amherst to Bouquette
24. ditto
25. ditto -- letter from Amherst to Johnson
26. ditto --
27.Map is shared above in "Addendum" section. Between pp 32-33, The Catawba Indians, people of the River, by Douglas Summers Brown, (c) 1966, University of South Carolina Press.
28. (born Sept. 16, 1823, Boston, Mass., U.S.—died Nov. 8, 1893, Jamaica Plain, Mass.), American historian noted for his classic seven-volume history of France and England in North America, covering the colonial period from the beginnings to 1763.
29. I found the first photo of Jonathan Wayland on page 66 of a book entitled "A Centennial History of Methodism in Arkansas, 1815-1935". The actual photo was shared online by one of his descendants.
30.mélanger".
Then seek a sight online where you can conjugate the French verb
"mélanger" (such as
https://conjugator.reverso.net/conjugation-french-verb-mélanger.html ) ; and
you will find "we mix" is "nous mélangeons" in French.
31. “Journal of John Fontaine: An Irish Huguenot
Son in Spain and Virginia, 1710-1719”.
32.
http://www.jogg.info/pages/72/files/Estes.htm; Melungeons, A Multiethnic
Population, Received: July 2011;
accepted Dec 2011; Roberta J. Estes, Jack H. Goins, Penny Ferguson, Janet Lewis
Crain
33.
"History of Baxter County 1873 - 1973" Centennial 1973 edition; Mary
Ann Messick.
34. Those Church minutes used to be online. They might still be. Once I find them again, I'll show the location here, and credit the person who transcribed it. OOPS! FOUND IT! http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/scott/church/stonycrk.txt :)
35. A Centennial History of Methodism in Arkansas, 1815-1935";
36. Volume 7, No. 4; December, 1929; BEGINNING OF METHODISM IN INDIAN TERRITORY; J. Y. Bryce
37. https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/beans-rangers-2419/; also http://sites.rootsweb.com/~okgs/roster_of_beans_rangers.htm . Here is a link to the soldiers serving at Fort Gibson, in 1832. The two Wayland boys, Jarrett and James Wayland, are first cousins of each other, and are also first cousins of my great great grandma, Sarah Ann (Wayland) Richey.
38.
Go here -- https://www.galileo.usg.edu/ . Log on as a guest and scroll down to
“86. Native American Documents” and click on there. If you search for
appropriate key words you will find the document below.
39.
Letter from Bouquette to Amherst
40. The Catawba Indians, People of the River; by Douglas Summers Brown; University of South Carolina Press; (c) 1966.
41. ditto
42. A Guide to the Indian Tribes of Oklahoma; by Muriel H. Wright; University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, Ok.; (c) 1951, 1986.
43. Annual Report, Smithsonian Institute, 1948; Surviving Indian Groups, Gilbert, also http://vancehawkins.blogspot.com/2013/03/indian-communities-eastof-mississippi.html
44. A Guide to the Indian Tribes of Oklahoma; by Muriel H. Wright; University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, Ok.; (c) 1951, 1986.
45. The Catawba Indianns, People of the River; by Douglas Summers Brown; University of South Carolina Press; (c) 1966. (@ pp 326-333)
46.
Go here -- https://digital.libraries.ou.edu/whc/pioneer/ -- and type in your
ancestor’s name to see if your ancestor left a post about your family.
Fortunately, my great uncle wrote a little about ours.
47. This is the region Dr. Blumer told me in emails, the location of the migration of the Catawba. He mentioned Ft. Smith Arkansas and Leflore County, Oklahoma. Leflore county was in the Choctaw Nation, and was on the south bank of the Arkansas River, while the Cherokee and Nation nations were on its north bank.
48. A Guide to the Indian Tribes of Oklahoma; by Muriel H. Wright; University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, Ok.; (c) 1951, 1986.
49. The Allotment Act http://www.nativepartnership.org/site/PageServer?pagename=airc_hist_allotmentact
50. Many people applied for the Cherokee Dawes and Guion Miller Rolls who were not Cherokee. The usual answer given for this is that White men wanted Indian land. However this does not explain ALL those on the rejected rolls. Some had been Catawba or bands associated wth them -- Saponi, Cheraw and Pedee. Some people descended from nearly extinct bands caused by the many small pox epidemics the or the slave trade of earlier years.
51. "A Centennial History of Methodism in Arkansas, 1815-1935"
52. Lawrence County, Arkansas Historical Journal, Summer 1982 edition, vol. 4, num. 3 -- History of Methodism in Walnut Ridge. This article lists the Waylands as one of the founders of the Methodist Church in 1915 at Walnot Ridge. It mentions Rev. Eli Lindsay as the first Circuit Paster.
53. Chronicles of Oklahoma; vol. 7., Num. 4, Dec., 1928. Here it states; ". . . sometimes during the year [1815], a local Pastor by the name of Eli Lindsay was placed on the new circuit . . . From Jewels history, . . . we are informed that Eli Lindsay . . . preached at points on White River. The point we are making is that . . . [one location along that circuit, was] in Indian Territory.
