One of the most used terms in genealogy research. Next to the Cherokee Princess. Might I suggest a question to those who are well experienced in this. Once a person is dubbed an English or non NA names, could we not figure they are not full blood by this time? I would like the professionals to pop in on explaining this. Many times I introduce a comment that offers room to speculate. But on this one, there are those in better learning than I. Dan -----Original Message----- From: Robert H Appleby Sent: Friday, December 28, 2012 11:02 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [CherokeeGene] Cherokee Heritage Folks, My great-great grandmother was supposedly full blood Cherokee

Yeah, that term Indian Princess gets me. I couldn't believe my eyes when the history text we used last term called Pocahontas an Indian Princess. I wanted to jump up and down ranting about the misuse of the term. I finally opted to address it in my mid-term exam. The professor who wrote the book obviously didn't do his homework. He even got the story wrong! Ah, but the term full-blood is relative. It literally means of full blood, but it was also applied to those who lived among the full-bloods and were accepted by them as such, even thought they weren't. I've seen many Dawes and Miller applications that say "so-and-so is considered a full-blood even though she (or he) really isn't." If you lived among the full-bloods and accepted their values, traditions and way of life, you were called a full-blood - regardless. And there were many full-bloods who refused to adopt anglicized names and were simply given them. My Uncle Cephas was a half-blood Chickasaw. His father, who I've always heard called Wilson Holson James(my grandfather was named Holson in his honor) was a full-blood Chickasaw who spoke little English and I still haven't learned to pronounce his Chickasaw name. He was told he HAD to have an English name. He picked Wilson and Holson because he liked the sound of them and the Indian Agent picked James as his last name just because. It caused some misinterpretation, let me tell you. We have loads of family stories in both mine and my cousin Kathy's families (she's a Revelle by birth, I'm a Wood by birth and her great grandfather and my great grandmother were siblings), about the James boys coming to visit. Our families aren't close, but Kathy and I have become close since discovering each other so these stories weren't shared before hand. We decided that meant Cephas James, his brothers and sons had come to visit. NOT! When we finally found a reference in another cousin's great grandfather's ledger and account books from his days in Broken Bow, OK and before, it turned out it was THE James Boys - Frank and Jesse and their cronies. Names are funny things, especially among the Cherokee who might change names several times during their lifetimes. You just never know where they will lead and what they might come to mean! Susan