Part of my family was involved in that fiasco. I do have a cousin in MS who actually managed to go to Weir's daughter's office and got her to print a page out of his ( Weir) ledger that has my ggggrandparents's names . And they being MS Choctaw. Then it had a small , I guess you might call it , genealogy tree with decendants names. He paid her $ 20 bucks and she made him leave.That was 1980 I believe, Id have to look at the paper as he made me copy and sent it to me. Ive talked to him within the past 3 months and hes said he's tried diffrent avenues to talk with any of the remaining Weirs lately, because they still have all that Choctaw ledgers , but he said theyre all so hateful and rude and just cringe when they see decendants coming thru their door !! ...I can imagine !!! Im just keeping my fingers crossed that we get those papers ! Can you imagine the rich HISTORY that would be there !!! Deana On 6/10/06, [email protected] <[email protected]> wrote: > > James: > > I believe you are referring to the infamous "Lawyer Weir" cases. Attorney > W. T. Weir in Philadelphia, Mississippi claimed to be able to get a group > of > descendants of Mississippi Choctaws enrolled as members of the tribe. He > was involved in other cases as well, among them the case involving the > Spindletop oil field mineral case and the heirs of Pelham Humphries. In a > nutshell, after collecting much information trying to 'prove' in court the > legitimacy of these Choctaws, no one was ever admitted. He charged a fee > in advance for his services and many descendants paid him. A couple of > years ago we had a discussion on these cases and here is one except from > that discussion. If you search our archives you can probably find the > other > listings. Try around May and June of 2003: > > My records show he signed documents "W.T. Weir". The records of the WEIR > actions can be found in RG 279, Docket #1790, 171, Box 1724, Entry 11UD > under "Records of the Pascagoula, Biloxi and Mobilian Consolidated > Indians". > The WEIR family has descendants still in the county. The last I heard (a > couple of years ago) a couple of daughters still hold many valuable > records > pertaining to these cases, but refuse to let anyone go through them. The > family is very sensitive regarding their ancestor's actions in the past > and > are hoping the day will come when descendants of those Choctaws he dealt > with will stop hounding them. His hand-written notes done in the various > meetings with the council of the PBM appear that he had good intentions of > making recovery for these people. They show that he was gathering > information on which families had been defrauded by the government. > The > librarians in Newton county have worked very hard to build a good > relationship with his descendants hoping that they will eventually turn > over > these important historical documents. > > dusty > List Admin. > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > ==== CHOCTAW-SOUTHEAST Mailing List ==== > Try Markie and Fay's CHOCTAW-SOUTHEAST pages at > http://freepages.cultures.rootsweb.com/~choctaw/index.html for CHOCTAW > Muster Rolls, Orphans lists, censuses, land records, etc. > > -- CHATA SIA