Hoya sounds like "Haya" (spelled phoeneticly), Creek spelling is Hvyv, meaning "maker". Probably originally connected to another word, pertaining to what he made. The Creeks & Seminoles did not use the term "Trail of Tears", which was what the Cherokees called it. Creeks usually called it "The Long Cry". Secondly, if Hoya dropped out of it in the Carolinas, he may have been Cherokee. The Creek removal route was not through there. Paul Hornsby > I have been researching all Hoya of the Lower Creek indians most of whom made their way south after the Creek wars and joined the Seminoles. Who then went to Oklahoma on the Trail of Tears, but as the story goes my great great grandfather dropped out of the Trail of Tears somewhere around the Carolina's. My great grandfather William Hoyer's obit has no parents listed, which is understandable since he was part Indian. So that is my dead end. So if anyone has any ideas, they would be greatly appreciated.