If I may add a comment to Richard T.'s excellent reply , .. the concept of "owning" the land by an individual Cherokee was just not thought of. It was a foreign concept (.. the white man's thinking..). Oklahoma, .. as soon as the alloted lands were assigned to the Cherokees,... the whites began immediately to devise methods to get the lands out of Cherokee ownership and into white ownership. There was quite a lot of allotment that went to minors and (orphan ) minors. Legals and power people would do things like get themselves appointed guardian/etc. of the minor's self and property. Somehow the land just seemed to change hands..:o) I have read the timming, but I think most of the land went out of Cherokee ownership in 20 yrs or less!! Besides John Wayne,.. Clint Eastwood (here I go quoting him again...:o) , worked as a U.S. Marshall from Ft. Smith , AR. Check the Eastwood movie ,"Hang em High". The movie is surprisingly connected and shows a good facimilty of the Ft. Smith. I just can't concieve of any Cherokee thinking as a "land grabber.." (somebody is feeding you a cup of strong black drink...:o) Richard B. ----- Original Message ----- From: <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Thursday, August 14, 2008 2:15 PM Subject: [CREEK-SOUTHEAST] Creek Nation was communally owned > In a message dated 8/14/2008 1:29:10 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, > [email protected] writes: > > The story that has been passed down > through to us is that there was a land grab by the cherokees in > muskogee and as such ggggpa George Bell disowned them. Saying that he > would rather be white than cherokee. > > It would have been impossible for any tribe to do a land grab of another > tribe in Oklahoma prior to 1905, when the Indian nations were divided into > allotments. The tribe owned the land. Individual tribal members were > allowed to > use the land, but did not own it. However, under traditional Creek law, > the woman owned the property improvements. If your grandfather was > Cherokee, > and his wife was Creek, then their children would be considered Creek. > > What actually happened in reality was that whites settled in places like > Tulsa, Muskogee and Henrietta, without permission of the tribe. After > awhile, > the whites outnumbered the Creeks in these towns, and the whites took > over. > They ignored the laws of the Creek National Council - essentially > becoming > autonomous city states. Much of the lawlessness in the old Indian > Nations was > due to the problem of have predominantly white cities not being subject > to > anyone except U.S. Marshalls out of Fort Smith, Arkansas. Do you remember > the > great John Wayne movie, "True Grit?" > > Does that answer your question? > > Richard T. > > > > > > **************Looking for a car that's sporty, fun and fits in your > budget? > Read reviews on AOL Autos. > (http://autos.aol.com/cars-Volkswagen-Jetta-2009/expert-review?ncid=aolaut00030000000007 > ) > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without > the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > > > >