> One of my paternal grandmother's uncles - then a resident of > Oklahoma - actually applied to be placed on the Cherokee rolls in > the early 1900s, which application was rejected. I don't know the > details because I have not yet obtained that information from the > National Archives. > > Then he applied to be placed on the rolls of the Mississippi > Choctaws and again was rejected on the grounds that his father was > not present when the treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek was signed. He > claimed that both his mother and his father were half Indian. > > His mother was born in Georgia, as nearly as I can tell. Although > his father was born in what is now Mississippi, his paternal > grandfather was, as nearly as I can tell, born in South Carolina, > which was not one of the places that the Mississippi Choctaw lived > although I believe that the Cherokees did live in South Carolina. > > The uncle, John Watson, was born in what is now St. Helena Parish, > La., and he and his parents and siblings settled in Houston County, > Texas, in the mid-1840s when Texas was still a republic. > > I am puzzled. Did John Watson truly believe that both of his > parents were half Indian and was simply unable to prove this? Or > was there some financial incentive in the very early 1900s that > would encourage him to apply to be placed on Indian rolls and he > decided to lie to try to take advantage of that situation? > > Janey E. Joyce - jejoyce@sbcglobal.net Hi Janey! There may well have been a financial incentive for John Watson to claim Cherokee or Choctaw ancestry. One of the reasons for the several 'rolls' being prepared was to identify who was to receive a share of sums owed those tribes by the Federal government by virtue of various treaties and agreements. By our standards today, the sums going to any one person weren't great (typically a few hundred dollars), but by the measures of the time, they were a couple of years pay for the average man and well worth going to some trouble for. If all a person had to do to gain that sum was claim to be an American Indian from some particular tribe, then there were lots of people who made that claim. Some were telling the truth; some weren't. -- Robert W. King I'm an ingenieur, NOT a bloody locomotive driver! SnailNet: 19023 TV Tower Rd, Winslow, Arkansas 72959 BellNet: 479-634-2086 InterNet: robert@wildweasel.net Web site: <http://www.wildweasel.net>