-----Original Message----- From: Gene and Anne Fetters <geanfet@mail.riverview.net> To: Jim T Musgrave <jimbo591@juno.com> Date: Thursday, February 04, 1999 9:05 AM Subject: Re: [HUNT-L] Cherokee Hunt >There are two other lists for Cherokee Hunts also that are available >somewhere on the net. Don't have the URls for them but one is called the >"Dawes Roll" the other the Guinne Miller Rolls, they are the lists of >Cherokee that were rounded up for the forced march to the reservations. >For anyone doing research on cherokee Hunt's though, do not get discouraged >if your names are not on these rolls. There are several reasons why they >might not be there. >1. there was one branch of the Cherokee that never went to reservations, >they escaped the round ups by running into the hills of Georgia, they are >called the Snow Bird Cherokee and are the last surviving truly traditional >Cherokee left. >2.there were others who escaped along the trail and were never put on >reservations. There was one large group who escaped in Pakuka Kentucky. >3. If a white had married a Cherokee it was illegal in most states at that >time, so often the wife would have been listed as a spanish lady or some >such to avoid detection. >4. Some white families were so horrified about the Native marriage that they >destroyed all documentation of the family. >5.If they stayed with the wifes family, the Cherokee are a matriliaial tribe >and the husband might have taken the wifes family name causing more >confusion. >6.Up until 1978 it was common for Cherokee children to be taken from their >families and put into white schools to live. They were forced to give up >all use of language and history and given white names so that they would >better assimulate into the white world. Some of these children were so >young that they did not remember their family names when finally released >from the schools at all. >7.and since many were born at home there would have been no record of their >birth to find. >8.of the three to four thousand cherokee rounded up and forced on this march >in the middle of winter only sixteen hundred survived. Entire families were >wiped, and left on the side of the road, out leaving no record of their >passing. >I am a Hunt of Cherokee lineage and have had a lot of difficulty tracing my >links and these are the problems that I have run into. >The Cherokee do believe that ,"If you have one drop of cherokee Blood You >are Cherokee." >Good Hunting,there are books available to help you search out cherokee >heritage, if you are interested please contact me and I will get the names >of these for you. >