Another interesting point I have heard about is that if you claimed 1/2 or more Blood, you were required to be attached to an "agent" who would conduct business (supposedly) on your account. You could not buy or sell land etc. without the assigned "agent" Perhaps Jerri could comment on this. I don't remember if this is something my Great Grandmother told me or if it's something I ran across on the Net. Sharon Holt Byers ----- Original Message ----- From: Dan Metivier <demetivi@housing.hsg.uci.edu> To: <Indian-Territory-Roots-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Thursday, June 10, 1999 10:57 AM Subject: question of heritage > Good morning all, > > It may have been a combination of reasons. One reason that I have not > heard on the list, but was mentioned by one of my aunts was that they > may have thought they would get better allotment land by being a lesser > degree of Indian. I didn't think much about it until I came across a book > that had determined that Cherokee of an 1/8 degree of blood did end up > with better allotments. The exception to this was the hold out full bloods > who were enrolled towards the end of the enrollment time. I'm sorry I > don't remember the name of the book. > > Along the same line, my same aunt and I were talking about the census, and > how in 1910 our Cherokee side of the family were listed as Indian, and > by 1920, some were being listed as White. One reason suggested by my > aunt was that looking white, the census taker may have assumed they were > white, or may have been shy about asking a white looking person if they > were Indian. Just my two cents. Not being there, all this is just speculation. > > Dan > > > > > >I have a question. Why would a woman who married a full blood Chickasaw (on > >Dawes Roll) still say she was white if indeed she WAS Indian? I have cousins > >who are determined that our great grandmother was full blood Cherokee(like > >80% of the US population), but wasn't on the rolls due to pride or whatever. > >However, her daughter married a Chickasaw and still listed herself as white. > >Their children are on the Dawes roll as 1/2 blood. Thanks, Leona > > > > > >