RESPONSE: You are quite right that at least in the State of KY (and I assume in other eastern and southern and midwestern states), one would see either Mulatto or Black or Negro listed as the race of a person when all the relatives of that person seemed to agree the person was actually of Native American descent. I know I have never seen anyone listed in KY (that I can recall) who was listed as either Indian or NA (Native American). It makes me think that the census enumerators were not even given that choice when making a determination of the person's race. If one's skin color was darker than that person would have considered to be the norm, they became either Black or Mulatto. Now, in the Western States such as in OK, AZ and other places, you will find persons listed in the earlier censuses as "Indian". I really don't recall that the term, Native American, had even come into play before 1900. Joyce Taylor Collins La Palma, CA p.s. The sad and unfortunate truth in those days was that a person of Native American descent would have been looked down on and would have made every attempt to blend into the population without calling attention to his heritage. Many, in fact, moved into the Western states in order to live in peace. In a message dated 7/7/2007 11:59:32 AM Pacific Daylight Time, woodster1@fuse.net writes: > Jesse was actually married to Sally Edwards. Married 15 July 1814 and > divorced July 1824. They had two children to our knowledge. Tradition is > that she left after the divorce and moved to Ohio. Sally was white. Jesse > > later had a woman living with him that was listed as "black" on the census > report. Tradition is that she was an Indian because a lot of Indians were > listed back then as black. Makes no difference except us genealogist like > to know for certain the nationality of our ancestors. He had two children > with Sally and I have been in contact with a descendent of Phebe, one of the > > children by Jesse and Sally. > Barb