I'm excited to see that folks are working on their Cherokee and NA heritage. I've hammered and hammered at this--the White River Valley, especially certain parts, was predominantly Cherokee from the very early 1800s until assimilation and "yonega" (white) settlers became dominant after the Civil War. No, not everyone who lived here was Indian, but a great majority, depending on where they lived, were. The Melungeon were also numerous here. If you are hitting brick walls and the paperwork--e.g., Stone Co. MO Marriages 1851-1900--is there and you can't find your people where they should be, or a grave--there's a reason. These days, it's hard to understand how rough it was. You couldn't use your real name most of the time, for state laws in both MO and AR forbid any "Indian" person to live in either state. So you adopted a name, and changed it if you wanted to--without court records, BTW. Couldn't own land, couldn't vote, couldn't do anything, and you had to put up with prejudice, which was often life-threatening. You didn't join community or social organizations, such as the Woodsmen or the Masons, because it drew attention to you and your family, and that's the last thing you wanted if you were hiding your true origins. You often didn't mark loved ones graves, for fear of vandalism or other form of hate crime. You couldn't hold cultural ceremonies, even worship services, which is why some families aren't ever listed in any church records from the time period--although most of them were quite religious/spiritual, it's hard to adjust to different religions from your own. (Just look at the 21st century's Middle East) If you are exploring your family's history, and there's even a hint of NA somewhere, try to take some time to learn about the Cherokee and other NA people who lived here. You might find a hint that will help you crack that brick wall, or explain why your family had a certain tradition. My own uncle, whose genealogy work I certainly respect, and I have argued on this for years. He came down for Outlaw Roundup, and met Richard Moore, our cousin through the Overstreet and possibly the Moore side; Richard is the Councillor for the White River Band of Cherokee. Uncle Jim told me after Roundup that he's finally starting to realize that we may never break certain brick walls, because the information died with our people long ago. Things like--"Well, if so-and-so was Cherokeee, they should have been on the rolls." Nope. It would be nice, but if we don't know their Cherokee name, and there are times you won't ever find out, the chances aren't good. If you were in your Cherokee ancestor's shoes, and you were afraid that the home you've built would be destroyed and you would be forced to start over in another place, you wouldn't talk about being Cherokee either. Another myth is the Cherokee "royalty" thing. Didn't happen. Some folks, when forced to admit to NA heritage, would say, "My mother was the daughter of Chief Such-and-such, and a princess in the tribe". Think about it. I'm going to mess up explaining it, but I'm going to try...let's say someone cornered you in your own home, and asked you point-blank, "Are you Indian?" (and that's putting it politely!) Because Indians were lower-class citizens, are you going to say that you come from your everyday-variety of Indian, or are you going to make yourself look as important as you can? Are you going to say you are from a tribe greatly feared by some of your neighbors, or are you going to say you are from a tribe that some whites thought was superior to other tribes (such as the Cherokee, instead of Osage)? Are you going to admit to being Melungeon, who were so persecuted they have no proven history prior to the 18th century, or are you going to say you are something else? (Black Dutch, Black Irish and so on?) No, you are not to admit to anything you don't have to. It is one thing to rattle the family skeletons when you are researching your families. It is quite another when you & your family's safety and lives are at stake, as it was throughout the 1800s and sometimes into the 1900s (and even now.) Human nature being what it is, if a lie will make sure your children are not beaten at school (if there was one), that your wife will not be bothered by drunks visiting your home while you are gone, that you will survive--you'll lie. Sometimes, for the sake of your children, you won't even tell them that your grandmother, a woman who taught you herbal lore and certain NA traditions and ways, was NA. If you and yours weren't particularly dark, or if you followed your neighbors' ways of doing things and worshipping, you stood a chance of not being forced to move, or even killed for one reason or another. Survival was what counted, and if you had to lie to survive, you did. If you were forced to admit to having an NA parent or grandparent, you said what you could in order to make it look as okay as possible, and the whites respected people with titles. So that made you the child or grandchild of a titled person. The Celtic peoples and the Cherokee had a great deal in common, which is why there were so many intermarriages. Their cultures had many similarities, their outlook on life was about the same, and they connected. When a family has Scots or Irish roots, and if they were in the same area as the Cherokee in the same time frame, there is a great chance, that, yes, you will have Cherokee roots. There is a gentleman who has lived in the White River Valley for many years, who does do some history work. He just found out, in the past 2 weeks, that the very place he's lived all this time was a Cherokee settlement in the early-to-mid 1800s. How he could not have known is something I don't understand. The clues have always been there, but you have to be willing to see them. Don't close your eyes to clues. I've considered seeing if I can get a grant or something to research the NA of the White River Valley. It would be fascinating. And prejudice still affects us today. Many older people, if they were NA, were brought up to not admit it if they could keep from doing so. If they weren't NA, but knew families that were, they didn't talk about it, either because they respected and wanted to protect those families, or because they didn't like them and might have done some things they're now ashamed of (or maybe not). These days, it's fashionable to say, "I'm Cherokee," or "I'm of (insert white man's name for tribe here) descent." It's astounding to realize that lots of times, it's true. But research is the only thing that's going to prove it, up to a point. Knowledge of tribal movements, seeing little things that lead your trail down some worthwhile side roads, talking to others about what they've learned--that'll get you going. I think the very fact that so many of us have oral family tradition of Cherokee or other NA heritage proves that our ancestors did the right thing...otherwise, we wouldn't be here. And one more thing, then end of sermon--if your people never lived in the western US, or if research does not show that a western tribe had an offshoot which came to the White River Valley during the 1800s--and off the top of my head, I can't think of any (but I don't know everything)--then you probably had better doublecheck the "Black Foot" or other western band heritage you were always told. Sure, there are ways it could have happened--but they are usually oft-told family stories, such as "Grandpa's parents grew up on the "rez" in Montana (or Dakota or whatever)". The best bets for the White River Valley are Osage, Cherokee, Shawnee, Delaware, Kickapoo, and a couple others (especially of the 5 Civilized Tribes). This is a huge gray area, and no one knows all the answers, unfortunately. If you are looking for NA heritage in hopes of getting on the rolls and receiving federal money, it still happens these days on occasion--but not nearly as often as a person might think. Most people want to know because a) they're genealogists (which says most of it) and/or b) they want to learn the ways and teachings of their ancestors. Vonda ListMom for MOTaney and MO-AR-WRV http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~moarwrv/ http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~gregvonda/

The story in my family is that my father was 1/16th Cherokee--through a female relative, naturally a "princess." As my mother once remarked, all Indian women who married whites must have been princesses. As late as the 1960's my father was vehemently denying this tradition. His grandmother actually destroyed some records and falsified others to maintain the image. So we'll probably never be able to prove the connection. But I've always been so very proud of being part Cherokee. Mary Hill tonymary@bellsouth.net