June 4, 2021 at 12:39 am
Barb, Just to correct of misinformation here, Cheif Bowle was Cherokee and was one of Dragging Canoe’s war chiefs. He continuously had contact with all of the Tsalagi people whose towns reached from Virginia throughout Tennessee, Missouri, Alabama, Georgia, and beyond, as well as many other tribes in those areas. He was and will always be “Cherokee” but due to settling along the Chickamagua Creek area, they were often called the Chickamagua Cherokee. The Chickamagua’s refused to accept the European encroachment and due to the non-stop push of European settlements and other bands of the Cherokee who ceded away their land, they were repeatedly forced through warfare to remove to new lands, constantly looking for lands that all of the Cherokee could relocate to and live in peace… hence his move to Arkansas then over into Spanish Texas. I can assure you that HE NEVER stopped being Cherokee aka Tsalagi. As far as his descendants… due to the political climate here in Texas in the early 1800’s (hatred for any indigenous person and the Lamar administration’s order to leave or be killed) I am quite sure that bragging about being the best known and most experienced war chief in Upper Mexico and the Tejas Republic’s child would not have been the thing to do if you valued life and limb. Many of his children, and from what I understand there were quite a few as he had several wives, remained in East Texas, and assimilated into the European culture. The one lone Indian Community that is recognized by the State is an amalgamated group of descendants of the Chickamagua and other tribes who sought safety with Bowle’s group during the settlement of Texas.
Now in response to your clarification of ethnicity and nationality… ethnicity is a community or population made up of people who share a common cultural background or descent. (Tsalagi aka Cherokee is their ethnicity) just as is the Lakota, Lenape, Navajo, Pueblo, Koasati, etc… to just lump them into one mix and call them “Indian, Indigenous, Natives, etc” is rather disrespectful and does not take into account the unique cultural background, language, or customs of each tribe/ethnicity. So in layman’s terms Tribe = Ethnicity. You’ll never hear an Indigenous person say “oh yeah, I’m indigenous” they will identify themselves as their tribe/ethnicity. “Oh yeah, I’m Seminole!” Nationality is the status of belonging to a particular nation. Considering that before Europeans came to our lands we did not have the concept of land ownership or nations, saying that Cherokee is nationality is inaccurate. Actually it’s an oxymoron to even say that considering that the Cherokee were removed forcefully and placed on land that is still owned by the Federal Government… we are Cherokee living in the American nation. The Cherokee were a tribal group/ethnicity, with bands, towns, communities, and clans… that were bound together by their ethnicity, not by a concept of land ownership.
In response to Lacey, a good place to start your search is to reach out to the Mount Tabor Indian Community in East Texas, they have many resources that you will not find on any website and can pass along oral histories not found elsewhere. I am from another community in East Texas and the family stories are your greatest resource for fact-finding. Also, just a note regarding the Rolls… the Chickamagua that settled in Texas were considered American citizens (they were Mexican, Texian, and then American citizens in the 1800s) and due to this “designation” were ineligible to be included on the Dawes or Miller Rolls. But don’t get discouraged, the Chickamagua were kin to many of the Cherokee who were forced into “Indian Country” and are on the rolls. If you build a comprehensive tree with as many “accurate” kin as you can find, you will get leaves (hints) that will lead you to those family members who were on the rolls. This is the method I used in my research: 1)searching for surnames of family groups from the time period of 1820 – 1900 that were on the rolls. I have a notebook where I write down each name. 2) I then printed out maps of the counties in each of the states the Cherokee lived in and then marked where each of those family groups lived during those times. 3) Build a comprehensive tree using Ancestry.com. I use the rule of 2 (I must have 2 pieces of documentation to support the accuracy of each family member, I also utilize ThruLines it is 98% accurate because DNA does not lie) 4)As I built my tree if I had a family member with a surname that was on the roll pop up and was from that same county or the surrounding counties as those on the rolls, I searched for the connection. Most people who shared surnames in an area were almost always kin. Some notes to keep in mind as well, many Cherokee were not on the white censuses so you can search for them on the colored census records (yes they are a real thing) or if you find them on the white census records, you may see them listed as Mulatto or Black. The 1870 census was the first census where you could be classified as Indian. Before that, you had 3 choices “White, Black or Mulatto.” Good luck with your research and many Blessings to you! ᏎᎷ ᎦᏚ ᎤᏂᎦᎾᏍᏗ
Barb
October 8, 2021 at 5:14 pm
@ᏎᎷᎤᏂᎦᎾᏍᏗ
I didn’t read all of your novella, but you are wrong. Cherokee is a nationality, not an ethnicity. My ethnicity is a caucasian and Native American mix. I have ancestors who were from Scotland and England, but my nationality is not Scottish nor English. I am Muskogee and American. If you had an ancestor from 200 years ago who was Cherokee, that doesn’t make you Cherokee. If you won’t take my word for it, ask Cherokee Chief Hoskin.
