The Shawnee Bluejacket family reaches back into the mid-1700s. Records begin with Chief Bluejacket himself, also known by his Native names of Se-pet-te-he-nath, Big Rabbit, his name given at birth and Wa Weyapiersehnwaw, his adult chosen name, found in use about 1777.
Little is known of Blue Jacket’s early life. He first appears in written historical records in 1773, when he was already a grown man and a war chief. In that year, a British missionary visited the Shawnee villages on the Scioto River and recorded the location of Blue Jacket’s Town on Deer Creek (present Ross County, Ohio).
This would put BlueJacket’s birth at least before 1750. Historians estimate it to be about 1743.
Blue Jacket participated in Dunmore’s War and the American Revolutionary War (allied with the British), always attempting to maintain Shawnee land rights. With the British defeat in the American Revolutionary War, the Shawnee lost valuable assistance in defending the Ohio Country. The struggle continued as white settlement in Ohio escalated, and Blue Jacket was a prominent leader of the resistance.
On November 3, 1791, the army of a confederation of Indian tribes, led by Blue Jacket and Miami Chief Little Turtle, defeated an American expedition led by Arthur St. Clair, governor of the Northwest Territory. The engagement, known as the Battle of the Wabash or as St. Clair’s Defeat, was the crowning achievement of Blue Jacket’s military career, and the most severe defeat ever inflicted upon the United States by Native Americans.
Blue Jacket’s triumph was short-lived. The Americans were alarmed by St. Clair’s disaster and raised a new professional army, commanded by General Anthony Wayne. On August 20, 1794, Blue Jacket’s confederate army clashed with Wayne at the Battle of Fallen Timbers, just south of present-day Toledo, Ohio. Blue Jacket’s army was defeated, and he was compelled to sign the Treaty of Greenville on August 3, 1795, ceding much of present-day Ohio to the United States.
In 1805, Blue Jacket also signed the Treaty of Fort Industry, relinquishing even more of Ohio. In Blue Jacket’s final years, he saw the rise to prominence of Tecumseh, who would take up the banner and make the final attempts to reclaim Shawnee lands in the Ohio Country.
Later a story spread that he was in fact a European settler named Marmaduke Van Swearingen, who had been captured and adopted by Shawnees in the 1770s, around the time of the American Revolutionary War. This story, popularized in historical novels written by Allan W. Eckert in the late 1960s, remains well known in Ohio, where an outdoor drama celebrating the life of the white Indian chief was performed yearly in Xenia, Ohio from 1981 until 2007.
However, subsequent DNA testing proved that story to be false. Bluejacket’s DNA is unquestionably Native, and the Swearingen family’s is not. Not only does the Bluejacket and Swearingen DNA not match, they are not even in the same haplogroup. Swearingen is European, so they haven’t shared a common ancestors in 10s of thousands of years. An article published in the Ohio Journal of Science in September 2006 which details the findings is shown at this link: http://shawnee-bluejacket.com/Bluejacket_Folders/BlueJacket.pdf
The Bluejacket family has a website with further information about history and current activities at this link: http://shawnee-bluejacket.com/
Also on this site is the list of the 772 Shawnee adopted into the Cherokee tribe in 1871: http://shawnee-bluejacket.com/1871_registry.htm
Native Heritage Project 
Can Youcheck my dna for my connection to emma blue jacket ? family finder said we are connected and Rowland .My kit -n6112-password z8038 thank you Caroline Dodge Clark
Please don’t post passwords here. Everyone who reads the blog can see them. Family Finder tells you if you are related, and beyond that, it’s up to you to figure out how you are related to that person. I can’t tell you anymore than you already know, that you are connected if she is on your cousin list. You’ll need to go in and change your password.
Sarah Eliza Jane Silverheels Blue Jacket is my G-G-Grandmother and was the Mother of my G-Grandfather Jay Silverheels-Smith. Her mother was Eliza Jane Silverheels who was married to David Likens Blue Jacket and was the one that broke her arm with a repica or decorative tomahawk, as she defended her home against invasion. G-Grandpa Jay told me about her and all our history is on line now and I just wanted you all to know that we need to be included there, in our family History. Please don’t forget us! Dewowah (Deborah Pearl Lung-Judge) my Father is: George William Lung and his Mother was Mary Margaret (Maggie) Mitchell. Jay Silverheels also went by other names and that included: George William Mitchell/Charlie Mitchell. Thank you all there and I’m proud of you all there! Sincerely Dewowah
Eliza Silverheels Bluejacket is not in any way connected to Jay Silverheels! Jay Silverheels (Tonto) was a STAGE name used by actor Harold “Harry” J Smith who was a Mohawk Indian born in 1912 in Canada, the son of Alexander George Smith.
Eliza Silverheels who married David L Bluejacket, was the daughter or Moses Silverheels and Betsy Bartlett. She was born in 1847 in Kansas Territory and died in Kansas in 1929, she spent her entire life in Kansas and Oklahoma.
Good on you Marsha;
Eliza Silverheels killed one of Quantrill’s raiders in 1863 as the raiders were on the way to sack Lawrence KS. She was protecting her home as one or the raiders tried to enter the house. She accosted him straight on with a tomahawk given to her husband by his father, Rev. Charles Bluejacket. With a swooping swing, she hit the bad one in the head, breaking her arm and the half of the tomahawk, doing him in for good.
Yes, Alexander George Edwin Smith aka Francis Pegemegabow is the Father of Jay Silverheels-Smith (He had his name legally registered later as that). But he was born in Brantford, Onterio Canada. His name in Brantford , Onterio, Canada,was Harold J. Smith. I know who his real Mother was because I’m his G-Granddaughter and I stood over Sarah Eliza Jane Silverheels-Bluejacket’s grave and he directed me to it, so I could place flowers on it. Alexander George Edwin Smith is also Captain A.G.E. Smith, who is also Francis Pegemegabow. I know because Harold Jay Smith aka Jay Silverheels-Smith told me so back in 1957 and he wanted me to know about my G-G Grandmother Sarah Eliza Jane Silverheels-Bluejacket. I was told how she defended her home from enemy invasion and how she buried the Tomahawk into his head and broke his skull (burying the hatchet) as well as breaking her arm. In 1975 My G-Grandfather Harry Jay Silverheels Silver Cloud White Hawk (That is Jay Silverheels-Smith’s and Harold J Smith’s also George William Smith, Charley Smith and George William MacIntosh or McClintock or McClintic also). He use many names which most of you don’t know or understand like I do. But he wanted me to call him: Harry Jay Silverheels Silver Cloud White Hawk (His First American name.) I knew him personally and most who speak of him, never have even met him but yet they try to correct me and it is disrespectful of many to do that? In 1975 Sarah Eliza Jane Silverheels-Bluejacket’s grave in Salisbury, Pa. (Which is part of the Old Chief Corn Planter Tract of Land, where I grew-up) was uncovered and The G-Grandfather was going to have them cover up her grave but decided to have it moved instead. But her History has been in Oklahoma all along. But the Grave Mound where I placed flowers is no longer there in Salisbury, Pa anymore. And when I was doing my Ancestry Tree on Ancestry.com I found her picture and David Likens Bluejackets picture and by her Picture it tells that her Grave was moved from Salisbury, Pa. to where it is today. So The G-Grandfather and my Aunt Mable Tressler-McKenzie had it moved. But both Mable Phobe Doxtater and Sarah Eliza Jane Silverheels-Bluejacket were both married to Alexander George Edwin Smith Sr. (Alexander Sundance is his Native American name). Harold Jay Smith was the only son of Alexander George Edwin Smith and Sarah Eliza Jane Silverheels-Bluejacket. But Jay Silverheels-Smith has a twin Sister (Eliza). The other Half Siblings are to Alexander George Edwin Smith and Mable Phobe Doxtater. My Aunt Mable was named for her. So, this is all on ancestry.com but most of it comes from me and I even added most of what you keep reading and thinking someone else added it? Well, I have a facebook page (Dee Jay Silverheels) I have spoken to Georgia Honey and Carlyle Hinshaw on the phone and told them who I was and so our Family will no longer be unclaimed. I was guarding my G-G Grandmother Sarah Eliza Jane Silverheels-Bluejacket in My Home Town of Salisbury, Pa. (Part of the Old Chief Corn Planter Tract of Land) when none of you were even around to help me. In 1975 I heard the Tractor from my home and ran to see those who dug her grave up and I told my Father: George William Lung and he went right over there and he made me stay home (Because I was so upset) and he told me, “Don’t you worry Honey, I’ll make them put her back.” Where were you all then? I didn’t know what happened to her till I saw it on Ancestry.com and that wasn’t right. Don’t any of you dare try to take My G-G Grandmother’s History from Me or Our Family or The G-Grandfather Jay Silverheels Smith!!!!!!!! I have a Tomahawk too and mine is equal to My G-Grandmother’s in clought. I much prefer to smoke the Peace Pipe End but make no mistake I will defend and protect my Ancestor’s History to the End.Sincerely: Deborah Pearl Lung-Judge (Dewowah) G-Granddaughter of Jay Silverheels-Smith aka “Tonto” My FB Page is Dee Jay Silverheels .
Where did Blue Jackets DNA sample come from?
Chief Graham Rogers Burial Site
I think that Samuel M Cornatzer’s wife Caroline came to Kansas from Ohio with Charles Bluejacket and Graham Rogers, and arrived around christmas….
Where was Graham Rogers buried? His daughter Rachel lived with my ancestry in Kansas, (the Cornatzers), then continued to live with them in Oklahoma after the removal. My grandmother, (Ninya Jane (Cornatzer) Madison) was executrix to Rachel’s estate.
Any help to Graham’s burial site? He and Anna are probably still in Kansas somewhere in Johnson County.
Charles BlueJacket is my so many greats Grandfather.
Julie, I am a member of the Piqua Shawnee DNA project and have my dna results of my father at WorldFamilies.net and Familytreemaker.com. I have about 8 other BlueJacket possible matches. Through one of those, I am aware of a Linda Kincaid who also is a Bluejacket connection. Not sure if you might know her. My connection is through the Snow surname. I am under the impression since we do not carry the BlueJacket surname, possibly one of my Snow males fathered a child with a female BlueJacket sometime in the 1790-1810 time frame. I am still searching for my male Snow who was father of a Richard Snow b in TN, his father, unknown, was b in NC according to three census records.
Chief Bluejacket is my great great great great great great great great great grandfather
Linda White is my Aunt ❤️😊
Linda Kincaid is my Aunt 😊❤️
Have you had any further luck finding his burial site? We are related through Graham’s wife Anna Carpenter. I know they must be buried next to each other and I’ve searched the indexes of the cemeteries near his home he built and lived in till he died. I have a small suspicion that he may have been buried on his homestead but have no evidence to back that up.
Brittany
There is so much speculation about the lives and location of these people and about what they did between the few known benchmarks in their lives.
What I speculate about Graham and those around him.
Anna died in Kansas before the move to Oklahoma.
Anna is not listed on the June 1871 Register of Shawnee admitted to Cherokee citizenship. Anna’s mother, Graham, Acenith, Rachael and Simpson are on that register. Conclusion: Anna is buried in Kansas maybe at the homesite on Mackey Street, Overland Park, Kansas.
Graham died in Oklahoma right after the move from Kansas.
Until I found the obit in The Olathe Mirror (Olathe, Kansas) Feb 1872, I thought Graham was probably in Kansas. However, I feel that he is buried at Military Cemetery or on the home site there on military road by Okoee.
Kah Che Qha, Anns’s mother, died in 1873 and is buried there at Military Cemetery (speculation).
Rad, her son, also dies in ’73 and is buried at military cemetery (speculation).
Grahams’ 3 children are alone and Samuel M Cornatzer is assigned as their guardian, and they are living back in Kansas in 1875. Samuel’s wife Caroline is a sister-in-law to Graham.
Acenith, I have lost the trail on this girl. I think she possibly died in Kansas.
But to keep the flame smoldering, Acenith would have become of age and moved to Oklahoma. I did find a Acenith Jones, mother-in-law to Frank Hughes. That was in 1930. I have not payed to much attention to this lead.
Simpson died in 1894 and is buried at Military.
Rachael died in ‘1935 and is buried at Military.
Brittany,
Any clarification and lead that you could extend, I would much appreciate it. I have very little about or above Kah Che Qua (sp?), really not much on the Carpenters.
If you would care to, I would like to talk with you sometime.
Perry
pmadison@sbcglobal.net
For the record, my mother and I are both Gedmatch matches with the Bluejacket sample referenced. I’m noting the Native QM3 Y DNA haplogroup listed for this sample. I am glad that you had written this article — as I was trying to learn more and came across it right away. This result, that appears for mine and my mother’s results, only strengthens my belief that there are answers to questions that I’ve not thought to ask yet, lurking under the surface of my family’s Autosomal DNA.
I had to add this…The same Bluejacket match as I had noticed in Gedmatch is showing up in mine and my mother’s Family Finder matches as well…. and I wouldn’t have thought to check Family Finder, had I not seen this same Bluejacket result in Gedmatch and then read your article! I’m going to need another bushel of nights so I can stay up and research all of these new questions!
I know what you’re doing tonight.
I would be a lot of fun to find some of BlueJackets actual segments.
think you so much.
Oh, we’re bad! A good kind of bad — but bad. Once again, we find each other up past midnight digging around in the DNA! (Smiles).
Thanks for keeping the history straight in regards to who Chief Blue Jack really was! Here is a link to the actual report: file:///C:/Users/User/Downloads/BlueJacket%20(1).pdf’
Sincerely
Marc Faulkner
http://www.thekentonkin.wordpress.com
sorry that did not work-please use this link: file:///C:/Users/User/Downloads/BlueJacket%20(1).pdf
The Reservation is in Wyandotte, OK if you are curious
Hi,
My Father is the 5x great grandson of James Colwell & Sarah Rising Sun Kishpoko. He did a Dna test already, I’ll see if he can submit it to ged match and ancestry. He looks European (German/English) but his Dna has 10% unaccounted . Im so excited.
I wouldn’t mind doing a DNA sample
You can click on the link for Family Tree DNA on the sidebar. Then order the Y 37 test which will test the paternal BlueJacket line.
There are Shawnees communities in K entucky, Delw, south MD (Wesorts) and south side Va areas where rival Eries with Susqehannocks were deposed to. There exist branches of Dutch amalgamated Shawnees beginning with a Bluejacket family headed by the people of the Rabbit clan in Lenape and Gingaskin settlement
Hello,.My name is Tony Ross Trouten and Blue Jacket was my 6th great granfather, through tge captured Margaret Moore! I live a stones throw from blue jackets original village after being diaplaced by capt kirkwood from the temple at Bridgeport. Ohio. I have much history to share and correct!