Author Archives: Roberta Estes

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About Roberta Estes

Scientist, author, genetic genealogist. Documenting Native Heritage through contemporaneous records and DNA.

Eugenics as Indian Removal: Sociohistorical Processes and the De(con)struction of American Indians in the Southeast

Posted on April 28, 2015 by Roberta Estes

One century after “The Indian Removal” of the antebellum era, Native peoples in the American Southeast provide an important but often overlooked example of how racial policies, this time rooted in eugenics, led to a documentary erasure of Indians as … Continue reading →

Posted in Eugenics, National Museum of the American Indian | 3 Comments

1837 Treaty with the Choctaw and Chickasaw

Posted on April 15, 2015 by Roberta Estes

Jan. 17, 1837. | 11 Stats., 573. | Proclamation Mar. 24, 1837. Page 486 Articles of convention and agreement made on the seventeenth day of January, 1837, between the undersigned chiefs and commissioners duly appointed and empowered by the Choctaw … Continue reading →

Posted in Chickasaw, Choctaw | 3 Comments

The Croatan Indians of Sampson County, North Carolina. Their Origin and Racial Status. A Plea for Separate Schools.

Posted on April 8, 2015 by Roberta Estes

In 1916, the Croatan Indians of Sampson County issued a plea for an Indian School for their children as had been provided in Robeson County.  This document is preserved today in the Documenting the American South collection, and includes significant … Continue reading →

Posted in Croatan (Later Lumbee), Indians of Robeson County (later Lumbee), Indians of Sampson County | 1 Comment

Finding Your American Indian Tribe Using DNA

Posted on April 1, 2015 by Roberta Estes

If I had a dollar for every time I get asked a flavor of this question, I’d be on a cruise someplace warm instead of writing this in the still-blustery cold winter weather of the northlands! So, I’m going to write … Continue reading →

Posted in DNA | 7 Comments

Nathaniel Bezzelle, Bissell, Indian

Posted on March 29, 2015 by Roberta Estes

On the Norfolk County, Virginia, Register of Free Negroes and Mulattoes in 1851, Nathan Bissell, is listed as #1629, 23 years, 5 ft 4 inches, Indian complexion, Indian descent, April 22, 1851. In the 1860 Census of Norfolk County, Virginia, … Continue reading →

Posted in North Carolina, Virginia | 1 Comment

Pamunkey Petition 1893

Posted on March 28, 2015 by Roberta Estes

From “Pamunkey Indians of Virginia” (1894), John G. Pollard (Online): https://archive.org/details/pamunkeyindians00goog Transcription: The Pamunkey, as a tribe, are neither handsome nor homely, long nor short, stout nor slim, in fact they differ among themselves in these respects to the same … Continue reading →

Posted in Pamunkey | 2 Comments

Dighton Rock and Miguel Corte-Real

Posted on March 28, 2015 by Roberta Estes

Photograph of Dighton Rock taken in 1893. The Dighton Rock, found in the riverbed of the Taunton River in current Berkley, Massachsetts, formerly part of the town of Dighton, has been an interesting controversy since 1912 when Edmund Delabarre, a Brown University … Continue reading →

Posted in History | 3 Comments

Certain Aboriginal Mounds of the Georgia Coast

Posted on March 26, 2015 by Roberta Estes

You can read this book online or download it free at: https://archive.org/details/georgiacoastmoor00moorrich    

Posted in Anthropology, Archaeology, Archaic Indians | Leave a comment

Indian Slaves, New Kent County, VA 1722-1726

Posted on March 15, 2015 by Roberta Estes

St. Peter’s Parish was located in New Kent County, Virginia.  Parish records exist from 1680-1787 and in those records, three Indians were mentioned. Page 52 – Indian Will a slave belonging to Mr. Ebener Adams dyed October 18, 1723 Page … Continue reading →

Posted in Slaves, Virginia | Leave a comment

New Native American Mitochondrial DNA Haplogroup, A4, Discovered

Posted on March 8, 2015 by Roberta Estes

The genetic community continues to learn more about the genesis of our Native ancestors.  A couple of years ago, I suspected that a maternal DNA haplogroup, or clan, that had previously been designated as Asian was found both in European … Continue reading →

Posted in DNA | 4 Comments