Native Heritage Project

Analysis of the 1869 Cherokee West Census

Posted on May 17, 2012 by Roberta Estes

After spending the past several weeks working with the 1869 Cherokee West Census, I finished integrating the 4307 family names into the Native Heritage Names project. After finishing this work, I felt there was also a story to be told from the group of names as a whole, aside from the individual families.

Article 9 of the Treaty of August 8, 1846, between the United States government and the Cherokee Nation called for “a fair and just settlement of all moneys due the Cherokees under the Treaty of 1835.” The Drennen Roll was compiled in 1851 to determine eligibility to receive settlement payments for persons claiming membership in the Cherokee Nation at the time of its forced removal from the Cherokee Nation East.

The Drennan Roll was in turn used by the United States government in the early 1900s to determine the eligibility of the Guion Miller Roll Applications, which, like the Drennen Roll, concerned settlement payments to the Cherokee. Frequently, there were name changes between the Drennen Roll and the Guion Miller Applications which were taken from 1906-1910.

On the 1851 Drennan Roll, many of these families did not yet have European names. European names, including surnames, were often acquired during the Civil War era, so this is the first document that shows Cherokee families with predominantly European names. The 1869 census serves as a bridge document between the Drennan Roll and the Guion Miller Rolls.

The 1869 Cherokee West Census was divided into districts.

FL-Flint Dist.
SE-Sequah Dist.
GS-Going Snake
TA-Tahlequah Dist.
SA-Saline Dist.
DE-Delaware Dist.
CA-Cannadian Dist.
II-Illinois Dist.
CO-Cooweescoowee Dist.

Unfortunately, there was not a lot of consistency between the districts in terms of the categories and how they were utilized.

The goal of this census was to determine who was eligible to be a tribal member. The slaves had recently been freed and they, if they applied within the time limits agreed to (6 months), were eligible to become full tribal members.

So there were really only 5 pressing questions:

For whites, who was eligible to be Cherokee citizens?
For whites, who was not eligible to be a Cherokee citizen?
For blacks, who was eligible to be Cherokee citizens?
For blacks, who was not eligible to be Cherokee citizens?
For Indians, who was eligible to be a citizen?

Part of the problem in understanding the answers is to understand how each district’s census taker asked the questions.

I’ve divided the answers into columns by district and put the associated question or commentary for that category into the appropriate box. The answers’ categories are the table headings below. The question in that district to obtain that answer is listed in that district’s row.

District	White Cherokee Citizen	White Cherokee Non-Citizen	Black Cherokee Citizen	Black Cherokee Non-Citizen	Other
FL		White citizens of US ??	Colored citizens		Not entitled[1] (doesn’t say black or white, could be both), disputed Indians
GS	Whites who are citizens	Whites not entitled	Colored persons entitled	Colored persons not entitled	Cherokees not citizenized – NC
Ill	White citizen		Colored persons	Colored not entitled	Creeks not citizens
CA	White citizens	Whites not entitled	Colored entitled	Colored not entitled
CO	Whites entitled	White citizens of the US[2]	Colored entitled
DE	Whites entitled	Whites not entitled	Colored entitled	Colored not entitled	Delaware Indians of the Cherokee nation, Mexican Indians
SA	Adopted Citizens	White Citizens of US[3]
SE	Whites with Cherokee families	White intruders	Colored persons	Colored intruders	Disputed Indians
TA	White citizens by adoption	White intruders	Colored citizens	Colored intruders	Colored persons debarred by limitation[4]

The numbers are quite interesting. Of the 4307 families on the census, we find that 270 of them had an entirely native name, meaning no Europeanization evident at all, or about 6%. An example would be words that are hyphenated such as Chu-wa-stu-ta. Some individuals had both a first and last name of this style, but more had only one name. Six percent is higher than I would have expected to see given the Cherokee’s long history of contact with and assimilation of Europeans into their tribe before the Trail of Tears movement to Indian Territory in the mid 1830s. However, judging by the 1851 Drennan Roll, it appears that most of these people had only adopted Europeanized names sometimes in the previous 18 years.

Of the rest of the names, another 250 had only one name, but that name showed evidence of Europeanization. Examples would be Blackbird, Buzzard, Charles, Clark, Annie, etc.

This leaves a balance of 3787 names on the list which have both a first and last name of some description with evidence of European influence. In some cases, the names are entirely Europeanized, such as John Smith. In other cases, there is some evidence of Europeanization. I view at this as a 3 step process, based on the names on the list.

Step one is the beginning of Europeanization. This may begin by a Native name being literally translated to English, such as Fox, Rotten-Man, Dirt-Pot, Six-Killer, Big Leg, Walkingstick etc. This may be accompanied by a Native name also, such as Ca-ho-ka McDaniel.

The second step to Europeanization is when the name looks like it may become permanent. For example, the name John Walkingstick. John has become the first name and Walkingstick has become the second name. In some cases, this is questionable, because a name seems to be split between first and last, such as Money Blanket or Red Bird. Other questionable calls are situations where the name could be either Native or European, such as with Fox. In some cases, I suspect that the name is not completely transitioned, but it could be. So this is the second stage of transition.

The third stage is unquestionable Europeanization where either the name is indistinguishable from European names or you find entire families using the surname, such as several individuals with the surname of Walkingstick, Bearpaw or Beaver, for example, all with European first names. We also see the beginning of the use of Sr. and Jr. designations as well.

For the various districts, we find the following breakdown:

District	Total	Native Name Only	One Name Only*	Stage One Transition	Stage Two Transition	Entirely Europeanized and %
CA	316	4	9	22	19	281/89%
CO	418	7	15	21	25	369/88%
DE	839	47	32	89	84	619/74%
Fl	341	24	15	43	70	204/60%
GS	476	12	13	50	62	352/74%
Ill	561	29	37	32	32	468/83%
SA	393	66	71	92	25	144/37%
SE	333	6	12	26	40	261/78%
TA	620	77	52	76	44	423/68%

*Not including Native names only. One name individuals are included in Stage One and Stage Two transitions as well.

[1] Not entitled doesn’t say if black, white or both. If it means both, then White Citizens of US may mean white Cherokee citizens.

[2] The category of “White citizens of the US” is clearly in this context being used as opposed to white citizens entitled to Cherokee Citizenship.

[3] These are the only two categories for this district. Presuming here that White Citizens of the US means the same as within the CO district, adopted citizens likely applies to whites.

[4] These colored people were eligible for citizenship, meaning former slaves, had they applied within the time limit.

Posted in Cherokee | 28 Comments

Ethel Green Hair

Posted on May 16, 2012 by Roberta Estes

Working with the Carlisle School records, we certainly discover that if some of the students were forced to be renamed, certainly not all of them were. A case in point is Ethel Green Hair. She was a Winnebago Indian from Nebraska.

I’m positive that the surname Green Hair was not assigned by the school. But of course, this certainly causes me to wonder, where and how she obtained that surname. Someone had to have had green hair, or so it would seem.

Native people, like all others, assuredly had a sense of humor. I think back to my own family and the time I accidentally turned my hair green. My brother was merciless.

I was about 13, a very impressionable age for a young female child. I was going to visit my married brother for a week in the summer. That was about the time that a product called “Sun In” was quite the rage. It was meant to give your hair “summertime streaks of blonde” like you had been swimming all week. My natural hair color is very dark, so blonde streaks were never going to happen naturally. So I sprayed and sprayed and only managed to come up with something akin to a little dirty blonde on top of my dark brown hair. Not at all what was pictured on the bottle of the product.

When I went home at the end of the week, my mother was VERY unhappy with my new look. I wasn’t any happier, but I wasn’t about to admit it. However, the worst was yet to come. At home, I swam at the public swimming pool every afternoon. Lots of chlorine in that pool. You could smell it a block away and it burned your eyes. It was nice to get back to the pool as I had missed both swimming and my friends while I was gone. I swam all afternoon on Monday and when I returned home about the same time my mother got home from work, she took one look at me and said “NOW what have you done to your hair.” I looked at her indignantly and said in my very best 13-year-old indignant voice “Nothingggggg!” In return, she gave me “the look.”

I went into the bathroom and peered into the mirror, and to my utter horror, in the places where I had used the “Sun In” product on my hair the week before, the chlorine in the pool had turned my hair a lovely shade of slime green. The lighter the streak, the greener the color.

I was utterly horrified and was absolutely positive that my life would end. My mother though found it amusing and told me that I deserved just what I got for using the forbidden “Sun In” product in the first place. But my brother, he never let that die. He forever, called me, “Green Hair” whenever he thought about it and wanted to get a rise out of me. It worked every time until I got old enough and wise enough to laugh along with him.

So maybe, just maybe, Ethel Green Hair had some kind of similar story…or maybe she was the recipient of the Green Hair name as a result of something one of her ancestor’s did. Maybe Green Hair was some type of honor that we’re not aware of.

But in my family, I’m thinking my son and daughter would NOT like to be known as Green Hair. regardless of how the name was acquired. But my brother, well, he would just love it as long as it was my name and not his!

Posted in Schools, Winnebago | Leave a comment

Southeastern Native American Documents, 1730-1842

Posted on May 15, 2012 by Roberta Estes

This site is like candy for a sugar addict. What a candystore! Hat tip to Steve for sending this link!

The Southeastern Native American Documents, 1730-1842, contains approximately 2,000 documents and images relating to the Native American population of the Southeastern United States from the collections of the University of Georgia Libraries, the University of Tennessee at Knoxville Library, the Frank H. McClung Museum, the Tennessee State Library and Archives, the Tennessee State Museum and the Museum of the Cherokee Indian. The documents are comprised of letters, legal proceedings, military orders, financial papers, and archaeological images relating to Native Americans in the Southeast.

After originally posting this article, it appears that some of the links aren’t working. The link to the actual Document site is:

http://metis.galib.uga.edu/ssp/cgi-bin/ftaccess.cgi?galileo_server=galfe1.gsu.edu&galileo_server_port=80&galileo_server_id=10&instcode=publ&instname=Guest&helpuserid=&style=&_id=0dedbe5c-67323f6961-8159&dbs=ZLNA

Information from various collections includes:

Penelope Johnson Allen Collection (Hoskins Library ):
The documents selected from this collection pertain to the Cherokee Indians in Tennessee and include manuscripts related to the opening of a federal road through the Cherokee Nation, as well as correspondence and financial records of Return J. Meigs, U.S. Agent to the Cherokees. Also included in this collection are resolutions of the National Council of Cherokee Chiefs, articles of a treaty between the U.S. and Cherokees, military orders and claims, and a ledger containing valuations of property owned by Cherokee individuals. Penelope Johnson Allen was a historian of the Cherokees and a leader in the Chattanooga Area Historical Association.
William Blount Papers (Tennessee State Library and Archives ):
This item is an article of agreement made between William Blount and David Moore on October 12, 1794. The agreement states that Moore is to accompany a transportation of goods belonging to the Chickasaw and Choctaw Indians down the Tennessee River. (More information.)
Elias Boudinot’s Address to the Whites (University of Georgia Libraries):
This item is a published speech delivered by Elias Boudinot, editor of the Cherokee Phoenix newspaper (part of the Georgia Historic Newspapersdatabase), in Philadelphia on May 26, 1826. Boudinot addresses a number of topics in an effort to secure support for the establishment of a Cherokee printing house and seminary. He pays particular attention to the “civilized” accomplishments of the Cherokee Nation.
Cherokee Collection (Tennessee State Library and Archives ):
The documents selected from this collection are mostly letters relating to the Cherokee Indians in Tennessee and north Georgia from the 1770s to the 1840s. There are a number of letters from influential Cherokee leader John Ross and from Joseph McMinn, U.S. agent to the Cherokees, as well as a number of Cherokee claims. This collection was also purchased from historian Penelope Johnson Allen of Chattanooga, TN.
Letter to Col. Benjamin Cleavland from Elijah Clarke (MS 2615) (Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library):
This is a letter from Elijah Clarke to Col. Benjamin Cleavland, dated June 24, 1787. Clarke discusses a contemplated treaty with the Creek Indians, mentions Alexander McGillivray and refers to a misunderstanding between the Indians and commissioners. (More information.)
Letter to Ethan Clarke from Ray Clarke (MS 1807) (Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library):
This is a letter from Ray Clarke at St. Mary’s, Georgia on March 3, 1813 to his father Ethan Clarke. Clarke discusses a variety of topics including the activities of U.S. troops in Florida against the Seminole Indians. (More information.)
Creek Indian Collection (MS 332) (Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library):
Documents selected from this collection concern Creek Indians in the Southeast from 1798-1837. Included in this project are several documents pertaining to relations between Creek Indians and African slaves. (More information.)
Telamon Cuyler Collection (MS 1170) (Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library):
Documents selected from this collection are taken from the governors’ papers, a group of official papers and correspondences of the various governors of Georgia. The subjects are broad in scope and include papers pertinent to frontier clashes between whites and Native Americans, papers related to the negotiation of treaties, and land surveys and letters to and from the governors regarding nearly every aspect of Native/white relations from colonial to removal eras. Many items pertain to activity in Georgia and Florida during the War of 1812, Creek War, and Seminole Wars. Included are correspondences between officials in Florida (such as the Spanish governors) and governors of Georgia, generated by Native/white strife in the frontier areas of those states. Other manuscripts concern Indian removal and the presence of the Georgia Guard in the Cherokee Nation due to the discovery of gold there. Important letters from Creek leader Alexander McGillivray, Creek agent Benjamin Hawkins, and Timothy Barnard, a trader and interpreter involved in Creek affairs, are also included. (More information.)
Early Walker County Papers (LaFayette-Walker County Library, Cherokee Regional Library System)
The selected documents are land grants, that include maps and survey reports, for plots in Cherokee County, Georgia, granted between 1833 and 1835, in 1843, and in 1845. The land was obtained by the state of Georgia from the Creek and Cherokee Nations in unnamed treaties and distributed by acts passed in the Georgia Assembly on December 21, 1830, and on December 22, 1831. The majority of plots was surveyed in 1832.
John Fontaine Papers (MS 2014) (Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library ):
The letters selected from this collection are from various individuals to John Fontaine, a prominent merchant and mayor of Columbus, Georgia, dated from 1834 through 1841. Most of the letters pertain to the disposal of lands ceded or sold by the Creek Indians in Alabama and the Chickasaw Indians in Mississippi. (More information.)
John Forsyth Papers (MS 447) (Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library):
Only one document from this collection appears in our database. It is an 1826 letter from John Forsyth, congressional representative from Georgia, to the Secretary of War regarding treatment received by two parties of Creek Indians. (More information.)
Frank H. McClung Museum Collection:
The images selected from this collection are related to several locations that are pertinent to the occupation and removal of the Cherokee Indians. Fort Marr Blockhouse and Fort Southwest Point were used to confine the Cherokees until their removal to the west. Images from Red Clay State Park and the Chattooga site show, through archaeological excavations and artifact analysis, cultural aspects and occupational patterns of the Cherokees in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Also included are images related to the Tellico Reservoir Project, a series of excavations and surveys (1967-1981) conducted in the Little Tennessee River Valley by the University of Tennessee in anticipation of the Tennessee Valley Authority’s flooding of the valley. These investigations produced a wealth of new information and artifacts representative of 12,000 years of inhabitation. The images presented here are specifically related to Cherokee settlements in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Felix Hargrett Papers (MS 2311) (Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library ):
Six documents representing a wide range of dates and issues were selected from this collection. Among these is a printed proclamation from Wilson Lumpkin, Governor of Georgia (1831-1835), respecting the release of missionaries Samuel A. Worcester and Elizur Butler, who had been imprisoned for living in the Cherokee Nation while refusing to swear an oath of loyalty to Georgia. Also covered are boundary relations between Creek Indians and frontier inhabitants from the 1780s through the 1830s. (More information.)
Benjamin Hawkins Letters (MS 943) (Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library):
The documents selected from this collection are primarily letters from Benjamin Hawkins, United States agent to the Creek Indians, to various Indian leaders and state and federal officials. (More information.)
David Henley Papers (Tennessee State Library and Archives):
The papers of Colonel David Henley discuss the battles between the Creek and Chickasaw Indian tribes and how the Chickasaw chief Piomingo asks for assistance and supplies from the United States government because of these battles. (More information.)
Doctor John Mackentosh Item (Hoskins Library ):
This manuscript is a collection of recipes for cures to common ailments and diseases. Mackentosh was reputed to have been a doctor in the Cherokee Nation. This book appears to have been published in 1827.
Marquis of Wills Hill Downshire (MS 526) (Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library):
Only one document from this collection appears in our database; it is a letter from the Earl of Hillsborough, a British official who acted as a secretary of state to the colonies. This 1772 manuscript is among the earliest presented and pertains to the early state of affairs between whites and Native Americans in Georgia. (More information.)
Governor McMinn Letters (Tennessee State Library and Archives):
These documents concern the actions of Tennessee Governor Joseph McMinn (1815-1821) in the removal of the Cherokees to the west. (More information.)
Gideon Morgan Papers (Tennessee State Library and Archives):
The papers of Gideon Morgan, Colonel of Cherokee forces, discuss the desperate conditions of the Cherokees and their need for supplies, as well as his account of a battle during the Creek War of 1813-1814.
Ebenezer Newton Diary (MS 515) (Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library ):
This is the travel journal of Ebenezer Newton of Athens, Georgia, chronicling his journey into Tennessee from October through November 1818. Newton describes a variety of encounters along the way, paying particular attention to Cherokee settlements and missionary activity in the Cherokee Nation. He specifically mentions Cherokee leaders James Vann, Charles and Elijah Hicks, Path Killer, Joseph Coodey, and Moravian missionary John Gambold. (More information.)
Pamphlet Collection (Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library ):
The items in this collection are primarily from the 1830s, and they largely pertain to Indian Removal and the Second Seminole War (1835-1842). Included are speeches by members of the U.S. Congress, memorials and appeals of the Cherokee and Creek nations and military reports relative to the U.S. campaign against the Seminoles, including the Jesup Report. An article concerning mission efforts in the Cherokee Nation is also part of this collection.
John Howard Payne Letter Books (MS 2654) (Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library):
Various letters from the 1842 volume of the John Howard Payne Letter Books were selected, including one directed to Cherokee Chief John Ross. The letters mainly relate to Payne’s involvement in opposing Cherokee removal, his rocky relationship with Chief Ross, and his uncertain pecuniary circumstances. Payne was a well-known actor, writer, and composer, as well as having held various federal positions. (More information.)
Benjamin Perley Poore Letter (MS 1222) (Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library):
This 1840 letter from Benjamin Perley Poore describes north Georgia just after Cherokee Removal. Poore authored Perley’s Reminiscences, a collection of vignettes on life in Washington, D.C., as well as a number of other books. (More information.)
Keith Read Collection (MS 921) (Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library ):
Documents selected from this collection include manuscripts from early contact between Europeans and southeastern Indians to removal era items such as land lottery deeds. Many of the manuscripts are letters to and from Creek Indian agent Benjamin Hawkins, and there is also a biography of Hawkins presented. Several items pertain to the early days of the Georgia Colony and historical figures such as Yamacraw leader Tomochichi, Mary Musgrove Bosomworth, James Oglethorpe and Spanish Governor Manuel de Montiano. Also included from this collection are many letters relative to the Creek Agency during David B. Mitchell’s tenure as agent. Other highlights are a speech by John Quincy Adams before the U.S. House of Representatives, a letter from Cherokee leader John Ridge to the Governor of Georgia, a copy of the Laws of the Creek Nation and a letter from Andrew Jackson to Creek leader William McIntosh. (More information.)
Governor Roane Papers (Tennessee State Library and Archives):
The documents selected from this collection pertain to Tennessee Governor Archibald Roane (1801-1803). The papers describe the conditions of the state of Tennessee in the early 19th century as well as the relationship between white settlers and Indians living in the state. (More information.)
Seminole War Collection (MS 1386) (Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library ):
Only one letter, dated December 17, 1837, was selected from this collection. It relates to Cherokee mediation in the Second Seminole War (1835-1842). (More information.)
Governor Sevier Papers (Tennessee State Library and Archives):
The documents in this collection relate to the actions and interests of Tennessee Governor John Sevier (1796-1801, 1803-1809), particularly relative to relations between settlers and Native Americans. (More information.)
Tennessee Historical Society Papers (Tennessee State Library and Archives ):
The documents from this collection provide information about Indian and white relations in the United States. Included are narratives, letters, a map and a military order, written by various authors, such as governors and agents, to Indian nations. Most of the documents pertain to disputes over Indian boundary lines and general relations between Indian tribes and white settlers.
Tennessee State Museum document (Tennessee State Museum):
This document is a bill enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States that allocates a certain amount of money to be used to pay for any treaty held with the Indians that have land in Tennessee.
William Holland Thomas Diaries and Papers (Museum of the Cherokee):
The diaries in this collection represent the daily activities of William Holland Thomas, including business dealings, particularly pertaining to the stores he owned. The activities listed in the diaries speak to his efforts as an attorney for the Cherokee people, as well as personal feelings regarding his experiences and travel.
William H. Thomas Papers (MS 234) (Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library):
Documents selected from this collection primarily relate to the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, who remained in western North Carolina after Indian Removal in the late 1830s. William H. Thomas was an adopted Cherokee who became the principal lawyer representing the Eastern Cherokees in Washington, D.C. and fighting for fulfillment of their treaty rights. (More information.)
William Holland Thomas Papers (Hoskins Library):
The documents selected from this collection pertain to the professional and personal life of William Holland Thomas, an attorney for the Eastern Band of Cherokees. Included are legal documents indicating that Thomas was given power of attorney by the Eastern Cherokees. Many other documents are letters written to the Cherokee Nation while Thomas was in Washington, D.C. fighting for Cherokee rights, as well as letters to friends and family. These range from correspondence between he and his wife, Sallie, to items that reveal Thomas’ attempts to claim the Eastern Band of Cherokees monies and other compensations under the Treaty of New Echota. (More information.)
C. Mildred Thompson Collection (MS 606) (Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library):
The items selected from this collection are predominantly letters from the late 1780s through the 1790s regarding various alleged depredations committed on Georgia inhabitants by the Creek Indians. Also included are two items concerning Cherokee Indians. C. Mildred Thompson was a writer as well as an educator at both the University of Georgia and Vassar College. (More information.)
Isaac S. Vincent Papers (MS 617) (Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library ):
Documents selected from this collection primarily relate to the removal of the Cherokee Indians from Georgia in 1838. Captain Vincent was one of the regional commanders ordered to arrest, imprison, and remove any and all Cherokees from the state. (More information.)
Letter to E. Jackson from James J. Wilson (MS 1010) (Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library ):
This is a letter from New Jersey Senator James Jefferson Wilson to E. Jackson of Savannah, Georgia dated January 23, 1819. Wilson describes the on-going discussion in the U.S. House of Representatives pertaining to General Andrew Jackson’s conduct during the First Seminole War (1817-1818). (More information.)
Samuel Worcester Letters (MS 697) (Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library):
The documents selected from this collection are 1815 letters from Samuel Worcester, a Moravian missionary to the Cherokee Indians in Georgia. Worcester also played a vital role in the publication of the Cherokee Phoenix newspaper in the late 1820s. (More information.)
Answer to the Lords of the Committee for Trade from James Wright (MS 1039) (Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library):
This is a twenty-nine page folio of Georgia Colonial Governor Sir James Wright’s answers to questions posed by the Lords of the Committee for Trade of Great Britain’s Privy Council dated Savannah, Georgia, February 15, 1762. The document includes information on the Creek, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Cherokee Indians in the area, as well as extensive details on the geography, climate, and economy of the colony of Georgia. (More information.)

Posted in History | 2 Comments

Carlisle Indian School Records

Posted on May 14, 2012 by Roberta Estes

Chiracahua Apache Indians After Training at the Carlisle Indian School, 1886 (photograph from the National Archives, ARC identifier 593352, local identifier 111-SC-85688)

Carlisle Indian Industrial School (1879–1918) was an Indian boarding school in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1879 at Carlisle, Pennsylvania by Captain Richard Henry Pratt, the school was the first off-reservation boarding school, and it became a model for Indian boarding schools in other locations. It was one of a series of 19th-century efforts by the United States government to assimilate Native American children from 140 tribes into the majority culture. The goal of total assimilation can be summed up in the school’s slogan:

“To civilize the Indian, get him into civilization. To keep him civilized, let him stay.”

From the earliest years of the republic, United States leaders struggled with the issues of integrating Native Americans into the European-based society, which they believed was superior and bound to dominate, especially with increasing immigration. Some leaders also hoped to protect the indigenous peoples and their distinct cultures. In the late 18th century, reformers, starting with George Washington and Henry Knox, supported educating native children, in efforts to “civilize” or otherwise assimilate Native Americans into the European-American society. The Civilization Fund Act of 1819 promoted such policy by providing funding to societies (mostly religious) who worked on Native American improvement. Washington and Knox believed that Native Americans were equals but that their societies were inferior. Washington had a six-point plan for civilization which included,

impartial justice toward Native Americans;
regulated buying of Native American lands;
promotion of commerce;
promotion of experiments to civilize or improve Native American society;
presidential authority to give presents; and
punishing those who violated Native American rights.

A letter from Henry Knox to George Washington in the 1790s summed things up pretty well:

“How different would be the sensation of a philosophic mind to reflect that instead of exterminating a part of the human race by our modes of population that we had persevered through all difficulties and at last had imparted our Knowledge of cultivating and the arts, to the Aboriginals of the Country by which the source of future life and happiness had been preserved and extended. But it has been conceived to be impracticable to civilize the Indians of North America — This opinion is probably more convenient than just.”

The historian Robert Remini wrote that Native Americans were encouraged to think that “once the Indians adopted the practice of private property, built homes, farmed, educated their children, and embraced Christianity, these Native Americans would win acceptance from white Americans.”

The United States appointed agents, such as Benjamin Hawkins, to live among the Native Americans and to teach them how to live like European Americans. Many agents took Native wives, sometimes in addition to European ones.

After the American Civil War and Indian Wars ended in the late 19th century, the government encouraged schools on the reservations, as well as expanded missionary activity. The schools on and near reservations were often run primarily by or affiliated with Christian missionaries. They often believed that children had to accept the Christian religion and struggled to suppress traditional ways. At this time United States society thought that Native American children needed to be acculturated to the general society to help them get ahead and have opportunities in the larger world.

I have been working on the Carlisle records for several months now. I have very mixed emotions about these records because of two situations, one much more difficult than the other.

The first problem is that these children were often “renamed,” so I have no clue in general whether I’m working with a name they used before Carlisle, only during their stay at Carlisle, or for the rest of their life. However, given that many of these children married and had children, these names may well be found in their descendants. Some names are obviously Native, such as Eagle Bear, Eagle Chief and Eagle Dog. For these, I’m exceedingly grateful. Some I know are Native family names because they appear in other records for that tribe as well. Others, we simply don’t know, but as names accumulate in the Native names project, we should be able to get a much better idea which names were ancestral and which were not.

Secondly, the Carlisle School and other similar schools are known widely for their abuse, although at the time their policies were widely accepted. This next paragraph is difficult for me.

During the years of operation, hundreds of children died at Carlisle. Most died from infectious diseases common in the early 20th century that killed many children. More than 175 were buried in the cemetery. The bodies of most who died were sent to their families. Children who died of tuberculosis were buried at the school, as people were worried about contagion. The new climate, separation anxiety and lack of immunity increased the death toll. Others died while attempting to escape from the school. Some suffered physical, emotional and sexual abuse or malnutrition. Beatings were a common form of punishment for students’ grieving, speaking their native languages, not understanding English, attempting to escape and violating the harsh military rules. Other forms of punishment included hard labor and confinement. According to Dr. Eulynda J. Toledo of the 21st-century “Boarding School Healing Project”, children at Carlisle had their mouths washed with lye soap for speaking in their tribal languages. Punishments were worse at other schools.

The children who arrived at Carlisle able to speak some English were presented to the other children as “translators.” The authorities at the School sometimes used the children’s traditional respect for elders to require them to inform on other children’s misbehavior. This was typical of the pattern in the large families of the time, in which older children were required to take care of and discipline younger children.

Sometimes school officials required students to take new English names. This was confusing, as the names from which they were to choose had no meaning to the children. In traditional Native American culture, people had a variety of formal and informal names that reflected relationships and life experiences. The “renaming” was difficult for many of the children, especially because they could not read and had to pick their names by the way that the writing looked or someone selected the name for them.

The issue of names being rejected by schools is not unique to Carlisle or the 1800s. I was speaking with a First Nations Odawa woman last week who was born about 1950 and when she was in school on the reservation where she lives, the Catholic nuns refused to let her use her Native name which meant “Dawn.” They renamed her, but today she uses the first name of Dawna, in tribute to her original Native name.

Renaming and corporal punishment was not the worst of the abuse. In other schools, the abuse deteriorated into torture and murder.

The Carlisle School was a model for 26 Indian boarding schools which the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) founded across the country by 1902. In addition, more than 450 schools were run by Christian missionaries, both Catholic and Protestant. Generally they operated from the premise that Native American children needed to assimilate to the majority culture and religion both to survive in the society and to advance. The children were forced to give up much of what they knew about traditional ways. Ideas about education have since changed drastically.

Pratt experienced conflict with government officials over his outspoken views on the need for Native Americans to assimilate. In 1904 he was forced to retire as superintendent of the Carlisle School. After Pratt was forced out, some of the school was upgraded to be a counterpart of colleges and training institutes. Its football teams competed against those of colleges. It had a strong sports program and training for trade industries, as industry represented what directors saw as the area of greatest job expansion at the time. The number of industrial jobs in society had expanded greatly.

I have found several Carlisle students working between 1918-1921 for the Ford Motor Company in the Detroit area according to their draft registrations.

When the “noble experiment” at Carlisle ended in 1918 when the school closed, nearly 12,000 children had been through the school. Students came from 140 tribes from all over the United States. Less than 8% graduated from the full program, while well over twice that percentage ran away.

Late 20th-century appraisal of the school led to criticism like this:

“The boys and girls at Carlisle Indian School were trained to be cannon fodder in American wars, to serve as domestics and farm hands, and to leave off all ideas or beliefs that came to them from their Native communities, including and particularly their belief that they were entitled to land, life, liberty, and dignity….separated from all that is familiar; stripped, shorn, robbed of their very self; renamed.”

My heart aches for those frightened children, punished for speaking the beautiful lyrical language of their birth and not understanding why, deprived of their families and stripped of their culture – everything that was familiar or comforting to them. Their parent and families, far removed and unable to help them, had no idea, I’m sure. They believed they were offering their children opportunities for the future that they could never have living on the reservation…and in some cases, they were right….but not always and at what ultimate cost?

Many Native Americans are bitter about the deracination that took place at the Indian boarding schools, and the experiences suffered by children taken from their families. Others appreciate the chances their ancestors got for education, having heard positive stories in their family traditions. In 2000 the Cumberland County Pa. 250th Anniversary Committee worked with Native Americans from numerous tribes and non-natives to organize a Powwow on Memorial Day to commemorate the Carlisle Indian School, the students, and their history in all its aspects.

The names of the students are held in the National Archives and are available by directed searches using tribal names and states. By adding the names of these students to the Native Heritage Project, we can, in some small way, write them back into their rightful place in tribal history. We have no idea whether they lived or died, so in some cases, we may be memorializing them. What we do know is their name as recorded in school records, their tribal affiliation, the Indian Agency that they were affiliated with, if any, and their home state.

http://www.archives.gov/research/arc/

To search, use the Archive Research Catalog Search and enter the words “Carlisle Indian School,” including the comma, followed by the term you want to search for, such as “Oneida” or “Virginia.” Tribal names are often spelled in differing ways, so sometimes multiple searches are required using various terms.

Posted in Pennsylvania, Schools | 2 Comments

6 Founding Native Mothers

Posted on May 13, 2012 by Roberta Estes

In honor of Mother’s Day, I’d like to honor our Native mothers, historically referenced in many tribes simply as “the Grandmothers,” who came before us. I’d also like to share with you what science and genetics has to say about the Grandmothers.

We know that the first Native Americans crossed the land bridge between Asia and what is now Alaska in North America sometime between 12,000 and 20,000 years ago. The timeframe depends on which study you’re reading. Many scientists believe the Native people were following game and unintentionally crossed to another continent. After the ice melted, they were the first Americans whether they intended to be or not. They may not have been aware that crossed into another continent. The frozen Beringia probably looked exactly as the land on either side looked. But cross they did, a small group, and here we are today.

Female Native American’s mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA = the direct maternal line) falls into 5 haplogroups, or genetic clans, for lack of a better description. They consist of subsets of haplogroups A, B, C, D and X.

In a paper titled “The Phylogeny of the Four Pan-American MtDNA Haplogroups: Implications for Evolutionary and Disease Studies,” published in 2008 in Plos One, the authors studied groups of DNA results and determined that 95% of Native American mtDNAs are descended from the six founding mothers carrying haplogroups of the A2, B2, C1b, C1c, C1d, and D1. The other 5% is composed of the X2a, D2, D3, C4c, and D4h3 sub-haplogroups.

You know, it’s amazing to think that only 6 women were responsible for peopling the Americas, but indeed, there were. Those are the original grandmothers, ancestral to all of us who carry Native blood in any degree today. Since there were only 6 in the founding group, it stands to reason that if we are descended from one of them, we’re descended from all of them. After all, who were their children going to marry if not each other?

It’s startling to think that in this way, we can track our ancestry back at least 12,000 years in time and we know where those ancestors were, even though we will never know their names. They exist today, in each and every one of their descendants, in some small part.

Thank you, Grandmothers! Miigwech.

You can read the entire article here: http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0001764

Posted in DNA | 7 Comments

Unknown Indian

Posted on May 13, 2012 by Roberta Estes

It strikes me as odd that we don’t know the name of this man. He fought for our freedom in the Revolutionary War, but couldn’t honor him if we wanted to…because we don’t know his name. He is recorded simply as the indented Indian servant of Simeon Chittenden. We know he lived in Guilford, Connecticut.

The thing that strikes me as odd here is the word “indented,” which of course means indentured. Indentures were generally for a period of years, usually but not always 7, and often as head-rights, but seldom do we see Indians indentured. They are much more likely “slaves for life” or bound out as a child perhaps to learn a trade, which is not exactly the same thing as an indentured servant. This wording makes me wonder if Indian in this case means Indian from India. Perhaps the court records of the county where Simeon Chittenen lived would solve the mystery.

Posted in Connecticut | Leave a comment

Dirt – Specifically, Dirt Names

Posted on May 11, 2012 by Roberta Estes

In the 1869 Cherokee West census, most, but not all of the Native people have adopted some sort of first name plus surname naming convention. Some names are in transition – and of course we don’t know where that transition ends up. Sometimes there are groups of names that make me wonder if there is something significant we don’t know….in this case….about dirt.

We find several surnames with dirt in them, an unusual word to have in a surname. We find the following:

Dirt-Eater (2 families)

Dirt-Pot (2 families)

Dirt-Seller

Dirt-Thrower

Dirt-Well

Dirt-Eater makes some sense and I could see it being given as a nickname that “stuck.” Dirt-Pot I’m having a bit of a problem with. Dirt-Seller doesn’t really make much sense unless it’s being used in the sense of land. Dirt-Thrower I totally understand because I have children. But Dirt-Well mystifies me. I’m left wondering – just what was it about dirt?

Posted in Cherokee, Names | Leave a comment

The Battle of Tippecanoe

Posted on May 10, 2012 by Roberta Estes

Growing up in Indiana, the word Tippecanoe was very familiar. So were Native arrowheads and other remnants of the life of the Native people who lived there generations before my family.

Little did I know that Indians had been engaged in an important historical battle not far from where I lived.

On November 7th, 1811, the Shawnee engaged the whites in what would come to be called the Battle of Tippecanoe.

Following the signing of the Treaty of Greenville in summer 1795, relative peace prevailed between the white settlers and the natives of the Old Northwest Territory which included Indiana. The Washington and Adams administrations at least paid lip service to the terms of the treaty, but Thomas Jefferson sought additional lands for American farmers through a series of purchases from the tribes. Not all the frontiersmen bothered with the niceties of treaties and many simply occupied Indian lands illegally.

Resentment among the tribes ran high. In 1808, Tecumseh, a Shawnee chieftain, and his brother Tenskwatawa (known to the Americans as The Prophet) launched a reform movement among their people. They attempted to end the sale of additional lands to the whites and to resist alcohol and other troublesome temptations of the competing culture.

A new native settlement was built at the confluence of the Wabash and Tippecanoe rivers (north of present-day Lafayette, Indiana) and became known as Prophet’s Town. The village became the focal point of Tecumseh’s effort to rally the tribes east of the Mississippi River in the hope of halting the spread of white settlements.

William Henry Harrison was governor of the Indiana Territory and superintendent of the Northwest Indians. Fearing the growing strength of Tecumseh’s confederacy, Harrison decided to strike quickly. He marched an army of 1,100 men along the Wabash toward Prophet’s Town.

Earlier in 1811, Tecumseh had gone to visit the Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Creek tribes, to enlist their support against American expansion. Tecumseh left his brother, the Shawnee Prophet, in charge and told him not to attack nearby American forces.

With Harrison’s forces advancing, the Prophet prepared the Native men for battle with fiery oratory — including promises that they could not be harmed by the white men’s bullets. Ignoring Tecumseh’s instructions, the Prophet attacked the Americans shortly before dawn, giving the Shawnee a tactical advantage, near Tippecanoe Creek. Had he not taken this pre-emptive stroke, certainly Harrison would have attacked the Shawnee.

After a two-hour battle, the natives were forced to flee and their village and the gathering spot of the confederacy, Prophet’s Town, was burned by Harrison’s troops.

Military historians regard the Battle of Tippecanoe as a draw, but the battle made a hero out of William Henry Harrison who subsequently took the nickname “Tippecanoe” which he used to his political advantage when running for president. He was elected in 1840 but caught pneumonia during his lengthy inaugural speech in a snowstorm and died a month later.

Following the 1811 battle, even the women celebrated this victory by creating quilt blocks to honor Harrison, who, it was perceived, saved the day and ensured the safety of the whites. Blocks had names such as Tippecanoe, Old Tippecanoe and Tippecanoe and Tyler Too. A slightly modified Tippecanoe block is shown below.

Posted in Shawnee | Leave a comment

Coweater, a Vegetarian

Posted on May 9, 2012 by Roberta Estes

Ok, so maybe we can’t tell that much. But it grabbed your attention, just like the National Enquirer in the check-out line at the grocery!

Sometimes Excel is my friend. It’s much easier and more time efficient to enter these records into the Native Names document in alphabetical order. This means that the records are sorted alphabetically first in Excel, and sometimes that provides enlightenment, such as is the case with the Coweater family.

When we see a word like this, it’s easy to assume that this is some kind of Native name translated to English as in “one who eats white mans cows” maybe. Often, that’s right, but in this case, it may not be. The entry on my spreadsheet right after the family of Killy Coweater is a one word Native name with no first name of Cow-e-tah. Certainly makes me question the assumption of how the Coweater name came into being.

Posted in Cherokee, Names | 1 Comment

Corntassel and Susan Robbins Corntassel

Posted on May 8, 2012 by Roberta Estes

In the 1869 Cherokee West Census, I came across a couple of entries that were quite interesting, and of course, I had to take a small detour to see what I could find.

In the census, we have Lewis Corntassel, with 1 female, 2 male children and 1 female child. Next, we have Susan Corntassel, a white who is a citizen and then we have Corntassel with 4 women and 2 male children.

Corntassel is a well know Cherokee, but how did Susan Corntassel, a white, obtain a clearly Native name, Corntassel. I decided to take a look and see what I could find.

I found what I believe is the answer in the book, “Tahlequah: And the Cherokee Nation” by Deborah L. Duvall. This excellent book documents many of the Cherokee families using information from the families. This book often includes photos which were taken in the late 1800s.

Here’s what Duvall’s book had to say:

“It is said by family members that their ancestor, Corntassel, and his first wife were detained for a time in a stockade during the Trail of Tears. The wife became sick and died along the Trail. Corntassel had been close friends with a man known as “the Robin” who was killed, leaving his daughter, Susan Robbins, an orphan in the old Cherokee Nation. For the sake of his old friend, Corntassel arranged for Susan’s passage to Indian Territory on a later trip across the Trail and married her.

There is some debate as to whether or not Susan was a Cherokee. Depending on who you talk to, she is described in varying degrees from a white woman to a full-blood. Whatever her lineage, she and Corntassel started a family that now has many proud Cherokee descendants.”

The entry for Susan on the census in 1869 as “white” seems to address the mystery surrounding her ancestry. I was surprised to see her photo. It’s shown below, taken sometime in the late 1800s, courtesy of the family and found in Duvall’s book.

Corntassel himself was very interesting as well. Duvall says that, “According to some family members, Corntassel left the old Cherokee country with the Old Settlers in the 1820s, but he served as wagon master during the Trail of Tears. He helped the Cherokees to make the treacherous journey at least four times, and some say it was seven. Corntassel was a blacksmith and he carried pieces of his “luber,” a machine used in his trade, from the homeland to Indian Territory with each trip until he had moved the entire thing.

Corntassel settled on Cherokee Nation land just west of Westville where the community came to be known as Green. It became “Old Green” when another community, also called Green, was established in Delaware County. From Highway 51 west of Westville, you can take Ross Swimmer Road toward Old Green. On the way, you will come upon a small cemetery with a sign that reads “Corntassel 1891.” There you will find the grave of Corntassel and his family members. He was believed to be 117 years old at the time of his death.” His photo, below is from the same source.