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Scots-Irish and Choctaw Connection

5 Jul By Leave a Comment

The Choctaw intermarried the Scots-Irish. It may be within a Choctaw record that Ulster origins are found. The largest tribes are the Choctaw Nation: www.choctawnation.com and the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians: www.choctaw.org

Tribal lands were the lower two-thirds of Mississippi and western Alabama. They were the first tribe to be selected by the US Government for removal. Their rights were defined in the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek (1830), which also allowed many to stay.

Several books can be used for background, including Angie Debo, The Rise and Fall of the Choctaw Republic (1961); Arthur H. DeRosier, The Removal of the Choctaw Indians (1970); Clara Sue Kidwell and Charles Roberts, The Choctaws: A Critical Bibliography. (1980); Greg O’Brien’s Choctaws in a Revolutionary Age, 1750-1830 (2005) and his Pre-Removal Choctaw History (2008). For genealogy, Samuel J. Wells’ thesis “Choctaw Mixed-Bloods and the Advent of Removal” (Ph.D. Thesis, University of Southern Mississippi, August 1987) is a must. 

Records are at the National Archives: www.archives.gov ; Oklahoma Historical Society: www.okhistory.org; and the Mississippi Department of Archives & History: http://mdah.state.ms.us Large collections from these archives are on microfilm at the Family History Library: www.familysearch.org

Three rolls (censuses) form the foundation of research: the Armstrong Roll (1830) made prior to removal; Choctaw Emigrants to the West (1831, 1832) made after removal; and the Cooper Roll (1855) for those who stayed.

Land cannot be separated from the Choctaw. The breaking up of the nation is detailed in Mary Elizabeth Young’s classic Redskins, Ruffleshirts and Rednecks: Indian Allotments in Alabama and Mississippi, 1830-1860 (1961). The American State Papers, Public Lands (Vol.7, 1834-1835) provide a list of those in the tribe and whites owning farms in the Choctaw Nation in 1830. Another source for land issues are the Choctaw Nation Records (1830-1890). 

Today the Choctaw are the third largest tribe in the nation.

The Scots-Irish and Native American Connection

16 Apr By Leave a Comment

If you have early roots in the American southeast, you already know there is a strong Scots-Irish connection with the various tribes. I’m speaking mainly of the Catawba, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw and Muscogee (Creek). This includes both black and white families prior to 1840.

Intermixture also occurred with the Scots, Welsh, Germans and English. Regardless, what you need to be aware of is if you have strange terms such as “Shanty Irish” or “Black Dutch” passed down in your family, this is usually the first clue to a mixed-blood heritage.

Actually, I hear “Black Dutch” all the time and people are very confused about that. Basically, terms such as this were given as explanations for mixed-blood heritage in an era where the color of skin affected civil rights such as land ownership, bearing arms, marriage, and slavery itself. Depending on who one marries, the children of a “Black Dutch” could “pass for white” solving these sticky issues. In this case “Black Dutch” was usually code for Cherokee or Chickasaw.

I would like to share three of my favorite books. The first is for background, Theda Perdue, Mixed Blood Indians: Racial Construction in the Early South (Athens, Georgia: The University of Georgia Press, 2003). The next two are genealogical: Rachal Mills Lennon, Tracing Ancestors Amopng the Five Civilized Tribes: Southeastern Indians Prior to Removal (Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2002); and Tony Mack McClure, Cherokee Proud: A Guide for Tracing and Honoring Your Cherokee Ancestors, 2nd ed.(Somerville, Tennessee: Chunannee Books, 2009).

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