Hey all –
Linda first let me say i think your work has led much creadance to the blackfoot ID. Second i think maybe we are saying the same thing in a different way. let me see if i can hit your points so that we can be in agreeance.
a) “high the coincidence of Blackfoot ID surnames with names that occur in the research of southeastern Indian families, particularly those suspected to be Eastern Siouan, would have demonstrated that this is not something “vague and without historical connections.”
a1) Indeed, i think the important material here is the connection of surnames, identification to Eastern Sioun and to the southeast – not blackefeet. I think blackfoot is a cultural marker, like cherokee, black dutch, tuckahoe, etc. The geographical origin is the key, an area devoid of some important tribal representation.
b) “you find this ID in people who were dispersed well outside of the southeast BEFORE it became a household word, who nonetheless trace back to the southeast. We can find hundreds in Ohio and thousands in Missouri, from historically discrete communities, both of which are well documented genealogically to the Piedmont Eastern Siouan, but who left the southeast LONG before the period you speak of.”
b1) correct again, the ID is available to people who have dispersed, well before the mid to late 1800’s. all with available surnames that pool to eastern triracial groups. The dispersal and the Blackfoot ID are not rooted together. one does not begat the other. the groups disperse whether or not they ID themselves as Blackfoot now. They disperse earlier than the term exists. (“BEFORE” as stated above, thats my point) the groups ID themselves as SAponi, Blackfoot, Cherokee, ETC now – however, concerning blackfoot – we have no evidence that “blackfoot” was used during the dispersal time. Blakfoot ID helps us look at these groups as possible origins in the south, and to look at eastern Sioun – but not to identify them as “blackfeet”. No more than if we began using an “eastern or western” Portuguese to describe a missing tribal people. the part that is missing is not the Portuguese, but rather who these people ID’d as Portuguese truly are.
c) “You may be misled about how ubiquitous this ID is because you’ve lived in the southeast yourself. In other parts of the country, it’s not a common ID. I lived a long time in the midwest and the west coast, and never heard it. I had often heard people identifying themselves as Cherokee, though, so it’s not like people werent’ talking about the subject”
c1) I know we disagree on this subject because most of IDs from outside of the South and northeast are “white”. However, my own experience has been a huge “black” presecence in the blackfoot ID in the deepsouth and inner city north; but ironically not on this forum – that may be due to other unfortunate social conditions having little to do with the ID existing in those areas. I would also say in the same vain, that outside of those areas there is not a large “black” population to frequent the “black”foot ID on that basis alone. I would assume the term to be more rare – because it is my belief that there are some interesting “cherokee / blackfoot” divisions within modern races.
In the end, im looking for the historical reference to “blackfoot” as a place and a group that would would be the birthplace of these exodus peoples of the south. i dont think there is one, because it did not exist historically. hitorically these groups may have come from other groups, as with tutelo or saponi – im comfortable with that. “Blackfoot” exists later as a familial memory of once belonging to a tribal designation. if we can find more than peoples memories extending into the 1700’s, we’ll be in business? i mean there are “some” references to a “blackfoot ID” here and there from manuscripts, maps, etc – but they have very little connection to one another, and even less continuity. we have more of a “blackfoot consciouness” now than we do historically. the family histories are strong connections to one another, the paths lead to the South from blackfoot ID’s, but they dont start there as blackfoots.