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Boy, I hate to continue being the stirrer of the pot, but I’ve been doing some major research the past few days on Blackfoot Indians, and this is the only site I’ve found that claims they ever lived in the SE (VA, NC, etc.).
I’ve read dozens of posts in Saponitown where people claim Blackfoot ancestry. Again, from what I’ve read, it all seems to be from oral history, “I heard my grandmother say her great grandmother was Blackfoot”, and so on.
Form everything I’ve read, the Blackfeet lived in the central/midwest/west part of the US up to the central/midwest/west areas of Canada. In fact, there are even sites that point to the Saponitown forum as being the instigators of this “theory”.
http://www.native-languages.org/iaq18.htm
http://members.aol.com/angelaw859/tri_racials.html
This doesn’t include the dozens of sites I looked up the clearly state Blackfoot Indians never lived anywhere near the SE. Only one resource I found even hinted that some Blackfoot Indians may have lived in the east when the Europeans landed, but immediately went west. Of course, we’ll never know that or not.
It seems a bit odd that there are so many “theories” on this site with so little solid research and evidence behind them. For a genealogist, it’s actually quite sad, as there are so many resources out there to help us all understand the true background and history of all of us on this site and of Americans in general. I think, unfortunately, it’s more popular to believe in exciting, flashy or mysterious stories of made up people or histories. It’s also easier to believe what you hear than to actually take the time and effort needed to find the truth and facts.
Please understand that anything I say on this site is placed here to get people both thinking and SEARCHING, not to start arguments, hurt feelings or point fingers. It’s just that as a person who’s put 17 years into dedicated historical research, it’s hard to sit back and read stories that really have no historical basis in fact.
More reading:
http://college.hmco.com/history/readerscomp/naind/html/na_004300_blackfoot.htm
http://www.pbs.org/lewisandclark/native/idx_bla.html
Tommy
what happened to the Australians?;)
LOl hahah no yea I know there is nothing written, however thats where the (and I know u r not a big fan of this buuut) Lakota/Sioux/Blackfoot believe we are their relation and that it is evident in our language.:p
There are commonalities with many native languages, even those that may be hundreds of miles or thousands of miles away. Remember, all Natives came from Asia and moved southward from what is now Alaska all the way down to the tip of South America. It’s likely that Indians in the Andes and Amazon have linguistic similarities to the Arapaho here in Colorado.
😎
Anyhoo, I’m just putting some ideas out there. No one has to take what I say as the authority 😀
Oh Christina, I just read your post closer.
Lakotas and Sioux are the EXACT same thing. There are different bands or groups (like the Mdewakatons in Minnesota), but they are all Lakota. Sioux is simple what the French called them. It’s no different than the Odawa/Ottawa. Same people, different name or pronounciation. Thus, their language (Sioux/Lakota) is the same.
Now, take the fact that the Blackfoot did live in the same area of the country as the Lakota, and that answers the question why they have similar languages. Yes?? 😉
ok so where did our language come from? arent you um up kind of late to be starting trouble lol syke
And if u tell me Vikings I will fly out there and punch you lol
Oh re second Post: are you talking about the land bridge? :rolleyes:
Christina,
Thank you for your response here.
Tommy, this is directed to you:
You know, I usually do not get involved in heated discussions on this forum nor do I intend to continue this discussion beyond what I post here, which will be a long posting, a quotation that come from a family member who worked on my family’s genealogical research. Let me first begin by saying that my ggggrandmother was Blackfoot from Pennsylvania and that is why I am here in this forum.
First of all, before I paste the family quote I plan to paste, let me state that the Carlisle Indian school is documented as beginning in 1879 (http://home.epix.net/~landis/histry.html). You will see from the quote why I make this statement.
Here is the family quote, “THE MORMAN CHURCH RECORDS SHOW OUR GREAT GREAT GRANDMOTHER, NANCY AGNES MCLANE, AS SHAWNEE. BORN 1809, BEVER CO. PA. THIS I AM POSITIVE IS IN-ACCURATE INFO. FIRST, THE BIRTH DATE IS 5 YEARS YOUNGER THAN THE OBITUARY AND FUNERAL HOME RECORDS SHOW. SECOND THEY ASSUM SHE WAS SHAWNEE BECAUSE SHE WAS BORN IN SHAWNEE TERITORY. THEY DID NOT TAKE INTO CONSIDERATION THAT OUR GOVERNMENT WAS TAKING ALL INDIAN CHILDREN AWAY FROM THEIR PARENT AND SENDING THEM HUNDREDS OF MILES AWAY TO INDIAN SCHOOLS. CARLIER INDIAN SCHOOL IN PA. WAS ONE OF THEM. NANCY’S PAENTS, OR NANCY HERSELF COULD HAVE BEEN SENT TO THIS SCHOOL. I HAVE FOUND ALL TO OFTEN, GENEALOGISTS DO NOT GET THE FACTS AND DATES CORRECT. OFTEN MAKING PRESUMPTIONS WITHOUT GETTING THE TRUE FACTS. WITH OUR OWN GRANDPARENTS, I’VE FOUND WRONG DATES AND MISSPELLED NAMES. I’VE COME TO BELIEVE THE ONLY TRUE RECORD IN THIS MATTER IS THE ORAL RECORD PASSED DOWN BY OUR GRANDFATHER, WILLIAM ALFRED RALSTON. HE TOLD HIS SON, HAROLD E, WHEN HE WAS STILL YOUNG THAT HIS (WILLIAMS) GRANDMOTHER NANCY WAS BLACKFOOT INDIAN. YEARS LATER WILLIAM ALSO MADE THIS SAME STATEMENT TO HIS GRANDSON, IVAN E RALSTON. MY FATHER, HDROLD AND MY BROTHER IVAN REPEATED THIS INFO TO ME, ALFRED H RALSTON. GRANDPA GREW UP NEAR WHERE HIS GRANDPARENTS, JOHN AND NANCY FARMED. WILLIAMS GRANDFATHER DIED ONE YEAR BEFORE HE WAS BORN, BUT HIS GRANDMOTHER NANCY LIVED ANOTHER 32 YEARS. WILIAM ALSO FARMED IN THIS SAME AREA OF JACKSON CO FOR APPROXAMATELY 16 YEARS. HE SURELY KNEW HIS GRANDMOTHER NANCY WELL. MY MOTHER, ETTA, RECALLED A CONVERSATION SHE HAD WITH GRANDPA RALSTON THAT TOOK PLACE NOT LONG AFTER SHE AND DAD (HAROLD) HAD MARRIED. SHE AND GRANDPA RALSTON WERE TRYING TO DETERMINE WHAT PERCENTAGE INDIAN OUR DAD (HAROLD) WAS. WITH THE HELP OF ONE OF THE CEMETARY DIRECTORS OF HICKERY GROVE CEMETARY, WE FOUND WHERE OUR GRT, GRT,GRANDMOTHER NANCY IS BURIED. HER NAME IS NOT ON ANY STONE MARKER, NOT EVEN ON HER HUSBAND JOHNS. HER MARKER WAS JUST A SMALL LIMESTONE ONE THAT ONLY HAD ONE WORD, MOTHER, ON THE TOP EDGE OF IT. IT WAS LEANING, NEARLY READY TO FALL OVER. I HAVE ENCOUNTERED SEVERAL DISTANT RELATIVES THAT HAD HEARD OF AN INDIAN ANCESTOR BUT HAD NO IDEA OF WHO SHE MIGHT BE. I HAVE FELT IT NESSARY TO GET THESE FACTS IN WRITING BEFORE THEY ARE LOST ALLTOGETHER. I ALSO HAD A HEADSTONE MARKER MADE THAT GIVE GRT,GRT, GRANDMOTHER NANCY THE RECOGNITION THAT SHE DESERVES. IT SETS THE RECORD STRAIGHT ABOUT HER. BURIAL RECORDS AND NEWSPAPER RECORDS SHOW GRT GRT GRANDMOTHER NANCY AS: BORN 1814 BEVER CO PA.DIED 1905, JACKSON CO IA. BURIED HICKORY GROVE CEMETARY, JACKSON CO. IA. HER OLDEST SON MELLON WAS 1/2 BLACKFOOT INDIAN. MELLONS 6TH CHILD WAS OUR GRANDFATHER,WILLIAM ALFRED 1/4 BLACKFOOT, WM’S. CHILDREN 1/8. AND ALL THEIR CHILDREN 1/16. LIFE WAS VERY HARD IN NANCY’S DAY AND TIME. EVERYONE WAS STRUGGLING TO MAKE A LIVING AND JUST STAYING ALIVE. AT THIS TIME IN HISTORY, MANY PEOPLE CONSIDERED BEING INDIAN OR PART INDIAN AS DEGRADING. IT PROBABLY NEVER OCCURED TO NANCY THAT SOME DAY, IN TIME TO COME, SOME OF HER FUTURE OFFSPRING WOULD WANT TO KNOW ABOUT HER. NO RECORDS WERE KEPT TO SPEAK OF. SHE DIED IN OR NEAR MONMOUTH, IOWA. WITH WHOM SHE WAS LIVING AFTER HER HUSBAND DIED, I HAVE NEVER BEEN ABLE TO FIND OUT. SHE RAISED TWO STEP CHILDREN, FROM JOHNS FIRST MARRIAGE, BESIDES HER OWN 10. SHE HAD TO HAVE BEEN ONE BUSY LADY TO CONTEND WITH THE SCOTCH/IRISH/AND INDIAN RALSTONS. MAY SHE REST IN PEACE. I MYSELF COULD NEVER GET GRANDPA RALSTON TO TALK ABOUT OUR ANCESTORS. HIS ONLY COMMENT WAS, “THEY WERE NOTHING BUT HORSE THIEVES AND KILLERS, YOU DONT WANT TO KNOW ABOUT THEM”. SOME WERE, —–MOST WERE NOT. GRT GRT GRANDMOTHER NANCY’S HEADSTONE READS: RALSTON NANCY AGNES MCLANE NATIVE AMERICAN — BLACKFOOT BORN 1814 BEVER CO. PA. DIED 1905 JACKSON CO. IA. WIFE OFJOHN RALSTON MAY OUR CREATOR KEEP YOUR SPIRIT IN PEACE
BY ALFRED H RALSTON GRT GRT GRANDSON OF NANCY AGNES MCLANE”
Please take note of Nancy’s birthdate. She could not have been a Carlisle student. And take note of her death date. She lived long enough for people to have heard her make the statement that she was Blackfoot. She came to Iowa in 1852 and settled among other mixed peoples already there. I might add that she came in a group of Ralston brothers. Both married Indian women from Pennsylvania. Both called themselves Blackfoot.
Techteach
I came back to add that the use of all capitals in my previous posting’s quotation were simply because it was posted this way on genforum, and I copied and pasted.
Techteach
Christina: The land bridge is a theory that I don’t necessarily believe in. The people could have just as easy come over on a boat (small canoes, boats, whatever). Just like the Hawaiian and other pacific islands. Those people didn’t grow there from seeds! They got there by watercrafts of some sort.
Are you saying that native Americans are not Asian in descent? Just wondering.:p
I thought taking a look at this sight might shed a little light, on your question, http://www.accessgenealogy.com/native/tribes/siouan/siouanfamilyhist.htm
Siouan Family is HUUUge
Check it out homey oh, and I think I figured out why Anishenabe think we are theirs, According to some circles and National Geographic Blackfoot people were in the plains but way north and they are and were Algonquian language family buuut I saw some where they spent a period of time amongst tribes that did not speak their language, OK ok
Oh and you really need to check out the September 2004 National Geographic, it has a nice map of the indegeous languages of this coninent, it is just nice to have as a refrence,
We are no doubt part of the Lakota/Teton people but we are strangely seperated by great distance, but strange doesnt explain anything. But the way I look at it is that there was clearley a strong relationship between us and the Algonquins.
Hey Everyone!
Well the land bridge theory works for eskimo’s but maybe not for the Yanomamo!
Personally I believe that our ancestors were always here! the “they came from somewhere else” really is very ignorant, the most blatant method for debasing everyone.
The families on this forum with the identity of Blackfoot all go back to a very small geographic area! rather not just a coincidence! based on records and occasionally oral history, and speaking of oral history etc I have found one Siouan word amogst my family, several patterns and a rich oral tradition, all are apart of our history.
As for written records ,what have you read in the news papers lately that was unbiased?
Paper is not not steele or our oral history!
Our history is the voice of our ancestors!
Tommy is Unique,
I think, i dont want to assume but he has a very different approach to this, he needs paper proof, so we dig it up, we know there is and he just hasnt found it yet.
And lets just put this in there for good measure, WE were part of a masss GENOCIDE, some of the answers are just lost. T is going on this from a scholarly, fact finding view, not a spiritual route like many of us showin up here (Me) for instantce, which led to the genealogy research.
Peace and love peeps
😎
Well Tom, your idea of the Indians always being here needs two things to have taken place, both of which fly in the face of all scientific or religious beliefs.
1. If you believe in God and creation, you idea is impossible. The Bible clearly states that God created people in what is now the middle east. It also talks of a flood that destoyed all people except the 8 people that were on on the Ark. From there, all people left Mt. Ararat in present day Turkey and became the peoples from all over the earth. People that became the Asian/Mongolian race would have eventually ended up in what is present day Alaska, Canada, US, Mexico, Central America and South America. That’s if you believe in God and his version of the history of humankind through the pages of the Bible.
2. Now if you don’t believe that, but believe in evolution, your theory is still incorrect, based on what all science has found. Again, they trace all life to what is present day North Africa or the Middle East. From there, they believe all humans migrated to Europe, Asia and then on to the “new world” or what is the present day Western Hemisphere.
What you are proposing, I suppose, is that evolution was happening all over the earth at the same time? That maybe apes/chimps were turning into man at the EXACT same time in all continents of the earth that had the weather capable of supporting human life, AND that these humanoids developed on different continents at the SAME time and that they all genetically developed to the same point that they could SOME DAY all meet up and interbreed. All of those things would have HAD to happen at the same time in order for you theory to hold water.
As you said, “Personally I believe that our ancestors were always here! the “they came from somewhere else” really is very ignorant”. Again, if believing that present day “Indians” of the Western Hemisphere came from Asia, where they are almost perfect genetic matches, I would hate to try to come up with a word to describe your theory of them always being here. To reiterate, they would have had to be:
1. Dropped off by space aliens
2. Evolved from monkeys and other animals at the same time other monkeys were developing into humans in Europe, Asia, the middle east, Africa, Australia, etc. (which I believe makes NO sense, which is why I don’t believe in evolution either)
3. Maybe God made Adam and Eve, then he made all other races on the earth and dropped them off where they live now and decided not to write any of that down in the Bible and lie to us about everything else.
Well, there ya go! I know none of what I wrote will make any difference, because by reading your posts, I can see that the “spiritual” side of history (believing whatever feels best) is what is most important. Facts simply clutter things up and when they are not cool or popular, there’s no sense in listening to them.
By the way, my people were actually Apaches. They got lost when making a long trip eastward from Arizona and ended up intermarrying with the English, Jews, Phoenicians, and Portuguese that were in NC.
😀
I have number 4.!
Seriously though, I do know that the Mexica’s creation story, which I guess would actually be the Toltec and Olmec, that The Tree Of Life created Woman and Man, Oh and the tree still exists in Mexico, one of Juans books has a picture of it, not a drawing a real picture. So this could lead to where we came from on this continent. Geesh and dont be soo moody:D Breath in and Breath ooouuuut Open mind, Open mInd close your eyes say it with me:D
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