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Well, to add to the quest to find out who my Blackfoot ancestors were, now my aunt said that her mother said that she was Sauk and Fox. Some of the location is right; I found a Fox elder’s comment that the Sauk and Fox hid out in the Mississippi tributaries of Iowa until 1850-something, when the state of Iowa permitted the Mesquakie to purchase land. My folks settled along one of those tributaries, in a hidden area, from 1830 to 1850. But their origins do not match Sauk and Fox locations. And my aunt said that my uncle found a grave of a relative in OH identifying an ancestor of ours as Shawnee.
This is the group that called themselves Blackfoot Cherokee and, according to Deb’s aunts, Sioux.
More mystery.
Techteach
Those of our Blackfoot who ended up in WV were likely, at the end, before assimilation, part of the Seneca alliance. Likely the last native language they spoke was a dialect of Seneca (Mingo as it’s now called). I’ve wondered if that isn’t the same tie-in with your Blackfoot Cherokee to the Shawnee.
Can you rephrase that last line? Not sure I understand what you mean.
I think that most were Shawnee who lived among the Seneca but moved west to OH in the late 1700’s. However, I am wondering about that Potter line. I found my Potter in NE IA around 1830 and this interesting piece : http://www.pbs.org/riverofsong/music/e1-meskwaki.html . This is exactly where my folks were. One cousin verifies that he was raised attending the mesquake powwows, although given that they danced Shawnee dances and were closely connected, this might have been a logical place to move to when Jackson’s group made OH uncomfortable.
Techteach
I mean, I’ve wondered if these Blackfoot Cherokee ID’d people of yours had found refuge among the Shawnee.
OK, I get it. I have come to believe that the conection may have been the church, that the Presbyterian church helped find locations, although I believe that Joseph Street, the Indian agent in Prairie Du Chien, may have had something to do with this also. His family came from eastern VA, and he was out surveying eastern IA in 1830 when one of my Potters was around. He also came to Prairie Du Chien via Kentucky (a newspaperman) and Shawneetown, ILL (don’t remember his job there).
I believe that the refugee Shawnee may have, in turn, been harbored by the Sauk and Fox or vice versa. However, both Deb and I have ancestors who were known as “Fox,” descendents of both the PA folks and the women who called themselves Blackfoot Cherokee. I just can’t place the Fox where the folks who came to IA originated, unless it was the western PA folks, who were misplaced Fox. But I know that the two tribes were related.
Techteach
Hey Tech, here is something that you may want to look for, http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0002-7294(193510%2F12)2%3A37%3A4%3C617%3ASNG%3E2.0.CO%3B2-H
This may have something to help define a search.
Years ago a friend of mine had helped his realtive locate his “Plumber Tribe” from the Cherokee Shawnee, really odd, but it was the way he had heard the word with that Yankee “R” sound applied to end, anyway it turned out that the family was Turkey clan.
Strange but true!
The interesting element to this article is that it refers to how the Shawnee people define a personality, by the type of “FOOT”!
Also there’s another clue here in that the ending of each term indicates the clan etc, but this next link provides a much better expalnation of this material; http://www.shawnee-traditions.com/Clans.html Anyway I hope that this helps, I personally find this to be vwery interesting in that several theories place our oral history amongst the Shawnee, maybe mayber not, but it all adds to the big picture.
A few years back Bess contributed that documentation of some Tutelo among the Shawnee before their last stand led by Tecumseh. There is some suggestion that the Blackfoot Town folk we believe were Saponi/Tutelo were connected to the Seneca/Tutelo insurrection in 1742 in that vicinity. It would make sense that such feisty freedom fighters would have drifted westward into a Shawnee camp to attempt another stand. Makes for a good tale, anyway.
I found an article on JSTOR that documents Tutelo among the Shawnee also.
I neglected to add that my uncle found a relative’s grave in Germany that ids the person as Shawnee.
Tom, thanks for the links. Interestingly, I believe that most of those with Black as part of their name, came from the group that lived among the Cherokee before they came north to PA. Certainly, Black Hoof was one of those.
Techteach
Oops, not Germany, Ohio. I got a new book on DNA and was doing two things at one time yesterday. Not wise.
JSTOR is a library service that carries historical/anthropological journals that I can access through my school. Obviously, Tom can access it also. When links to it are posted, you get the error message that you need online access. I thought I downloaded the article, but I can’t figure out which one it was right now.
I just read one that documents Fox Indians among the Seneca near where my McLane was born. My aunt said that my grandmother called them Sac and Fox.
Techteach
Because I believe that the Presbyterian church played a role in the movement of my folks, I thought I would post another link: http://www.libraryireland.com/ScotchIrishSeeds/X-2.php Three names are found in the same cemetery as my Blackfoot Cherokee – Sankey (Sinkey), Orr, and Caven.
Techteach
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