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Good to hear from you Jimbo. I’m a little confused, how are you able to surmise the Shawnee heritage from that bit of data? For me, that someone in the family said it, and it corresponds to a place name and locations carries a lot of weight. I don’t get what you’re saying about what the move from wV to KS demonstrates.
Kansas and Shawnees need not necessarily relate, it’s true. Stohrville is in the absolute bottom right-hand corner of Kansas, abutting not only Cherokee Indian Territory, but also in an area that was designated for the Absentee Shawnee (Howard, 1981). Missouri was also a “stopover” for many Shawnees–Indians, period–(Ibid). Sinai’s father was absent from the 1840 Census of Virginia, but returned in 1850 living in another part of Raleigh Co. Whether he went somewhere else–West–and then returned, quien sabe? Just making inferences that need further substantiation.
Putting 2 and X together gives us 2 +X!
Jimbo,
You’re talking about Leoti, in the S.W. corner of Kansas. This land is where the 1819 Treaties stated that land was to be set aside as the removal site for Indians of the Jackson Purchase of 1816 – not just the Indiana & Ohio Shawnee. When they got there, there was no land set aside and the “Delaware”, “Shawnee” & “Cherokee” (the quotation marks speak for themselves – suspect many more amalgamated peoples) transported there, had to beg the Cherokee Nation to take them in because there was no land set aside for them and “other” people already claimed the land as theirs. The Cherokee did take them in. They are with the Cherokee today – most having moved onto the main Cherokee land next door in Oklahoma.
There is another side to the “joke” – the 1816 treaty required them to move by 1819 ….. most of them stayed where they were in Ohio, Indiana & Kentucky – continued farming & living – almost no one noticed – too related – blended away. Less than 1,000 of the estimated (1815) 10,000 Native people of southeastern Indiana and western Ohio, made the trip; almost none of the southeastern Ky Cherokee moved and those mountains are still full of the tales; most of the southwestern Ky Chickasaw moved across the river into Missouri – some actually did continue on to Oklahoma, if you follow the census trail.
I know I should list sources for such a sweeping, albeit brief, rendition, but that is a very long list and the above is just an overview.
Bill
Hello Bill, thanks for stopping by. Funny you should mention citations, it seems like whenever there ARE citataions behind something, you can tell. What you’re saying is very credible.
Stohrville is in the Southeast corner of Kansas. Granted, the absurdity of trying to identify my wife’s folks as one kind of Indian or another is somewhat obvious considering how the Indians ironically “circled their wagons” in the face of an ever whitening world.
The wandering about is almost the only tangible evidence that many of both my wife’s and my own ancestors were in conflict with someone else–whether overtly or not. I often think of the character of Chief Bromden–Chief Broom–in Kesey’s “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” Chief laments that whenever and wherever his family would move, oil would suddenly spring up and his family would have to relocate.
There may not have been a great deal of violent conflict in our personal histories (although my wife, 1/8 whatever she is, is also the daughter of determined “Long Knives,” one of whom actually had a razor strap made out of an Indian “hide”). We are, however, who we come from, regardless of the circumstances. I like who I am and am astounded by the intricacy of all the generations prior. I wish that race pressures had not forced such a suppression of identities–the Latin American experience indicates that it needn’t happen–but, then again, cornbread and sweet potatoes have yet to disappear. Ah, the price of conquest. Take a Scot and an Indian, put them together, voila! American me.
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