Was, as usual, doing family research and found a 6th Cousin on my paternal line who claimed to have
'Cherokee ancestry' (I know, I know, the old 'we're descended from a Cherokee princess!' tale), according to documents and photos in their portfolio of images, etc for relatives in their tree. So, naturally skeptical, I did some digging, as I already knew, the line we are related through, definitely does not have NA ancestry in it. I get back to my 2nd Cousin 4x Removed and that's where the fabrications begin.
Morgan Gilliam, Jr, born in 1844, in Tennessee, served in the Confederate Army, was a member of the United Confederate Veterans, and even received a pension from them. Yet, in 1896, he applied to become a citizen of the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma. The claim, according to documents, is based on 'intermarriage'- ie, he married a Cherokee woman. Her name is Eliza Cooper, born in 1855, also in Tennessee. Now, according to
HER application, she is 1/8 Cherokee, via her father. There's a problem with that. Her father was born in 1824, in Alabama, to parents from coastal North Carolina (Isle of Wight area). They descend from people of 'the Virginia colonies' (ie Prince William County) and *England*. There's no evidence of Native heritage, let alone, specifically, Cherokee.
Her husband's parents hail from Tennessee, while their parents come from Virginia- Shenandoah, North Carolina, and, as I know for certain that the Riddle line is not native, which is where we connect, from England/Scotland/Ireland. He says they were not married as per
'Cherokee marriage rites', which is a requirement for citizenship applicants. She says the same in her interview. She also is claiming a niece and nephew of her deceased brother, as her wards, as blooded Cherokee as well.
So I dug further, because there is
*a lot* of documentation, asserting their claims, despite them having said they had not lived within the Cherokee Nation but a mere handful of months, at various times, other times they claim to have visited or lived in the Chickasaw Nation, and once, the Creek Nation. Yet, they applied for citizenship specifically in the Cherokee Nation. He first filed in 1896, shortly after the Dawes Rolls and the Dawes Act was enacted. It was
rejected by the Five Tribes Commission. She then applied August 28, 1900, claiming 1/8 ancestry. It was placed on a
'Doubtful card', requiring more investigation and information.
Now, researching into Census Records,
*every single census both are listed in, with each other or their respective families, they are listed as white.* If you remember, Census takers decide your ethnicity, not you. If she was 1/8th Cherokee, as she claimed, her father would have been 1/4 and would be listed as 'I' for Indian or 'M' for Mulatto, as they were used interchangeably. He was not. Nor were his parents or grandparents- where the ancestry would, obstensively, have started. To add to the mix- her living brother, Calvin, also applied. Except he claimed to be
*1/16th*, and listed his children as
1/32nd. Also says he married a white woman, and claimed her via intermarriage. His application was rejected. He does not appear to have appealed the decision.
His brother in law, Eliza's husband, Morgan, however, did appeal, both on his behalf and his wife's.
The problem with him claiming, in his
first application interview that he was 1/8th Cherokee, via his father, is that it's not the least bit true. The Gilliam line can be traced all the way back to the shipbuilder Gilliams in Essex, England. His mother's line, the Pattersons, is where the Riddle line (my ancestors) married in, goes back to Surrey County, Virginia. (I haven't gone back further on that yet.)
So, Morgan appealed in 1902. He appealed to the US Court of the Southern District, which, apparently, was out of jurisdiction of the Cherokee Nation, as well as the Five Nations Commission, and as such, had no authority to over rule the Five Tribes Commission, who lodged a formal protest, citing the formal protest lodged in the case of Eddie Wheatley nee Cooper,in early 1902.
The Eddie Wheatley nee Cooper file can be found
here. (It appears that her husband's line, the Wheatley's, may be able to be traced back to a small village in Oxfordshire, England, but, as they are not relatives, I have not researched them further.)
The appeal and lodged protest- rightfully so, in my opinion- was sent to the Secretary of the Interior for final a final decision.
In the matter of Eliza and her children, the Five Tribes Commission's decision was over turned. She and her children were admitted as citizens of the Cherokee Nation 'by blood', despite there not being a single drop of said ancestry in their lineage, Dec 10, 1902. The Five Nations Commision filed a formal protest, January 3, 1903.
As to the matter of Morgan Gilliam, Eliza's husband, he was denied citizenship, by intermarriage or by blood, due to not having married Eliza as per Cherokee marriage rites. BUT! Nov 1, 1903, that decision was
over ruled and he was granted citizenship, having been married to Eliza since 1869, well before the 1875 deadline. And again, Nov 30, 1906, the original decision of denial was held up, and Morgan was again denied enrollment as a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, via intermarriage. January 1907, he filed a motion for a rehearing of his case, that too, was denied by February. He appears to have given up after that.
Now, granted, in the late 1890s/early 1900s, they didn't
have genealogy websites, they had Census Records, Birth, Death and Marriage Records, none of which would have been particularly easy to access, let alone obtain, though marriage certificates were a requirement for application.
This is not the first, or rather, the second time, the US government stepped in and overrode the Five Nations' sovereignity. It happened numerous times (it still happens to this day)-
Stephens v Cherokee Nation 174 US 446Railway Co v Nesbitt 10 How. 395Freeborn v Smith 2 Wall 160 Freeland v Williams 131 US 405 Roff v Burney 168 US 218 All of which, along with
the Curtis Act, were cited in the Eddie Wheatley protest lodged by the Five Nations Commission.
This lie, this fabrication, by white settlers who moved to what was called 'Indian Territory' was allowed to occur by the US Government, who, to this day, still tries to take back land from the Native Americans, back then, it was, in my opinion, the same reasons, as well as for white settlers to obtain monetary benefits from the Nation in which they got themselves admitted.
Unfortunately, this fabrication perpetuates down through the generations, and despite all documentation, despite now having DNA evidence
(that cousin this started from? Absolutely NO NA DNA whatsoever, they are more European than I am, particularly Northern European.), becomes for many families, truth. It certainly perpetuated in my father's family, and still, even with evidence that it isn't true, even with DNA testing, I get distant relatives claiming the stories as fact.
It was and remains a way of erasure of our Native peoples.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
