Indian Territory

Part of what became Oklahoma was designated the home for the Choctaw Nation. Later the area would be named Indian Territory. The goal was to provide ample lands for the relocation of Native Americans in the eastern states who did not wish to assimilate.


Delegations to make the territory into a state began near the end of the 19th century, when the Curtis Act furthered the allotment of Indian tribal land. Attempts to create an all-Indian state named Oklahoma and a later attempt to create an all-Indian state named Sequoyah failed but the Sequoyah Statehood Convention of 1905 eventually laid the groundwork for the Oklahoma Statehood Convention, which took place two years later.^[54] On November 16, 1907, Oklahoma was established as the 46th state in the Union

James Tidbits

Girls and Boys
In the 1910 census Alfred and Lucinda had 7 children. One Baby, Haskell, had died in 1907 in infancy. Of the 6 other children only 1 was a boy. As a farmer, was Alfred disappointed he didn't have more farm hands? Interestingly and finally, there was a total of 14 kids born - 7 boys and 7 girls.

JAMES Surname Meaning and Origin:
James is a patronymic name derived from "Jacob" and usually meaning "son of Jacob." In English, Jacob and James are distinctly separate names, but throughout the rest of the world, the two are often used interchangeably.

James is the 80th most popular surname in the United States. James is also popular in England, coming in as the 41st most common surname.

Surname Origin: English

Another Mystery - I Need A Flow Chart

I noticed a discrepancy in the different census about where Grandpa Alfred and Grandma Lucinda said their parents were born as follows:

Alfred said in the 1900 qnd 1910 census his father was born in Tennessee, his mother in Kansas
Alfred said in the 1920 census his father was born in Kentucky, his mother in Kansas
Alfred said in the 1930 census his father was born in Oklahoma, his mother in Oklahoma

Lucinda said in the 1900 census her father was born in Georgia and her mother in Arkansas
Lucinda said in the 1910 census her father was born in Tennessee and her mother in Arkansas
Lucinda said in the 1920 census her father was born in North Carolina and her mother in Arkansas
Lucinda said in the 1930 census her father was born in Oklahoma and  her mother Arkansas

Did they not know? Did they distrust the government and for some reason didn't want them to be able to trace them? We'll probably never know. They certainly had no reason to trust anything the government ever did.


Indians Were Not Citizens

Indians on reservations were not considered citizens until 1924; therefore, they were only included sporadically on most nineteenth and early twentieth-century U.S. federal census records.

The Indian census schedules started after an act of Congress on 4 July 1884 said, “That hereafter each Indian agent be required, in his annual report, to submit a census of the Indians at his agency or upon the reservation under his charge.” Besides other things, these censuses were taken to help the government keep track of who was eligible for land or money allotments.

Artist Mary Adair

A Depiction of the Events in the Life of Nancy Ward

What a wonderful picture!!!! The Beloved Nancy Ward is my 6 g grandmother.

Thelma Roxanna James Reed



Mom and an Unknown Woman. Mom is certainly walking with a purpose!



Mom in Maryland 1n 1935

What a Pretty Woman

Mom and Dad

Death of a Brother and a Little Mystery

In going through old pictures and documents of my Moms, I found a telegram and newspaper clipping about her brother Howard who died at age 25. I never heard Mom say how he died or anything about him. In a previous post, I listed Mom's 13 brothers and sisters and, of  course, he was one I never knew.

It is interesting to read in this notification that 2 names are listed together grouped by the minister's name. Howard's minister's name was Peter Marshall. I knew there was a very famous book and movie named  A Man Called Peter. Peter Marshall's widow went on to write her husband's biography, A Man Called Peter (1951), which was later made into an Oscar-nominated film of the same title. It was a wonderful book. In looking up the info about him, I found he preached in Atlanta and Covington, GA.

To add to the intrigue here is the telegram sent to Mom and Dad that advises Howard is in critical condition. It was in 1942 during the war, but it was sent from Cornelia, Ga. - not a war zone.

So I have to leave the question unanswered. Did the famous Peter Marshall preside over the funeral of my Uncle Howard James and why did he die at 25 years old?

One of the biggest problems with ancestry research is how easy it is to follow a side trail that makes you lose sight of your goals. This will take hours to track down. I leave it to later or someone else. I would rather think that the incredible individual known as A Man Called Peter officiated at the service of my Uncle Howard.

A great comment written by K.C.on March of 2010 about Amatoya Moytoy- Making sure it gets just notice

K.C. said...


The Shawnee and Cherokee Nations adopted by blood and marriage. No matter the racial or ethnic composition of someone who originated from outside the Clans, if they married a Cherokee, they were considered as full-blood by the Nation. They remained "full-blood" unless they remarried outside the Nation, in which case they were considered to revert or relinquish their blood-tie vow. The "provable dna" blood-ties via validated lineages and delineations only became re-defined during the time of Native American removal [Trail of Tears for example], and federal rolls for purposes of documenting the Nation, by the US Government, came into effect. US government required a person to "validate" their "native claim", first, as a way of counting the population which they were removing from native soils, and, then, to "prove" their right to receive federal dollars for support. Moytoy is considered to be full-blood by members of the Nation because his white father married Pride, a Shawnee. Noone knows if Pride was 'mixed blood' or not. With a name like Pride, which is english, it would seem that Thomas Carpenter was not the only white to intermarry at this time. Shawnees had already had at least 150 years of euro-white contact by the time Thomas showed up as a trader. The name Pride is also consistant with many early american names such as Loving, Charity, Comfort, Patience, Simplicity, Mercy, Joy etc. I have an early american ancestor named Comfort and one named Gladness, as well as one name Plenty. The emigrants who established our first colonies had a tough go. They often named their children for the virtues which they longed for, or identified with. Initially, many emigrants worked with the various Nations, and intermarried without racist views. Shawnee and Cherokee, they remembered their blood ties to Thomas Carpenter and by associative lineage based on their own societal order, to the British and, by extension, to the new Americans. So, a few generations later, they actually saw the bonds as ones of family [which is the truth]. British and new American views were roman-euro-centric, however, and did not politically agree. It is my humble opinion that they were wrong. The Nation had it right. People of my people, Blood of my blood, We are all earths children. >k.c

I'm Anxious To Get Started Again

April of 2009 was my last post to this blog. How quickly the time has gone by. I laid Ancestry.com, all research, the addiction, and The James Scroll aside to take a break. I didn't realize it would be this long before I dove back in, but I am very excited to be starting again.

I was absolutely amazed when I opened The James Scrolls at the number of "hits"  (almost 21,000) and all the comments, which have been so wonderful for me. To each of you who took the time to read the posts and make comments, I offer a very heartfelt thanks. The information you gave and the validation in your comments left me soaring. When I first started this research, I knew I was part Cherokee, but I had no idea I would be able to trace so many Cherokee ancestors and have so many well-known ones in my line. It stupefied me, but in a wonderful way. I got carried away and posted some of the amazing Cherokees I learned about and was related to.

This time I want to start with my mother Thelma Roxanna James Reed to honor her and then try to post about and get to know her parents and grandparents and their ancestors who may not be as fascinating as Moytoy or Dragging Canoe, but hopefully will let me, my children,granchildren and future generations know more about our more recent relatives. As always, whoever might read these posts and can add to or correct any errors, please don't hesitate to comment.

So Thelma Roxanna James Reed, born December 8, 1908, in Ottawa, Miami, Oklahoma, the sixth child of Lucinda Miller James, and Albert Blunt James.
In June of 1965 she applied`for a delayed birth certificate because  there was not one on file in Oklahoma.
On this birth cerificate her color or race is listed as White and Indian. Both her parents were also born in Oklahoma.

              The Thirteenth Census of the United States 1910 - Indian Population


                  

Information Extracted As Follows:

Oklahoma

Ottawa County
Narcissa Township
May 9 , 1910


Name: Thelma James
Age in 1910: 1year 5 month
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1909 (The census estimates instead of asking) Mom was 1 5/12  born in 1908
Birthplace: Oklahoma
Relation to Head of House: Daughter
Home in 1910: Narcissa, Ottawa, Oklahoma

Marital Status: Single
Race: Indian (Native American)
Gender: Female

Father's Name: Albert James, Head of Household, Male,  Indian, 32, Born in Oklahoma, His Father was  born in Missouri, His Mother born in Kansas, Farmer, General Farm, Could both read and write,Owned home, Free of Mortgage
 
Mother's Name: Lucinda James Female, Indian, 29, Born in Oklahoma, Her mothers Birth Place: Arkansas, Her Father was born in Tennessee

Neighbors: View others on page
Household Members: Name Age
Albert James 32
Lucinda James 29
Cherokee James 10
Opal James 9
Calvin James 7
Mildred James 6
Eilleen James 4
Thelma James 1 5/12

Mark Evans 19  (Note: I imagine this is a farm hand)

Both parents and children listed themselves as 1/8 Indian and 7/8 White.

End of Census Information

There are 6 children on this Census. There were a total of 14 kids as follows.

Cherokee Marie James 1899 – 1995 (Cherry)

Opal Irene James 1900 – 1961

Calvin Dridge James 1902 – 1929

Mildred Drucella James 1903 – 1998 (Mill)

Eileen Allana James 1906 – 1981

Haskell Blunt James 1907 – 1907

Thelma Roxanna James 1908 – 1998

Paul Andrew James 1911 – 1991

Leila Stough James 1913 – 1984

Howard Woodrew James 1914 – 1942

Albert Blunt Jr. James 1917 – 1925

Virginia May James 1918 – 1980 (Jean)

Lorenzo Lee James 1920 – 2003 (Tiny)

William Penn James 1923 – 1947


There were 6 children older than Mom and 7 younger. I knew 7 of them but not William Penn who died in 1947, Albert Blunt Jr. who died in 1925, Howard who died in 1942, Haskell who died in infancy and Calvin who in 1920 was convicted with 2 other men of killing a Coast Guard patrol while smuggling rum into the US and was executed.


The death certificate of Calvin Dridge James 1902-1929 showing he was electrocuted in prison at the Western State Penitentiary in PA in January of 1929.

The Cherokee Nation

The Cherokees called themselves the Ani-Yun' wiya meaning leading or principal people. The original Cherokees lived early times in Georgia, Alabama, North and South Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky and West Virginia.

The Cherokee seal (above) was designed to embrace the early government structure, and the eternal endurance of the Cherokee Indians. It was adopted by Act of the Cherokee National Council, and approved in 1871. The seven-pointed star symbolizes: (1). the seven age old clans of the Cherokee: (2). the seven characters of Sequoyah’s syllabary, meaning "Cherokee Nation." (The Cherokee characters are phonetically pronounced "Tsa-la-gi-hi A-yi-li") .. The wreath of oak leaves symbolizes the sacred fire which, from time immemorial, the Cherokees kept burning in their land. Oak was the wood traditionally burned, different species of oak having ever been indigenous to Cherokee country, both in North Carolina and Georgia as well as in the Indian Territory to which the Cherokees removed in the early 1800's...The margin wording proclaims the authority of the seal in both the English and the Cherokee languages, and records the date (1839) of the adoption of the Constitution of the Cherokee Nation West...This seal was imprinted on all documents until the dissolution of the Cherokee Nation at Oklahoma Statehood

Chronicles of OklahomaSEAL OF THE CHEROKEE NATION

Interpretation of the device in this seal is found in Cherokee folklore and history. Ritual songs in certain ancient tribal ceremonials and songs made reference to seven clans, the legendary
beginnings of the Cherokee Nation whose country early in the historic period took in a wide area now included in the present eastern parts of Tennessee and Kentucky, the western parts of
Virginia and the Carolinas, as well as extending over into what are now northern sections of Georgia and Alabama. A sacred fire was kept burning in the "Town House" at a central part of the old nation, logs of the live oak, a hardwood timber in the region, laid end to end to keep the fire going. The oak was thus a symbol of strength and everlasting life in connection with the sacred fire. The seven-pointed star centering the device of the Cherokee Seal represents
the seven ancient clans in tribal lore.