Mississippi

Indian Removal and the Legacy

[177]The articles of removal of the 1830 Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek were set into motion immediately. By 1831 and 1832 when Removal was in full force mixed bloods still maintained their positions of trust and authority within the tribe. During Removal the percentage of mixed-blood captains — the headmen and leaders of the organized emigrant bands bound for the new Indian nation -was greater than their percentage within the overall population of the tribe (see Chart 22). Their understanding of the English language and the ways of Americans became even more valuable as the bands of emigrants made their way … Read more

From Alliance to Removal

[138]Throughout the Jeffersonian period and later, the white countrymen and mixed bloods expanded their influence over the full-blood tribal members. One aspect of this can be seen by analyzing the ratio of full-blood to mixed-blood Choctaw signers of treaties with the United States. CHART 19 Breakdown of Choctaw treaty Signers Year Treaty Full Bloods Mixed Blood 1786 Hopewell 29  0 1801 Ft. Adams 15 1 (6%) 1802  Ft. Confederation 10  0 1803 Hoe Buckintoopa 10 0 1805 Mt. Dexter 14  9 (39%) 1816 Trading House 11 2 (15%) 1820 Doaks Stand 78 25 (24%) 1825 Washington 4* 4 (50%) 1830 … Read more

Jefferson, Mixed Bloods and Frontier Defense

[102]By the beginning of the nineteenth century at least two major changes had altered the political environment affecting the Choctaw Indians. Within the Choctaw tribe several countrymen were beginning to exert influence in tribal decisions. Although not yet accepted as equals to the chiefs, white men such as Nathaniel Folsom and John Pitchlynn were respected and utilized as counselors in negotiations between the tribe and American officials. External to the tribe, the United States had negotiated the Treaty of San Lorenzo in 1795 with Spain and assumed economic hegemony over the tribes which mainly resided on lands north of the … Read more

Choctaw Indian Treaty Signers, 1830

There exists several thousand names from government claims records and commission hearings, as well as genealogical evidence, which indicate a broad occurrence of mixed bloods in the Choctaw tribe. This study lists the names and families of the known mixed bloods and examines their role in tribal history, especially regarding land treaties during the Jeffersonian years preceding Removal. This study includes a database of over three thousand names of known and probable mixed bloods drawn from a wide range of sources and therefore has genealogical as well as historical value. Readers interested in more information should start their research here: … Read more

Sample of Mixed Blood Ubiquity: Representative Family Histories

The extant records concerning the traders and other countrymen are uneven in their coverage of mixed-blood families. Although only the better-known families were chronicled in the works of early regional historians and authors commenting on the Indian tribes, the existence of scores of surnames within these records indicates that mixed-blood families were widespread in the Choctaw nation. Over the space of several generations the mixed-blood families of the traders and countrymen began to move more and more towards the culture of their white kinsmen, especially if the white progenitor had stayed in one area and recognized the paternity of his … Read more

Choctaw Trade and Coexistence in the Nation

Choctaw Village near the Chefuncte, The women appear to be making dye to color the strips of cane beside them, by François Bernard, 1869

After the discovery of the new world, trade quickly became the most important interaction between the American natives and the colonists. For the Indians it was an extension and continuation of their inter-tribal practices. Reuben Gold Thwaites, an early nineteenth-century student of the American frontier, stated that “the love of trade was strong among the Indians,” and that they had a complex “system of inter-tribal barter.”  This existing trade system allowed the Europeans to quickly establish their own trade with the various tribes along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. One of the foremost Indian trading nations was the Choctaw tribe, … Read more

An Affinity For Trade

Despite their early encounters with Hernando DeSoto, whose ruthless exploitation of the Native Americans was unabashedly cruel, the Southeastern Indians greeted white men with peaceful cooperation. Later European arrivals found that their success in the Gulf wilderness depended largely upon peace with the native inhabitants, or at least peace with one of the larger tribes.  Because no large deposits of gold or other precious metals were found, the Spaniards relegated the region to outpost status and made no major effort to colonize beyond settlements at Pensacola and later Mobile and New Orleans, and thus they had relatively little contact with … Read more

Introduction, Choctaw Mixed Blood

One of the most controversial areas of American history is that of Indian/white relations and the federal policies, which led to Indian Removal. In the early and middle nineteenth century the United States government embarked upon a program of wholesale government-sponsored emigration of tribes residing within the various states and territories. Later called the “Trail of Tears” this official program of tribal displacement was long the focus of American Indian policy and the genesis of the present-day reservation system. Although several northeastern and eastern tribes had been displaced earlier, the removal of the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, and Seminole nations … Read more

Mississippi County Courthouse Addresses

Vital Records, State Dept of Health 2423 North State Street P.O. Box 1700 Jackson, MS 39215 (601) 576-7960  Fax: (601) 576-7505 Adams County PO Box 1008 Natchez, MS 39121-1008 (601) 442-2431 Leflore County PO Box 250 Greenwood, MS 38935-0250 (601) 455-3904 Alcorn County P.O. Box 69 Corinth, MS 38834-0069 (601) 286-7700 Lincoln County PO Box 555 Brookhaven, MS 39601-0555 (601) 835-3479 Amite County PO Box 680 Liberty, MS 39645 (601) 657-8022 Lowndes County PO Box 1364 Columbus, MS 39703-1364 (601) 329-5884 Attala County 230 W Washington Street Kosciusko, MS 39090 (601) 289-2921 Madison County PO Box 608 Canton, MS 39046-0404 … Read more

Mississippi Vital Records

Vital records, as their name suggests, are connected with central life events: birth, marriage, and death. Maintained by civil authorities, they are prime sources of genealogical information; but, unfortunately, official vital records are available only for relatively recent periods. These records, despite their recent creation in the United States, are critically important in genealogical research, often supplying details on family members well back into the nineteenth century. The Source: A Guidebook of American Genealogy, by Loretto Szucs and Sandra Luebking. Mississippi State Vital Records Office Vital Records, State Dept of Health 2423 North State Street P.O. Box 1700 Jackson, MS … Read more

Hernando De Soto

DeSoto Map

With seven ships of his own providing, and accompanied by from six hundred to one thousand warlike and energetic adventurers, many of whom were of noble rank, Hernando De Soto set sail, in the month of April, 1538. Upwards of a year was spent, mostly upon the island of Cuba, before the fleet set sail for the Florida coast. In the latter part of May, 1539, the vessels came to anchor off the bay of Espiritu Santo, now Tampa Bay, on the western sea-board, and a large division of soldiers, both horse and foot, were landed. The Indians had taken … Read more

Biography of John Graham

John Graham, of Kentucky, married a Miss Dugan, and they had Robert, John, Alexander, Catharine, and Isabella. Alexander died in Kentucky, and John died in Mississippi. Catharine married Tocal Galbreth. Isabella married Alexander Collier. Robert, who was a physician, married Isabella Galbreth, a daughter of Tocal Galbreth by his first wife, and settled in Montgomery County in 1816. He bought a Spanish grant of land, situated on Loutre creek, from Daniel M. Boone, and built an elm bark tent upon it, in which he lived four years. The Doctor was a very small man, but of determined will and a … Read more

Biography of Gideon Bowles

Gideon Bowles and wife, of Dublin, Ireland, were members of the St. James Colony that settled in Goochland Co., Va. Anderson Bowles, their son, married Jane Thomas, and settled in Cumberland Co., Va. Their children were Caleb, Sarah, James, Gideon, Ann, Anderson, Jr., Virginia, Elizabeth, Augusta, and David. Ann and Gideon died in Virginia. The rest of the children came with their parents to Madison Co., Ky., in 1806, and in 1811 they all settled in St. Louis Co., Mo., where Mr. Bowles died the following year. His widow lived until 1834. Caleb the eldest son was Judge of the … Read more

Biography of Jacob Thompson

North Carolina has contributed much to the history of other States. Many of our promising youths have gone to add their lives and talents to increasing the honor rolls of other sections of the Union. Upon all such she looks with pride and pleasure. But she is not willing that all the honor coming from such lives be claimed by the States of their adoption. It is a circumstance of no small consideration for one to have been a true, native North Carolinian. There is a solidity and strength of character in the general tenor of our good old State … Read more

Stone Lined Graves in Mississippi

It is a region possessing much natural beauty, ideally suited to a large native population, such as it undoubtedly sustained during the days before the coming of the French. Many similar groups of graves are scattered along the bluffs bordering the Mississippi and are less numerous inland. The salt springs of Jefferson County, Missouri, a little more than halfway between the mouth of the Saline on the south and the Missouri on the north, served to attract the Indians, as did the springs near the former stream, already mentioned. About a mile inland from the small village of Kimmswick, up … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Mrs. Pearl V. Sisson

(See Cordery) Pearl Victoria, daughter of J. F. and Cecilia (Gibson) Haas was born at Tupelo, Lee County Mississippi on August 29, 1879. She married at Fort Gibson, Indian Territory December 4, 1893 Charles Harris Sisson, born November 26, 1859. They are the parents of: Charles Harris born November 5, 1894; Jessie May born July 2, 1896; Sue born December 14, 1898; Mary born January 13, 1900 and Emma Pauline born May 8. 1902. Charles Harris Sisson was appointed Circuit Judge of the Cherokee Nation on May 1, 1897 and elected to Council from Illinois District on August 3, 1903.

Treaty of October 24, 1816

A treaty of cession between the United States of America and the Chactaw nation of Indians. James Madison, President of the United States of America, by General John Coffee, John Rhea, and John M’Kee, esquires, commissioners on the part of the United States, duly authorized for that purpose, on the one part, and the mingoes, leaders, captains, and warriors, of the Chactaw nation, in general council assembled, in behalf of themselves and the whole nation, on the other part, have entered into the following articles, which, when ratified by the President of the United States, with the advice and consent … Read more

Biography of William W. Earnest

William W. Earnest. Firmly entrenched in the American heart is the public school system, which, while not perfect perhaps, is continually being improved, largely as the result of the efforts of conscientious, intellectual leaders. The city of Champaign in its superintendent of schools has a well qualified, constructive man, a graduate of the University of Illinois and a thorough teacher as well as executive. He is William W. Earnest, who has occupied this responsible office for the past nine years. William W. Earnest was born in Mississippi, October 1, 1863, one of a family of three children born to his … Read more