Horatio Cushman, the source of so many mixed-blood family histories and the only known source for facts about the Cravat family, states:
“The Cravat family of Choctaws are the descendents of John Cravat, a Frenchman who came into the Choctaws at an early day, and was adopted among them by marriage. He had two daughters by his Choctaw wife, Nancy and Rebecca, both of whom became the wives of Louis LeFlore. His Choctaw wife dying he married a Chickasaw woman, by whom he had four sons, Thomas, Jefferson, William and Charles, and one daughter, Elsie, who married a white man by the name of Daniel Harris, and who became the parents of Colonel J. D. Harris, whose first wife was Catherine Nail, the fourth daughter of Joel H. Nail.” 1
The Cravat family, although occupying a prominent position as mixed bloods in the eighteenth century, had a minimal number of documented members at the time of removal (sec Charts 5 and 6). Only one, William, is listed on the Armstrong roll, residing on the Big Black River with a small family of four and two slaves. Only two, Peter and Cassy, are listed on the Halbert roll. Were it not for the brief family sketch given by Cushman in his History of the Choctaws, there would be scant evidence of their role in Indian country. Yet a brief glance at the few documented mixed bloods in the family yields the facts that John Cravat had children in both the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations, that they intermarried with the mixed-blood LeFlore and Harris families, and that Greenwood LeFlore married sisters, daughters of John Cravat, as his first and third wives.
Two Cravats, Thomas and William (spelling their name Krevett), are listed as students in the Kentucky Choctaw Academy in 1840. They are identified as Chickasaw and probably represent that branch of the Cravat family. This brief look at the Cravats indicates again how mixed bloods often married mixed bloods in a relatively closed society that extended beyond tribal boundaries. 2
Key to Chart
Probable = P, Countryman = C, Yes = Y, Trader = T,
Married = md, Mixed Blood = mb
Chart 5
Cravat List of Mixed Bloods
| wdt_ID | Name | Location | MB | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cravat, Cassy | P | 8 | |
| 2 | Cravat, Charles | Y | Chick MB | |
| 3 | Cravat, Elsie | Y | md Dan Harris | |
| 4 | Cravat, Jefferson | Y | Chick MB | |
| 5 | Cravat, John | C | ||
| 6 | Cravat, Nancy | Y | md L. LeFlore | |
| 7 | Cravat, Peter | P | ||
| 8 | Cravat, Rebecca | Y | md L. LeFlore | |
| 9 | Cravat, Thomas | Y | son of John | |
| 10 | Cravat, William | Big Black | Y | 4 in fam. |
Chart 6
Cravat Genealogy Chart
Citations:
- Cushman, History, 342. It is interesting that Cravat possibly named his first two Chickasaw sons after Thomas Jefferson, which would suggest a republican orientation.[↩]
- Cushman, History, 343.[↩]
