Whitmire

Slave Narrative of Eliza Whitmire

Person Interviewed: Eliza Whitmire Location: Vinita, Oklahoma Date of Birth: 1833 Age: 102 My name is Eliza Whitmire. I live on a farm, near Estella, where I settled shortly after the Civil War and where I have lived ever since. I was born in slavery in the state of Georgia, my parents having belonged to a Cherokee Indian of the name of George Sanders, who owned a large plantation in the old Cherokee Nation, in Georgia. He also owned a large number of slaves but I was too young to remember how many he owned. I do not know the … Read more

Biographies of the Cherokee Indians

1830 Map of Cherokee Territory in Georgia

Whatever may be their origins in antiquity, the Cherokees are generally thought to be a Southeastern tribe, with roots in Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee, among other states, though many Cherokees are identified today with Oklahoma, to which they had been forcibly removed by treaty in the 1830s, or with the lands of the Eastern Band of Cherokees in western North Carolina. The largest of the so-called Five Civilized Tribes, which also included Choctaws, Chickasaws, Creeks, and Seminoles, the Cherokees were the first tribe to have a written language, and by 1820 they had even adopted a form of government … Read more

Biographical Sketch of William W. Whitmire

(See Ghigau and Downing).-William Walter, son of Walter Samuel and Nancy Bushyhead (Wilkerson) Whitmire was born in Going Snake District, May 28, 1877, educated in Male Seminary. Married Sept. 10, 1913, Narcissa Taylor, born April 9, 1878. They are the parents of Walter Samuel Jr., and Stand Watie Whitmire, twins, born June 19, 1920. Mr. Whitmire, whose Cherokee name is Wee-li, is a splendid interpreter of the Cherokee English language and is a Mason.