Possible Cherokee grandmother/Georgia Genealogy

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by ArkansasSlim

This isn't going to help because I found no dates, but I found Mahala Smith as documented Cherokee with two Enrollment Numbers; 4248 and 4253. #4248 has a husband, Peter, and #4253 has a husband, Peter, and son Theodore age 25. I found no Sumner listed on the Rolls.

Some Native women who were on the Trail of Tears were declared ineligible for enrollment if they were married to a non-Native man. She may have married at some point after arriving and being listed on the rolls, which would explain the absence of the name Sumner.

OTOH, she could have managed to avoid relocation, and may be listed under the eastern Cherokee, but maybe not, if she remained in Georgia.

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by AmericanBosnian

No American white person has native indian origin, otherwise you would look exactly like a mexican does today. I often laugh with my friends, whom are real natives from Reno, Nevada and lived on the native preservation most of their life, about Americans dissing Mexicans, but then always saying they're mixed with native. Helloooooooooooooo? What do you think Mexicans ARE? They are NOT spanish, they SPEAK spanish. Spain is apart of europe, and europeans are white.

There are LOTS of tribal people in the Northwest, for example, who look White, but who trace their lineage to Native treaty signatories. They can document this.

And of course there are many Mexicans with northing but European ancestry. "Mexican" is not a race or ethnic category. It's a political designation.

[AppalachianGumbo]

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

Some Native women who were on the Trail of Tears were declared ineligible for enrollment if they were married to a non-Native man. She may have married at some point after arriving and being listed on the rolls, which would explain the absence of the name Sumner.

OTOH, she could have managed to avoid relocation, and may be listed under the eastern Cherokee, but maybe not, if she remained in Georgia.

Declared ineligible for enrollment? There was no application for enrollment during this time, during the Trail of Tears. There were no government benefits to receive for being a Cherokee, let alone Indian. Indian Rolls were being done via the government to account for tribal populations early on. Indians were being placed on a plot of land to remove them from more desirable territory to move on with Manifest Destiny. What was an Indian woman being eligible for in Indian Territory? To be a Cherokee? They travelled with the tribe so they are Cherokee or an interloper. Those non-Cherokee which travelled with them lived with the Cherokee and had a kinship with them (incl. Freeman).

The removal of the Cherokee from their homeland is between 1835-1838. The Drennon Rolls of 1852 noted Cherokee who arrived from the trail of tears to Indian Territory in 1839. This was a census, nothing more. Those that had survived the trail of tears were documented. If you were part of the tribe, you were recognized on this roll and also verified from pervious rolls, as in the below Pre-Removal rolls.

Reservation Rolls 1817 - Eastern Band
Emigration Rolls (1817-1835) - For Cherokee who chose to move to Indian Territory
Henderson - 1835 Cherokee remaining who would be "forcefully" removed.

For the western Cherokee, Applications for enrollment did not start until 1898 for the Five Civilized tribes and was done by the Dawes commission for tribal citizenship and specifically land allotment to Native people. Here is where the government wanted definitive affiliation with the tribe. Again, most Cherokee were crossed verified to perious rolls and noted on the Dawes "By Blood."
In the coming enrollments for descendents, The Eastern Band of North Carolina would be listed in the final Baker Rolls (1924). The Cherokee Nation in today's Oklahoma are on the final Dawes 1898-1907. The Keetoowah use for enrollment the Keetoowah Base roll of 1949.