Sunday, July 20, 2014

Not Choctaw enough

Someone on my facebook group recently has been harassing members about not being Choctaw enough. To say this has irked me would be putting it lightly. Thankfully, I do not need his approval or recognition of my heritage, but in honor of all my cousin's with whom I share research, I am saddened that someone looks at us as less than what we are.

My 6th cousin Ranea contacted me several years ago because we were mutually researching the Juzan family. Almost 15 years later, we know now that we are cousins twice. Ranea's son recently did autosomal DNA, and when he uploads his data to gedmatch, I look forward to seeing if we indeed still share DNA. I realize that our relationship is distant enough the odds are that we won't share any DNA, but I am still hopeful.

In honor of our friendship and our shared history, I would like to share the following.

This is Watson Kaniatobe, Ranea's grandfather, a Dawes enrollee. Watson's grandparents were Louis Juzan and Emma Kincade. Louis Juzan's great great Uncle was Pushmataha. Emma Kincade's great Uncle was Mushulatubbee. Louis Juzan's father Pierre Juzan, also a Choctaw Chief, was a son of Peggy, a niece of Pushmataha. Emma Kincade's father Andrew Kincade was a brother to Joseph Kincade and both were nephews of Mushulatubbee.



This is my grandfather, Raymond Mieirs. His mother was born the year after statehood, so it is his grandmother who was a Dawes Enrollee. Margaret Adams grandfather was James N. Trahern, her grandmother was Sarah Hall.



Raymond Mieirs

We are fortunate to have a picture of James N. Trahern, his half sister Eliza Ann Juzan Flack, and his half sister Mary Juzan Leflore. We are also fortunate to have a picture of Margaret Hall, Sarah Hall's sister.

 James N. Trahern was a half brother to Pierre Juzan, the father of Louis Juzan. James N. Trahern's mother, Peggy was the niece of Pushmataha. Sarah Hall's great Uncle was Mushulatubbe, her mother Susan Riddle being his niece.

James N. Trahern

 Margaret Hall Moncrief
 Eliza Ann Juzan Flack
Mary Juzan Leflore


Unlike Ranea, I come from a longer line of mixed bloods, with a few more generations of intermarriage with white's than in her lineage. However, Ranea like myself, looks at our mutual shared history as something to be honored and revered. So in the spirit of the way in which Ranea approaches things, I will let it go. 

3 comments:

  1. Living in New Mexico has exposed me to to a lot of racism from both indians and nahullos. Being a mixed blood amongst full bloods can be a difficult path to walk. Racist views from Ndn's can be very as difficult to deal with.

    I have experienced it in the fact that culturally, I am different from my local anglo/saxon neighbors and co-workers and hold different political and religious views. I look somewhat the same in their eyes, so they seem shocked when these views come out. The full bloods just look you as not being dark enough, or not real enough in some way. In some ways they can be worse than the Nahullos.

    I was once offered a very nice job working on a local reservation for a different tribe, but ended up not doing it, because I didn't want to expose my children to this ugliness. Native American is political, not racial, and many people forget this. We ARE the remants of the previous conquered nations, and the USA is still occupied territory.

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  2. Jennifer,

    It might be interesting to know that Meaher has property located next to some of the heirs of Juzan and along the Mobile River in our neck of the woods.

    Your picture of great grandfather above could be a "brother" of some of the Weaver's today actually - the man in the picture looks like "Charlie Brown" or his son actually.

    Now, the picture of Charles Bird King of Pushmataha looks like my Dad and his nephew. "Charlie Brown" would be a young version of these two men.

    My dad's nephew is a Davis and my dad's parents are Weaver and Byrd.

    Consequently - Weaver Road and Henry Davis Roads are in the immediate vicinity of the property owned by Meaher and Juzans - along with Chastang and Andre.

    This land was formerly in tracts given to Dr. John Chastang, Favre (Commandant of Mobile) and some of the Andre's and Loftons (Loftin/Loftis).

    This land also is in the immediate vicinity of the former capital of Louisiane (not Louisiana) and is quite interesting.

    All of these folks claim Choctaw (Cherokee descent).

    The interesting part is while everyone is content to believe that the Choctaw ruled this land in question, it in truth, belongs to the other tribes - Naniaba, Apalachees (baptized here - alongside the other names mentioned) and of course the Tohome, Tasgigi, and others that were right here in the same lands...

    Of course we are being slowly removed from the map.

    You might want to know more and compare notes: comblues at yahoo if you want to compare the plats.

    Thanks

    Darby Weaver

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  3. I am from Ada Oklahoma had several friends named Moncrief they were Indians

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