General Hummingbird and Tappenahoma

 Note: If you would like sources, and you don't find them listed, please do not discredit my research in any articles. Reach out, I will be happy to share. This is a blog, it is not a dissertation or a journal article, and I am not going to take the time for APA citations.

So, for years it has bothered me that folks have said Tappenahoma who succeeded Pushmataha in 1826 was the same as General Hummingbird. Mainly because I know they aren't, but couldn't figure out why so many historians are using this. General Hummingbird died in April of 1828. The article was picked up in many newspapers throughout the United States, I found this in the Sun, April 28, 1828. 

If one reads in the department of War letters ( I believe that is the department), Pierre Juzan writes on behalf of his Uncle, (in the 1844 testimonies, Oklahoma also states he is the nephew of Pushmataha and a head man, and was brother to the former chief (court of claims, Choctaw Nation v. United States, see below).

28 Sept 1828 to Sec of War

I am now in my friend Col. Wards House on my way to see the country pointed out to my nation by your friend Col. McKinney last year.  I go to see the country because it is my great fathers request I am chief of the Southern District of this nation in place of my uncle Pushmattahaw whose bones lyes below this earth near your residence.  And which I trust his spirit is in a better world than this as you know as well as I that this is a place of continual trouble......."Taphemhoma

5 July 1829

Uncle Tahpemaloomah has fully made up his mind to emigrate to the west of mississippi (looks like 100 will accompany him.) ...................  He would like to start by the 29 of October.  I should like to go as an interpreter and I wish you to write to the Sec of war for the appointment for me. 

Respectfully your friend

Pierre Juzan

Examined by the board

Deponent was a leader among his people, and at the date of the treaty was a leader, and then he got upon a stump and made a speech in which he said he was not going west.  Chea sah ho mah made a speech also to the same effect. Deponent was a nephew of  Push mat ta hah, and was brother to the late chief Tah pa na ho mah, who was succeeded by  Ni tuk er cha. Deponent saw the paper that was given to Col. Ward by Pierre Juzan, which Ward promised to send to Washington. Pierre Juzan went west and died there. This deponent states that he understood when he took hold of the pen to Pierre Juzan and made his mark that he would get his land and his children's land by remaining on it five years.

 

Oak lah ho mah his x mark

sworn and subscribed before us this 3^rd day of October 1844. George S. Gaines, S. Rush, Commissioners.

 

On the Armstrong roll of 1831, Tappenahoma, and his brother Oklahoma, and Charles Juzan are all found living in the same place that the plat maps of Mississippi show the land grants to Oklahoma and Tappenahoma are. (incidentally, where Kunsha is always found, and I do have a blog planned on all of that). And Tappenahoma is granted land in the treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek (not the supplement). In 1834, Pierre Juzan writes on behalf of Tappenahoma's heirs (land file, NARA). We know from the Choctaw Academy records, that one of his 5 children (from Armstrong roll) is William K Stewart, who ends up in Skullyville in the Choctaw Nation.

 So how does historians get these two mixed up. I am not sure if it was an article by Peter J Hudson or Grant Foreman for the Oklahoma Historical Society, but this is my guess. The 1826 attempted treaty with the Choctaw, the journal has Tappenahoma welcoming the commissioners, asking for the request in writing and sending it to a committee of 13 men. The top man is General Hummingbird on that list. Now, no one noticed or cared that none of the other chiefs signed these responses. In 1826, it should still have been Mushulatubbee and Robert Cole, who aren't listed either. Then we have the court of claims testimonies, which both of these fine (and no offense, they just didn't know the obituary) men saw a testimony where Tappenyahoma (son in law of Nitakechi per Cushman) says he is Capt Hummingbird. And there you go, there was an assumption.

 There are 6 months that I can't track a chief for the district, from December 1825 when Pushmataha died and June of 1826 when Tappenahoma is found in letters. Personally, I don't think Oklahoma was ever chief, but no idea where that got started.  If you noticed I won't refer to Pushmataha as Chief of the Six Towns. There is very good reason for this, which will be the subject of my next blog.

 

 

Choctaw Genealogy and Internet Rumors

 Over the 23 years I have been researching genealogy, there have been several rumors that just won't go away. Thankfully, the message board posts don't just pop up anymore on google searches, but several really have stuck around. So, I want to take the time to address two of the most persistant and worse ones.

 

Pushmataha's sister Nahotima was the grandmother of Greenwood (and his siblings) Leflore. NOT TRUE.

How did that get started, well, I believe I have found the trail. From The History of Mississippi, the Heart of the South, Dunbar Rowland, 1925 we have this 

 

But in 1938, another author changes this information with no source.  From Mississippi; a Guide to the Magnolia State by the Beat Books on Federal Writers Project.

 

 So we have an author with no source claiming Rebecca Cravat is a niece of Pushmataha, despite the fact that Robert Cole is named Leflore's uncle in 1838. (Choctaw Nation vs. United States, Volume 1 p 175). Robert Cole gives a great list of his family in this testimony. So Pushmataha is not given as a relative, why? Because if there is any relationship between Pushmataha and Robert Cole it is that Pushmataha's wife, names given in a Holmes County deed, Book A, p 37 was the sister of Robert Cole. Her names in this document are Imayahoka (the sister wrongly attributed as the wife of John Belvin by a Shumaka researcher), other names are Jamesachikoka  and Lunnagaka are also given in this document. I have spoken with an representative for the Mississippi Choctaw language department, and Jamesachikoka would roughly mean daughter of James (for James Cole, father of Robert Cole). 

It is possible someone had notes on this connection and wrongly attributed the "uncle" instead of uncle by marriage, and then using H.S. Halbert's article on the Creek War (which names Nahotima as sister of Pushmataha) and made a massive leap to give the name that is in a lot of genealogy files erroneously. The only published connection that I can find, which is legitimate, is this excerpt from the Alabama Historical society in 1899, (Halbert). One thing Halbert got consistently wrong is the name of Pierre Juzan for Charles Juzan. Given his french ancestry, a baptismal first name as a saint (for this family Pierre) was always given but not used. Virtually in all but one record, Charles is the name given.

 

 

The other rumor is for Micajah "Cajie" Moore and Nitakechi. I have read all of the notes in the cornish collection on this case and the dawes files. A brother and a sister applied for Choctaw Citizenship in Oklahoma. The brother did not get accepted, but his sister, just before the dawes, did. The files and testimony suggest her husband paid off the council members. It is of note, none of the earliest testimonies at all link the Moore's to Nitakechi, only Cajie.. I think someone decided that sounded like Kechi and ran with it. Back in 2008, a descendant of the half sibling of these Moores reached out. I tracked down a male line descendant from Henry Graves, who is documented as Nitakechi's son in the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek and the Choctaw Academy. His descendant Henry Byington, is even named in the Cornish files. So, a ydna test was done from a male line descendant of Micajah Moore and this descendant. It was done by the gentleman who runs the Barrett project. The test results are shown below. and can be found on the familytreedna site. 

 

Note: the line 200 Byington has a native DNA type. the Moore at the bottom has a European one. They are not lineal descendants of Nitakechi. Period. I am not even going to try and say they are or are not Choctaw, but given the claimants all claimed that they were choctaw from a male relative, they should have native ydna.