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.
