Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2009 6:14 pm
Heated debate aside... Fortunately, there are people interested in the geneology of our family on both sides, so despite being your average American Oklahoman mutt, I can break it down for you:
My mother's family is European, having came over on the Mayflower. They were English, predominantly. I'm descended from Lord North, a Prime Minister of England, and one knight who was in the order of Bath. There's also some general Northern European -- some Dutch, too, I believe on her side. No Scottish or Irish, however, which is a bit rare for European mutt-ness in America.
My father's family is Chickasaw. They originally lived in the Southeast but came to southern Oklahoma during the 1820s Indian Removal. My family has the original cast-iron cook pot that was one of two issued to each family for the rough journey. My father's mother has more European in her -- generalized mutt, I'm afraid, with not much information due to the bastard nature of her birth. My grandmother, Blanche, was a tall, fair-skinned women with dark hair like her part-Chickasaw father who abandoned her. Blanche's grandpa Peterman is a bit of a legend -- he threw the Dalton Gang out of his saloon once. He fought in the Civil War in the Confederacy and was taken prisoner by the Yanks. He escaped the POW camp but was confronted later by a confederate tax-collector. Rather than pay taxes, he stabbed the man in the gut with a pitchfork. Thus an outlaw, he scurried out West to Indian Territory where he married a Chickasaw woman.
Sooo... you could say I'm European mutt. They measure your "Indian-ness" by blood percentage (you know who else has been measured that way? Slaves and Jews in the Holocaust -- HOORAY) but in my heart it's quite large. I strongly indentify with the Chickasaw as my heritage.
My mother's family is European, having came over on the Mayflower. They were English, predominantly. I'm descended from Lord North, a Prime Minister of England, and one knight who was in the order of Bath. There's also some general Northern European -- some Dutch, too, I believe on her side. No Scottish or Irish, however, which is a bit rare for European mutt-ness in America.
My father's family is Chickasaw. They originally lived in the Southeast but came to southern Oklahoma during the 1820s Indian Removal. My family has the original cast-iron cook pot that was one of two issued to each family for the rough journey. My father's mother has more European in her -- generalized mutt, I'm afraid, with not much information due to the bastard nature of her birth. My grandmother, Blanche, was a tall, fair-skinned women with dark hair like her part-Chickasaw father who abandoned her. Blanche's grandpa Peterman is a bit of a legend -- he threw the Dalton Gang out of his saloon once. He fought in the Civil War in the Confederacy and was taken prisoner by the Yanks. He escaped the POW camp but was confronted later by a confederate tax-collector. Rather than pay taxes, he stabbed the man in the gut with a pitchfork. Thus an outlaw, he scurried out West to Indian Territory where he married a Chickasaw woman.
Sooo... you could say I'm European mutt. They measure your "Indian-ness" by blood percentage (you know who else has been measured that way? Slaves and Jews in the Holocaust -- HOORAY) but in my heart it's quite large. I strongly indentify with the Chickasaw as my heritage.