I was sent this picture tonight via email. It means a great deal to me, as it gives some degree of tangible proof regarding the oral history in my family of our Cherokee roots. (my ancestors, like many, did not sign the Dawes rolls)
(you can click on the thumbnail above to see a full-size picture) The girl on the right-hand side is Ella, my great-great-grandmother. Her grandmother is in the center.
Another interesting wrinkle…
On the scan of the back of the picture are several notations, one of them which says “Viola, Tenn”
So I did some poking around online and found some interesting info about the place…
1. Today it has a population of 129 – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viola,_Tennessee
2. Comparing the location on Google maps
(see http://tinyurl.com/5o88pl ) with some historical maps ( on http://www.tngenweb.org/cessions/ ), see
http://www.tngenweb.org/cessions/ilcmap54.jpg ), it looks like the land is in sector 57, which was ceded by the Cherokee nation to the US by an 1805 treaty, http://www.tngenweb.org/cessions/18051025.html )
Tangible proof — are referring to the fact that they *look* Cherokee? Or was there something else with the picture?
The woman in the center eerily resembles my g-grandma, who had a lot of American Indian blood.
Your g-g-grandmother Ella was not happy about having her picture taken. 🙂
…and her sister looks even less happy…
I am 60 and my grandfather told me he was a quarter Cherokee and my Dad told me he was an eigth. While it doesn’t mean much to some people, My dad left when I was three and it is the only thing I know about our family. We are from the William Henry Fullbright and Sarah Bourland (Great Grandparents)There are names on the Dawes rolls that might be some of the family and there are a lot of Fullbright Freedmen but we dont appear to be black. I wish I new more about my family. They are from Akins Oklahoma during the late 1800s up to the great deppression. I just dont know how to find out more.