Cajun or Cerole? What's the Difference?

One of the granddaughters of Armita Marie Alleman, my grand uncle Henry Muir's second wife, always heard her grandmother was a full-blooded Native American. As she digs into her family history, she's finding out that may not be true. Her grandmother's race was always listed as "W" for white on the census forms, but she was from Acadia Parish. So was she Creole or Cajun and what's the difference anyway?

"Creole in a Red Turban" by Jacques Aman, circa 1840; image courtesy
Wikipedia

I learned it's pretty easy to determine the difference between Creole and Cajun food; Creole cuisine uses tomatoes, Cajun doesn't. People, well, that's not as easy.

When the French settlers moved to Louisiana, the placage system was set up due to a shortage of accessible white women. The French wanted to expand its population in the new world, however men were not expected to marry until their early thirties and premarital sex was inconceivable. African woman soon became the concubines of white male colonists, which in some cases they happened to be sons of noblemen, military men, plantation owners, etc. Soon, wealthy white men would marry and, in some cases, they would possess two families. One with the white woman to which they were legally married, and one with their mistress of color. The offspring from their mistresses were then grouped into a new class of creoles known as gens de couleur, or free people of color. This class of people would soon expand when refugees from Haiti and other French speaking colonies would migrate to New Orleans, effectively creating a new middle class between the white French Creoles and slaves.

Courtesy of Google

This class of colored people was unique to the South as they were not in the same category as African slaves. They were elite members of society who were often leaders in business, agriculture, politics, and the arts. At one time the center of their residential community was the French Quarter. Many were educated, owned their own property and businesses. Additionally, some were even slave-owners. They formed a third class in the slave society. This meant that in the pre-civil war era, race was mainly divided into four categories. These were white, black, creoles, and free people of color. French Creoles objected to the fact that the term Creole was used to describe Free People of Color but their culture and ideals were often mirrored by them. French Creoles spoke French while Black Creoles spoke Louisiana Creole which was a mixture of English, French, African or Spanish. The end of the civil war was a threat to the Louisiana Creoles of Color because this brought about the two-tiered class system that existed in the rest of the country that was divided predominately by race: black and white.

Cajuns, on the other hand, are any descendant of Acadian exiles (French-speaking Canadians from the Maritime provinces) who lived in the southern bayou region of Louisiana. They can be any race.

Courtesy of Google

Cajuns began arriving in Louisiana during the French and Indian War. Their forced expulsion by the British was part of the its military campaign again New France, the French territories in Canada. It is thought that over 11,000 people out of 14,000 were deported during what became known as the Great Expulsion.

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I learned when researching the cultural history of Russians in Alaska, they also used the term "creole" to define people with mixed Russian and Native Alaskan blood.

A version of this post first appeared on the Robert Muir Family blog on 7 April 2016, which is the publishing platform for the multi-volume book, Descendants of Robert Muir (c1800-1869). The original version of this post will be published in an electronic book, Volume VII: James Muir (1848-1926) Descendants in June 2016.

52 Ancestors #27: Kidnapped by Indians

Ancestor: Sarah Shipley (Mitchell) Thompson (1778-1855)

As promised yesterday, Stith Thompson's book quickly provided more blogging fodder. I am slowly starting to sort out all my Robert and Daniel Mitchells and have come to understand that my four times great grandfather, Daniel Mitchell, son of Robert Mitchell and grandson of Robert Mitchell, the original immigrant from Ireland, did not serve in the Revolutionary War -- at least there are no records to indicate he served.

Mitchell family tree as it appeared in Stith Thompson's book; image courtesy
of Ancestry.com

However, his first cousin, also named Daniel Mitchell, son of Daniel Mitchell and grandson of Robert Mitchell, the original immigrant from Ireland, did serve as an ensign in the Virginia Militia beginning in 1779. This Daniel had a brother, also named Robert Mitchell (are you confused yet?).

That Robert Mitchell was born on 22 August 1747, according to his son's family bible, in Pennsylvania or Virginia. He married Naomi Shipley who was born on 26 April 1748, according to the same source. They were likely married in Bedford County, Virginia. He joined his father-in-law and brother-in-law in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, by 1788 and appeared in the 1790 census in that county. After the census was enumerated he and his brother-in-law, David McCord, moved their families to Kentucky. They traveled via the Wilderness Road in a party led by Walter Carruth.

Settlers along the Wilderness Road; image courtesy
of Wikipedia

At the forks of the Wilderness Road where it crossed the Rockcastle river (now near Livingston, Kentucky), the party was attacked by the Potawatomi Indians. Robert's wife, Naomi (Shipley) Mitchell was scalped and died soon afterwards. They buried her at Crab Orchard. Their daughter, Sarah Shipley Mitchell, was carried off and held captive for five years.

Map of Wilderness Road which shows Crab Orchard where Naomi
(Shipley) Mitchell was buried; image courtesy of Virginia Places

According to her headstone, Sarah was born on 31 Dec 1778. She was about 12 years old when she was kidnapped. Her story became family lore and while many had stories, few facts are now known. Her granddaughter, Charlotte (Hobart) Vawter, provided this story to Stith Thompson:

"The child Sarah was taken to the Indian camp and put in custody of an old squaw who treated her kindly. After the first day's tramp the Indians had bear meat for the evening meal and she declared that it was the most delicious food she ever tasted. The Indians cut off her skirts to her knees and greased the bottoms of her feet and with them she walked all the way to Canada.

When the Indian men would get drunk, the old squaw would take her out in the forest, wrap her in a blanket and put her down by a log. Although when she would waken in the morning the snow would be many feet deep, she would be always be warm and comfortable."

She was eventually returned with other captives by the terms of General Anthony Wayne's treaty in 1795 in Chillicothe, Ohio. Her father had died by 1792. Many descendants said he drowned in the Clinch river while searching for his daughter, Sarah.

A heart rending plea for news about new of Sarah was written by her paternal grandmother, Mary Mitchell, wife of Daniel Mitchell. It was dated 1 May 1793 and was addressed to His Excellency Isaac Shelby. It is now part of the Durrett Collection at the University of Chicago.

Transcription of Mary Mitchell's letter which appeared in Stith
Thompson's book; image courtesy of Ancestry.com

"Dear Sir,

You will perhaps think strange to receive a letter from a poor old woman who never had the least acquaintance with you; but sir when you hear my story I am very sure you will pity me...My request is in behalf of my grandchild who was taken prisoner by the Indians in the wilderness last fall 2 years. Her name is Sally S. Mitchell, daughter of Robert Mitchell, deceased. As you have frequent opportunity of writing to Governor Blunt I beg of you to mention the matter to him...as he once used his best endeavors to gain intelligence of her. Request him to write to you whether he has ever found out anything certain about her or where she is; and should that gentlemen write you (and I hope he will) please to let me know by a line sent to Mr. Robert Caldwell (from where I could soon get it) whether there is any news of my grandchild...I am now old and very frail and cannot rest contented without trying every method in my power for her redemption from captivity. I hope you will assist me all you can which favor will be thankfully acknowledged by

Your most obedient humble servant, Mary Mitchell"

Upon her release Sarah went to relatives in Washington County, Kentucky, and then to her aunt, Rachel Berry, where she lived until she married John Thompson in 1800.

Sarah "Sally" Shipley (Mitchell) Thompson lived for another 55 years. She seems like a truly independent spirit able to find the good (delicious bear meat) in the midst of terror. I found I quite liked her and want to learn a lot more about her.

This is my entry for Amy Johnson Crow's 52 ancestors in 52 weeks challenge optional theme Independent.

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Sarah "Sally" Shipley (Mitchell) Thompson was my second cousin five times removed. She was the daughter of Robert and Naomi (Shipley) Mitchell and married John Thompson (1775-1850). Both are interred in Pleasant Grove Cemetery in Washington County, Kentucky.

Daniel Mitchell, Patriot

The Attack on Harbert's Blockhouse

I simply must learn more about the history of the United States just prior to the Revolutionary War when colonists were pushing west and bumping up against Native Americans who were not thrilled to share land with them.  One of my by marriage ancestors, Thomas Harbert, was killed during such an incident. I found a description of his death and the events surrounding it in a book I discovered on Google Play entitled, Chronicles of Border Warfare, by Alexander Scott Withers and others.

The Harbert blockhouse was built on Jones Run on the Virginia (now West Virginia) frontier in 1775. After the death of Chief Cornstalk in November 1777, the Shawnee went on the warpath and attacked the Harbert blockhouse in March 1778.

"Anticipating the commencement of hostilities at an earlier period of the season than usual, several families retired into Harbert's blockhouse in the month of February. And notwithstanding the prudent caution manifested by them in the step thus taken; yet, the state of the weather lulling them into false security, they did not afterwards exercise the vigilance and provident care, which were necessary to ensure their future safety. On the third of March, some children, playing with a crippled crow, at a short distance from the yard, espied a number of Indians proceeding towards them; and running briskly to the house, told 'that a number of red men were close by'.

Artist rendering of the Indian Wars along the Virginia frontier

John Murphey stepped to the door to see if the danger had really approached, when one of the Indians, turning the corner of the house, fired at him. The ball took effect, and Murphey fell back into the house. The Indian springing directly in, was grappled by [Thomas] Harbert and thrown to the floor. A shot from without, wounded Harbert, yet he continued to maintain his advantage over the prostrate savage, striking him as effectually as he could with his tomahawk, when another gun was fired at him from without the house. The ball passed through his head and he fell lifeless. His antagonist then slipped out at the door, sorely wounded in the encounter.

Just after the first Indian had entered, an active young warrior, holding in his hand a tomahawk with a long spike at the end, also came in. Edward Cunningham instantly drew up his gun to shoot him; but it flashed, and they closed in doubtful strife. Both were active and athletic; and sensible of the high prize for which they were contending, each put forth his utmost strength, and strained his every nerve, to gain the ascendancy. For a while, the issue seemed doubtful. At length, by great exertion, Cunningham, wrenched the tomahawk from the hand of the Indian, and buried the spike end to the handle, in his back. Mrs. Cunningham closed the contest. Seeing her husband struggling closely with the savage, she struck him with an axe. The edge wounding his face severely, he loosened his hold, and made his way out of the house.

The third Indian, which had entered before the door was closed, presented an appearance almost as frightful as the object which he had in view. He wore a cap made of the unshorn front of a buffalo, with the ears and horns still attached to it, and which hanging loosely about his head, gave to him a most hideous aspect. On entering the room, this infernal monster, aimed a blow with his tomahawk at a Miss Reece, which alighting on her head, wounded her severely. The mother of this girl, seeing the uplifted arm about to descend on her daughter, seized the monster by the horns; but his false head coming readily off, she did not succeed in changing the direction of the weapon. The father then caught hold of him; but far inferior in strength and agility, he was seen thrown on the floor, and must have been killed, but for the timely interference of Cunningham. Having succeeded in ridding the room of one Indian, he wheeled, and sank a tomahawk into the head of the other.

During all this time the door was kept by the women, though not without great exertion. The Indians from without endeavored several times to force it open and gain admittance; and would at one time have succeeded, but that as it was yielding to their squeezing out at the aperture which had been made, caused a momentary relaxation of the exertions of others. Those were not however, unemployed. They were engaged in securing such of the children in the yard, as were capable of being carried away as prisoners, and in killing and scalping the others; and when they had effected this, despairing of being able to do farther mischief, they retreated to their towns.

Harbert blockhouse in 1939

Of the whites in the house, only one was killed and four were wounded; seven or eight children in the yard were killed or taken prisoner. One Indian was killed, and two badly wounded. Had Reece engaged sooner in the conflict, the other two who had entered the house, would no doubt have been likewise killed; but being a Quaker, he looked on, without participating in the conflict, until his daughter was wounded. Having then to contend singly, with superior prowess, he was indebted for the preservation of his life, to the assistance of those whom he had refused to aid in pressing need."

The Shawnee continued raiding along the creeks and branches of the Monongahela river during the summer months of 1778.

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If you are interested in the Harbert family I would highly recommend Echoes from the Blockhouse: The Thomas Harbert Family Saga by Brian Harbert and David Harbert. Brian also maintains The Harbert Family website.

Reprising Pocahontas for the Worldwide Genealogy Collaboration Project

Today is my day of the month to blog on the Worldwide Genealogy -- A Genealogical Collaboration. Since the audience are other genealogists and family historians across the globe, I try to focus on topics specific to Virginia that may hopefully be helpful to others or about my family and why I got interested in family history.

For April, I am reprising my December 2013 post about Pocahontas because I recently discovered I have a very tortuous relationship to her through the research work I've recently been doing on my Mitchell family. One of my paternal great great grandmother was Barbara Ann Mitchell.

Rev, James Mitchell was my 4 times great grand uncle

I hope you'll click over to the Worldwide Genealogy -- A Genealogical Collaboration and check out my post.

George Land Lotteries

Henry Crawford Tucker, Sr (1752-1832) was my sister-in-law's five times great grandfather. He was 25 when he joined the Continental Army in 1777 under Captain Thomas Ridley, a Southampton County, Virginia, neighbor. After Ridley was promoted, he served under Captain William Rogers. He was at the Battle of Brandywine, the encampment at Valley Forge, and the battles of Monmouth Courthouse, Petersburg, and Yorktown[1]. He served in both the Third and Fourth Virginia Line.

He must have spent some time just across the border in North Carolina after the war, perhaps visiting his brothers, John and William, who were living in Chatham County at the time of the 1790 census. For it was there he met and married Sarah Hunter, who was the daughter of Elizabeth and Elisha Hunter of Chatham County, North Carolina.

By 1785, Henry Crawford (or Crofford or Crafford) Tucker was established in Georgia. Over the course of his life he amassed a large amount of land in Montgomery, Jefferson, Wilkinson, Irwin, and Thomas counties. In 1826 he and his wife were among the founding members of Bethel Church.[2] Though Henry was the first Tucker to live in Georgia, he is certainly not the last. Nine generations of the Tucker family have called the Peach State home since Henry Crawford Tucker arrived in the state.

Bethel Primative Baptist Church Historical marker; photograph by David Seibert

Georgia was sparsely settled when Tucker arrived and just opening its frontiers. Virginians and Carolinians came in droves. Bounty land was available to veterans and headright grants were strong incentives to relocate. Tucker acquired 202-1/2 acres in the 1805 Georgia land lottery and more land in the 1825 lottery. The lotteries were a system of land distribution that replaced the headright grants after the Yazoo land scandal. Under the system, qualifying citizens could register for a chance to win lots of land that had formerly been occupied by the Creek Indians and the Cherokee Nation. The lottery system was used by Georgia from 1805 through 1833. Although other states also used land lotteries, none were implemented at the scale of the Georgia contests.

Grant issued to a lottery participant in the 1832 Cherokee Land Lottery
Photograph courtesy of Wikipedia

The lotteries changed the political power structure in Georgia. The elite planter aristocracy that controlled the state before the Revolutionary war made way for the "common man" once land ownership was more broadly established among the state's citizens.

An illustration of the land lottery courtesy of the New Georgia Encyclopeida

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[1] I believe every Revolutionary War soldier I have in my family tree claimed to be at Yorktown!

[2] Elders of the church eventually excommunicated Henry Tucker in 1829 for drinking and in-attendance.

Henry Crawford Tucker, Sr. was born on 23 February 1752, at Southampton County, Colony of Virginia, to Benjamin and Elizabeth (Crofford) Tucker. He served in the Revolutionary War under Captain Thomas Ridley. He married Sarah "Sally" Hunter sometime before 1785 at Chatham County, North Carolina. By 1826 he was living at Lowndes County, Georgia, amassing land and assisting in the founding of the Bethel Primitive Baptist Church. He was awarded 202 acres in Wilkinson County, Georgia, in the 1805 land lottery, and more property in Washington County, Georgia, in the 1832 lottery. He died sometime after 1832 at Lowndes, Georgia. He and his wife, Sally, had nine known children.

Captured by Indians

Hugh Bryan was born in 1699 and was a planter in St Helena's parish in South Carolina. He was the great grand uncle of the husband of my sister-in-law's 5th cousin's four times removed. When he was about 16 years old he was captured by Indians during the Yamasee War, which broke out in 1715 between colonial South Carolina and several Native American tribes. The war was caused by many things, including trader abuses, depletion of the deer population, increasing Indian debt to the colonists, land encroachment, and the rise of French trading power.

Reverend Horace Edwin Hayden wrote Virginia Genealogies, which was originally published in 1891. In it he included a quote from a letter from Reverend Hutson to Mr. DeBert, a merchant in London, which described Hugh Bryan's time as an Indian captive:

"It happened in the Indian war that which broke out in 1715, and was so memorable as to the events of it, that it stands for one of the grand eras of Carolina, that he was taken, I think at the beginning of the war, and was disposed of as a slave to one of the party that took him by the king of that people to whom the party belonged. He was in captivity among them in the whole near a year, during which time the providence of God remarkably appeared in his favor in several instances. I have only two or three in my memory, which may serve as a specimen of the rest. His Indian master (who was what they called a 'mixed breed') was killed in the engagement with the white people, by which means, though still in captivity, he got more freedom. 

Drawing from Indian History for Young Folks by Francis Drake; New York: Miller, Orton and Mulligan, 1855

The king always stood his friend when the Indians under him solicited his death, which was very common for them to do when they heard of any success of the Carolinians against them, and they were particularly earnest upon the point when they heard of the death of one of their great men's sons. But the Indian king always interposed on his behalf, and would not suffer them to hurt him, out of regard to his father, who was a very hospitable man, and had been very kind to the Indians, though it is not very common with them to remember favors, especially in a time of war; and there were instances often in this war of persons who had been very kind to them, and yet were very cruelly treated by them, a circumstance which I rather take notice of to show how much providence was concerned in his preservation…Mr Bryan endured many hardships while among the Indians, and though his good behaviour [sic] gained him so much favor, that he fared no worse than their own Indian boys, yet at best his case was bad enough. At length, through the good providence of God, he was brought by them to the Spanish settlement at St Augustine, on the coast, and from thence, being released by the Indian king who had always been so friendly to him, he returned to his own land in peace, and here as he advanced in years grew in favor with all who knew him, and at length, by his integrity and industry, attended with divine blessing, he obtained a good report and a good fortune."

Hugh Bryan died on the last day of 1753 at the age of 54. He was married at least two times, perhaps three, and had one or two children.

Starving Time at Jamestown

Anyone who has studied United States colonial history knows Jamestown was settled in 1607. But did you know how close it came to being just another failed attempt of English colonization in the New World? Technically, the colony had been abandoned and its settlers were sailing down the James River in hopes of returning to England when they met Lord Delaware's ships, loaded with supplies and new people, which saved the colony.  What caused the early settlers to abandon Jamestown?

The arrival of Lord Delaware, 1610; image courtesy Colonial National Historical Park

A gunpowder burn forced John Smith, the colony's leader, to return to England in 1609; and a boatload of new settlers and supplies sunk off the coast of Bermuda. The winter of 1609-10 became known as the "Starving Time." Disease and hunger ravaged the colony. George Percy described this terrible time in his A True Relation of the Proceedings and Occurrences of Moment which have happened in Virginia from the Time Sir Thomas Gates was shipwrecked upon the Bermudas, which he wrote in 1612 as a rebuttal to Captain John Smith's A General History of Virginia. Smith had questioned Percy's leadership in his popular tome.

"And now, famine beginning to look ghastly and pale in every face…nothing was spared to maintain life and to do those things which seem incredible, as to dig up dead corpses out of graves and eat them, and some have licked up the blood which had fallen from their weak fellows. And amongst the rest, this was the most lamentable: that one of our colony murdered his wife, ripped the child out of her womb, and threw it into the river, and after, chopped the mother in pieces and salted her for food." 

Painting by Sidney King, image courtesy of the National Park Service

Daniel Tucker was in Jamestown during the Starving Time; and Percy, then president of the colony, put Daniel Tucker in charge of rationing the food stores. Percy praised Tucker's work, "by his industry and care caused the same (provisions for three months) to hold out four months." Percy continued, "Daniel Tucker proved himself resourceful, for from a small boat which he had built, he caught fish in the James River, and this small relief 'did keep us from killing one another to eat'."

The work of Daniel Tucker -- food rationing, fish he caught, and the small boat he built -- helped the settlers survive long enough for that fortuitous meeting in the James River with Lord Delaware.

"Pocahontas Alias Metoaka and Her Descendants" and Its Author

I've written about Google Play before and what a terrific tool it can be for genealogy research. When researching my sister-in-law's Bermuda Tucker line, I discovered that St George Tucker (1752-1827) married Francis (Bland) Randolph, the widow of John Randolph, of the famous Virginia Randolphs, one of the "first families of Virginia." The Randolphs are related to Thomas Jefferson, Robert E Lee, and Benjamin Harrison to name but a few famous personages. I also had a vague recollection that the Randolphs were related to Jane Rolfe, the granddaughter of Matoaka, the Native American princess, better known as Pocahontas(1).

Matoaka "Pocahontas" also known as Rebecca Rolfe, engraving by Simon van de Passe, courtesy of Wikipedia

I started searching the Internet for confirmation of the Randolph-Pocahontas connection and found it in this wonderful book by Wyndham Robertson written in 1887:

Wyndam Robertson's 1887 book includes seven generations of Pocahontas Descendants

The book included seven generations of Pocahontas descendants, including Wyndham Robertson (1803-1888) himself. Robertson included a delightful declaration of love by John Rolfe:

"Pocahontas…to whom my hartie and best thoughts are, and have long bin so entangled and inthralled in so intricate a laborinth, that I was even awearied to unwinde myselfe thereout." 

Robertson was the acting governor of Virginia from 1836 to 1837. As senior member of the Council of State, he was also Lt Governor when Governor Littleton Waller Tazewell resigned the office.  At the time the legislature elected the governor and it was controlled by the Whigs so Robertson was not returned to office in 1837. After his term was over he was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates several times and was in that office during Virginia's struggles over secession from the Union. Robertson was a staunch Unionist and tried to prevent secession. 

Wyndham Robertson, painting by Louis Mathieu Didier Guillaume and  courtesy of Wikipedia

When Abraham Lincoln made his call for troops on April 15, 1861, Wyndham Robertson became "zealously active in all measures in defense of his state." After the Civil War he served on the Committee of Nine, which sought Virginia's readmission into the Union. After long and faithful service to Virginia, he retired and wrote his genealogy book. He died on February 11, 1888, and is buried at Cobbs, Virginia.

He later said about his service to his state during the Civil War:

"And now, after twenty years of experience of yet unripened results, I have no regrets, nor repent a single act of my State, or myself, in these unhappy affairs -- welcoming the end of slavery, but still believing it would have been reached without the horrors of war."

And this is yet another reason I love old books so much -- not only are the subjects of the books fascinating so are their authors.

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(1) Metoaka "Pocahontas" Rebecca Rolfe is the third great grandmother of Frances (Bland) Randolph Tucker, the wife of St George Tucker, my sister-in-law's third cousin six times removed.

The Indian Problem

On 30 May 1934 James Irby Bailiff, my nephew's wife's first cousin three times removed, married Gevena May (Gazaway) Given. 

James Irby Bailiff (1903-1999) is the man in uniform

Courtesy of BailiffFamily.com and provided by Mary Bailiff Crittendon

Geneva was a half-blooded Choctaw Indian and was born when the "civilized" Indian tribes were being enrolled by the Dawes Commission so they could be allotted land and assimilated as other immigrants did. Whites sympathetic to Native Americans couldn't understand why the country had absorbed over 5 million European immigrants but 250,000 Native Americans couldn't be assimilated.  Indian Commissioner, Merrill Gates, described the "problem:"

"We must make the Indian more intelligently selfish before we can make him unselfishly intelligent. We need to awaken in him wants. In his dull savagery he must be touched by the angel of discontent. Then he begins to look forward, to reach out. The desire for property of his own may become an intense educating force.  The wish for a home of his own awakens him to new efforts. Discontent with the teepee and the staving rations of the Indian camp in winter is needed to get the Indian out of the blanket and into trousers -- and trousers with a pocket in them, and a packet that aches to be filled with dollars!?

So Congress passed what became known as the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887. This Commission was responsible for negotiating agreements with the Five Civilized Tribes – the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole. The stated objective of the Dawes Act was to stimulate assimilation of Indians into American society. Individual ownership of land was seen as an essential step. The act also provided that the government would purchase Indian land "excess" to that needed for allotment and open it up for settlement by non-Indians.

A 1911 ad offering "allotted Indian land" for sale

Between 1898 and 1914 the Dawes commissioned surveyed the tribes. The enrollment cards are held at the National Archives and Records Commission. And that's how I found out Geneva May Gazaway was a Choctaw Indian. Despite intentions, the Dawes Act had a negative impact on Native Americans. It dramatically reduced the amount of land Native Americans owned and the acreage not allotted to tribal members was sold to white settlers.  In 1887 tribes owned approximately 138 million acres of land; by 1934 they held only 48 million acres.

Senator Dawes went to his grave thinking his legislation was the "Indian Magna Carta."