If the Native American you are tracing is a woman, the search can be very frustrating. The women’s name appears in genealogy searches with their husband and children’s names. There may be a place of date and place of birth, then no further information.
Legend told to me by my Grandfather George Fortner in the 1970s, most of the women in my family were Cherokee Indians. It was a subject rarely spoken of. A subject no one seemed to know about. So much is hidden I am unsure I will ever find or know my ancestors.
As many people do, I sit at family reunions and hear the history of the male family members. It is as if the women, the great-grandmothers, grandmothers, aunts and so on, never existed. To add insult to injury, apparently some family members are still in denial. We talk about the male family members. The women are mentioned or the word Indian. Some of the family, I know for a fact, heard the Legend say, “Oh I never knew that.” On my maternal family side, I have never been to a family reunion of the women of the family. Why? There aren’t any existing brothers, sisters or cousins on the women’s side. Once again name, date of birth, sometimes place of birth, husband and children of a woman. Then the end, no family. Legend of heredity, I often believe is all I will ever know. While I know much about the men on the maternal side of my family, their history is easily traced. Documents are easily found, birth certificates, their names listed as having fought during the civil war. The men have been traced and places to find their heritage listed by family members.
Since the women in my family can’t be traced, I have to assume Legend is true. The women were just there. Legend again has told me that most of my ancestors walked the Trail of Tears. The few remaining women changed their lives, cultures and names.
When I am able to find their names, I can’t be sure the names are correct. Indian women often changed their names during the 1800s and early 1900s. Had they been criminals, a better trail would have been left. The number of children born to these women also affects tracing. Legend has it that my great-great-grandmother, Armieo Lowe, a Cherokee Indian, married William Fortner. Armieo is listed as born 1812 in North Carolina. Some places her date of birth is 1822. But 1812 has proved more accurate in my search. She is found listed as Anny or Anna in the census of 1850, 1860 and 1870. Her name appears as Armieo on my great-grandfather’s death certificate, I am told.
In looking at the dates of birth of her children, 1812 would have been a more correct date. Legend says that all of Armieo’s family walked the trail of tears except Armieo and her mother and father. William Fortner, married to Armieo, was allowed to keep Armieo and her parents. The only reason her parents were spared was they were elderly. When I first looked at the dates of the Trail of Tears it seemed impossible for this to be correct. Armieo and William Fortner have 10 children listed between the dates of 1837 and 1854. Their second son (my great-grandfather) was born in 1838.
Franklin Levi Fortner married Louisa Jane Howard, who is also said be Cherokee Indian. Her name in places is spelled Louiza rather than Louisa. It is said that Levi Franklin Fortner spoke at ease in the Cherokee language. The same family denying knowledge of any Indian women in the family added to the family genealogy. When I walked upon Levi, he was speaking in a strange language. I asked him what he was saying. Levi said, “I said, it is a beautiful morning isn’t it?” in Cherokee.
Louisa and her brother were two of the many turned down in the early 1900s roll or the finally count of the tribes. No one knows why these two were turned down. No proof, the women were just there, no questions were every answered. It seems shame and fear kept these people quiet. Attempts not to shame their children or husbands.
Indian heritage in the 1800s and early 1900s seems to have been better hidden to be accepted in a white man’s world. A sacrifice to be safe, a total change of culture, breaking of family ties. I doubt these women ever thought of their pain as a creation of pain for future generations. These women could never know that women of later years would be trying to find out who they were.
Then I have to wonder, was it their choice to hide these things. I know there are many people out there like myself. It leaves me to wonder. What culture I have missed. I know nothing of Native American ways. I thirst for the knowledge of the culture ways and hardship my people endured. Who were they, Warriors, Chiefs, Medicine Men or Women? How many survived the Trail of Tears? Where did they end up?
Until I began my research. I accepted the Trail of Tears, as a mass forced immigration. A one-time thing. After much reading, I found it began in the early 1800s when most of the Indians were sent to Oklahoma. The forced immigration left behind some, who the Government would try to civilize. It spanned into the late 1800s. A book could be written, and many have been written, on searching your Native Ancestry. Customs, feelings, and Education are left lacking.
So many as myself remain lacking in the knowledge of what has been lost. We don’t even know how to address our Native Ancestors. Is Native American correct or is Indian the proper term? We see both used. It leaves me to wonder. Is it blood or Legend that makes my heart feel Cherokee? The Trail of Tears began in the early 1800s but the span of moving Native Americans, continued in smaller groups until the late 1800s.
Contributed by: Rita Redd
Published U.S. Legacies March 2004
- Log in to post comments