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This article touches on a topic that seems
to be a sore point for many Americans. It is the topic of the
relationship between Africans and Native Americans. Many of us who are
researching run into walls which we cannot get past. In order to break
down the wall we have to follow the trail, no matter where it goes. If
you cannot find your ancestors listed as black you may need to be
looking for them in the "Mulatto" or "Indian" category. I found myself
stuck many times when looking for my ancestors under the black
designation.
I found out that some states had a
"Black", "mulatto" and "White" designation. The "M" designation was
used to designate Indians (or mixed race). To anyone who has heard of
the United States Colored Troops and believe that "colored" designated
only blacks, that is incorrect. "Colored" was a term used to designate
anyone who was not white. Many Native Americans participated in the
Civil War on the Union side and they served in the United States
Colored Troops. The key that I used to get past the block was to look
for the name first then the racial designation. In fact the racial
designation was the last information I looked for since many of my
relatives listed themselves as white. The information in this article
should be helpful to those who run into walls. The article is about a
Tribe in Amherst County who call themselves "The Buffalo Ridge
Cherokees".
Cherokees In Amherst County Virginia:
The Cherokee language belongs to the
Iroquian linguistic group. It is believed that, during some
prehistoric time period, they lived in the Great Lakes region. This
belief is based on numerous generations of Delaware Indian historians
who passed on the oral tradition of their ancestors to their
descendants whenever they had the opportunity in the northern
woodlands 1(Terrell,
1971, 131). The tradition states that the powerful Delaware, whose
ancient homeland was in New Jersey, Eastern Pennsylvania, and New
York, fought the Cherokees over a period of the reign of three
Chieftains before the Delaware's could finally claim victory (p. 10).
Amherst, Nelson, Rockbridge and Augusta County were thought to be
hunting grounds for the Cherokee.
Amherst County is located in Central
Virginia along the Blue Ridge Mountains. "Amherst is the Genius of
the Old Dominion, a living, real, everlasting representative of the
State, to be seen and known of all men. Look at her, the great
Giantess, sitting upon the highest portion of Central Virginia, with
her back against the Blue Ridge, and her feet dabbling in the noble
James (River). Mount Pleasant her head, lifted 4,090 feet in the air,
the Tobacco Row her fruitful breast: The Ridge, her knees
holding under them a wealth of minerals; the upper James her strong
right arm,...
2"(Blankenship,
R.B., 1907, 15).
At one time in their exciting history, the
Cherokee were a powerful and great Nation. They possessed 135,000
square miles of area that covered eight states: North Carolina,
Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia,
and Virginia (Blankenship, B., Cherokee Roots, 1978,
5). This tribe, one of the largest in the Southeastern section of the
United States, was the first to adapt to the arrival and civilization
of the Europeans. In 1540, when Hernando De Soto explored the area of
the Cherokee, he discovered that they had an advanced society in their
capital city, Echota (itsati), near the modern city of Madisonville,
Tennessee3
(Yenne, 1986, 35).
According to tradition, the Allegeni, the
ancestors of the modern Cherokee, were defeated by the
Delaware-Iroquois alliance and moved into Virginia. The settled in New
Holston Valley after residing for a period of time at the Peaks of
Otter in Bedford County
4(Johnson,
34). In just twenty years, from 1880 to 1900, the Indians in Amherst
County were systematically erased from the record books by the stroke
of a pen. They were forced by law in 1705 to be called "mulatto" and
then called "black" in 1900. Many of the Cherokee descendants of
Amherst County accepted this term without resistance. In fact, by
1850, as "Free Inhabitants" of Amherst County, the Cherokee families
lived in the communities with blacks and whites and many of the
families "went" for black or white, depending on the racial community
in which they lived and felt secure ( p. 37).
Some of the Cherokee residents went in the
Stapleton area "went for black" even though they knew that their major
ancestry was Indian, Indian/white, Indian/black or Indian/white/black.
The census enumerators classified some of them as black or colored, so
many of them "went for black or colored." They attended the colored
school, Fairmount, on Buffalo Ridge in the Stapleton area, even though
a number of them were full, three-quarter, or half blood Cherokee.
Directly across the James River, in the Stonewall Mill area of
Appomattox, near Turner Mountain, however, some of their bi-racial or
tri-racial Cherokee relatives went to school with children of white
residents, even though they themselves chose to be considered as
colored in the community5
(John Ferguson, 1991).
"During the mid-1700's a band, or tribe of
disenfranchised "Mulattos" began moving from the Eastern Shore of
Virginia and headed for the Mountains (Matoe) of Central Virginia
seeking a place where they could keep their culture alive. The band
was composed of various racial groupings, Indian, Indian/black,
Indian/white or Indian/white/black. The surnames included such names
as Pinn, Beverly, Sizemore, Evans, Branham, Redcross, Hartless,
Carter, Coleman, Johns, Harris and Sparrow. It is believed that this
group was headed for the Mountains, a place where their ancestors
often hunted Buffalo, they called their settlement "Buffalo Ridge".
The Native Americans viewed the Buffalo as a spiritual animal, whose
coat they wore in battle and whose meat sustained them. The group that
settled on the Ridge served in the Revolutionary War as Patriots and
eventually became wealthy land owners. They were not unlike the
Creoles in Louisiana, as most had never been slaves (Wills, Anita).
During the early to mid-1800's, the
families started clustering together in geographical and/or religious
groups. "Pinn Park", one of the first official church/tribal burial
grounds in Amherst County, is believed to have been an interment site
as far back as 1750 (Land Survey of Fairmount Baptist Church/ "Pinn
Park Cherokee Grounds, Amherst County"). By the 1840s, Turner Pinn,
Samuel Scott, Madison Beverly, Anthony Beverly, Bartlett Sparrow,
Polly Beverly, George Jewell, and others were living in the same
tribal setting (clustered together in a residential clan connection)
and listed as "Free Colored" individuals (U.S. Census, Amherst
County, 1840).
It was only later that white settlers
began to purchase land from these Native Americans and build dwellings
between them. Census records show these families clustered together in
1840 and earlier. The later census records show a progressively larger
number of non-family members settling in these previously "closed"
areas. They were prosperous farmers on the Ridge..., (p 64). Contrary
to the common belief that all Negroes and other free coloreds, or
Indians, were slaves in Virginia prior to the
6end of the
Civil War, there were in fact a large number of "Free Colored"
inhabitants in Amherst County (McLeroy & McLeroy, 1977, 52). Free
colored inhabitants comprised approximately two to three percent of
the county's population between 1810 and 1860. It is believed that the
major portion of these residents were, in fact, Native Americans.
While some of the free colored persons were former or freed slaves,
the other residents were Native Americans, descendants of full or
mixed blood ancestors. The children of Native American mothers were
born free while the children of slave and Native American fathers were
not free because the children usually lived with their mothers. If
their mothers were in included in the institution of slavery, they
were born in bondage. This fact partly accounted for the large number
of slaves that had Native American features.
Remnants of this group still reside on the
mountain today, although most leave for better opportunities. They are
members of the Keetowah band of Cherokees who meet in Tennessee once a
year. The Cherokees were able to prosper by keeping family ties
strong. Within this band if you are a cousin, you are welcome, they
believe that "Blood Is Thicker Then Water". The ties are now cultural
as very few pure blood Native Americans are left. Some of the Ridge
Natives attended Howard, Hampton and other of the "colored" schools in
Virginia. Those who were educated did not forget those who stayed on
the ridge. The Buffalo Ridge Cherokees do not deny that they are
intermixed with blacks or whites, however, they are determined to keep
their Indian heritage alive. Many still speak in the old language and
pass it on to their children. They are a proud but friendly people-
They are "The People Who Came Before Columbus".
____________________________________
1Terrell,
John Upton: American Indian Almanac: New York: Thomas Y.
Crowell Company, 1971
2Blankenship,
Bob: Cherokee Roots: Cherokee North Carolina, 1978
3Yenne,
Bill: The Encyclopedia of North American Indian Tribes:
Greenwich, Connecticut: Arch Cape Press, 1986.
4Johnson,
Patricia Givens: The New River Early Settlement: Pulaski,
Virginia: Edmonds Printing, Inc., 1983
5Ferguson,
John. Interview. Lynchburg, Virginia, January 7, 1992.
6McLeroy,
Sherrie and William: Strangers In Their Midst: The Free Black
Population of Amhert County Virginia: Bowie Maryland: Heritage
Books, Inc., 1993 |