My Great Grandmother was an Indian Princess

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Comment by Janeen Davis Proctor on May 10, 2010 at 6:03am

I have no idea. We were told my great grandma Rivers {maiden name Simms} great grandparents were an Irish man married to an Indian women. Well, Matilda Huston Johnson was born 1812 in Montgomery Co., Ohio. Her death record says her father was James Huston {is Huston Irish?}, doesn't name her mother. Too many James Huston's in Montgomery Co., Ohio so I don't know. My mom and all her sisters have dark hair, high cheekbones, nice skin color, one brother has red hair.

Comment by Maria Camacho on May 9, 2010 at 9:45pm

Hi
I do have Native American blood, as I'm mtdna haplogroup B, although most of my relatives are fair

Comment by Family Griot on May 4, 2010 at 2:12pm

Folks most of these stories are psychological defense mechanisms that were built into American society to protect us from the awful truth of the matter. There are no such thing as Indian Princesses! LOL Most likely your Indian or "Blackfoot" (that one gets me every time!) ancestor was the product of a sexual relationship between a black and white person. Some of these relationships were generational creating a group of people who were varied in color from cafe au lait to white and wavy hair to straight dark colored hair. For most African-Americans this is not a surprise or unknown, at least the ones who care to study history. I found it surprising when I was able to document my Afro-Native American/Central American ancestry through census records and oral family history. I would suggest anyone who thinks that they may have Native American ancestors, please take a DNA test to be sure. I know that for some people that this may be a bit difficult to accept as it is also a part of the American Mythos to believe that some groups are inferior to others. But hey, I'm cool with not being Native North American... ;-)

Comment by Sasha Mitchell on February 3, 2010 at 8:59am

That's the story we heard growing up. "Nanny" Eliza Mary Mason Stewart was a Choctaw Indian princess and I was very intrigued. That side of my family is African American. In my research on her line her father was Samuel Mason, born in TN in 1840, and her maternal grandparents were Monroe & Jemimia Jamison both born in Tennessee. All listed as Negro in the census records. I've since met many distant cousins on many family different lines and have heard the Indian (thought not princess) story repeated more times than I can count!

Comment by Marilyn K. Sobiech on January 31, 2010 at 2:46pm

I just had to make a post to this group. My great grandmother was Marie Gijigokwe Shawan. She married Charles Bomakeghick in Garden River, Ontario, Canada. Marie's father was a band chief so Marie would have indeed been a princess. Does the princess status continue on down the line to my grandmother, mother, to me?

Comment by CaryAnn Turner Hess on July 18, 2009 at 8:28pm

Indian princess, No, but….

My maternal great grandmother was American Indian, as was my grandmother and grandfather, my mother and my dad was half Indian. Grandma was born on the Chickasaw reservation, no birth cert. in Oklahoma. My great grandmother’s family is on the Dawes rolls.

The real kicker is in 1932 my grandparents went to the tribe in Oklahoma and denounced all their heritage for themselves and their posterity. I found this out from my mom first, and thought, “Yah, right!” But, when sending for records I was sent a copy of their removal papers.

Curious about how one can be removed from an ethnic group, I had to ask how this was possible. The answer was they are still AI, but all the rights afforded to the tribe will not include them, their four children or and future generations.

My grandfather was know to have told many people that, “If you can’t make something of yourself without help, you don’t need to be livin’.” When he and grandma divorced she tried, in vain, to get herself reinstated (I’m not sure of the term) but they said, “Sorry.”

Comment by Cheryle Hoover Davis on July 15, 2009 at 5:44am

LOL! Love the name of this group!

Well, truth is...my g-g-grandmother was Cherokee, born in North Carolina...married my Irish g-g-grandfather, and they migrated to Iowa, where she was a midwife in the community for many years. No Princess, though. lol

Comment by Diana L. Carlson on July 14, 2009 at 10:15am

I couldn't resist posting something to this Group, because it's true! When I was a kid, my grandfather was always telling me "My mother was an Indian Princess!" Well, there must be some grain of truth to it: he went to an Indian school at Mount Pleasant, MI, the school records show that his mother was 1/2 Chippewa. So if her father was the Chief, that would make her a Princess right? Well, further research finds a few Native American links, but most are further back than just 2 generations. And tracking Native American genealogy in Canada seems virtually impossible (most of the Native American sites key on locations in USA). Plus, since they tended to "hide" their Native American background, it is tough to tell, when all the records just say "French". It seems to be a dead-end, even though I can trace back quite far, mostly back to France. The surname of my Great-grandmother "Indian Princess" is JOLICOEUR from the Renfrew, Ontario area. Diana

Comment by Caro Nally on July 11, 2009 at 4:41pm

The family story was that my grandfather's grandmother was an Indian Princess when she met his grandfather. They fell in love and her father forbade the marriage so she denounced him and ran away to married my great great grandfather.

So saying someone was an Indian Princess was actually just an euphemism for saying she was a negro slave? I never heard that before!!

The scary thing about all this? My great great grandfather was 36 when my great grandfather was born. The "Indian Princess" was 14.

Comment by Kelli Davis Underhill on July 11, 2009 at 8:39am

Kiril,
Wow, I have never heard that euphemism. Hmmmm. Could be....

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