Precious Memories: Squirrel hunting with grandpa

Grandpa's Love 

As a little boy growing up at the edge of the Bankhead Forest of the Warrior Mountains, I was carried to the woods by my grandpa Arthur Wilburn when I was too small to make a long trek with my short legs.  My first memory was setting on a log beside my grandpa watching a gray squirrel cutting a hickory nut high up in a very large tree.  I remember him trying to get me to be still and quite so he could kill the squirrel for us to eat.  After waiting for what seemed to be an eternity, grandpa finally killed the squirrel with a 22 caliber rifle.  I learned at a very young age to love to eat squirrel tongues, cheek muscles, and finally the brains.  The head was my favorite piece of squirrel to eat, and as a young boy, I was raised on squirrels and other wild meat.  It was in this old time tradition that I learned to love to be in the woods hunting and learning as much as I could about the forest.



When I was about five years old, me and my dad traded "Ole Blue" for my own 22 rifle.  Ole Blue was my big blue tick hound that would knock me down when he was excited about getting some petting.  The dog was much bigger than I was and sometimes difficult for me to control.  I really hated to trade my old hound dog, but dad had told me that a black man in Oakville had a rifle he would trade for a good squirrel or coon dog.  I loved my dog, but I really wanted a 22 rifle of my own so I could go squirrel hunting with my grandpa.  I agreed to the trade; therefore, my dad and I loaded up Ole Blue and headed to Oakville.  The man promised me that he would take care of Ole Blue and that I could come visit him anytime I wanted.  Finally, I had my own bolt action single shot 22 squirrel rifle and could not wait to show it to grandpa.

My first hunts with grandpa were not very long, but their memories have lasted a lifetime.  He was very patient with me and made me understand the importance of being still and quite while hunting squirrels.  Grandpa had a double-barreled 12 gauge shotgun that I could barely pick up, but he always let me have the first shot or two with my rifle.  If the squirrel started running away, grandpa seemed to always be a sure shot with the big gun.

My old 22 rifle was difficult for me to hunt with because I did not have the strength to pull the plunger back.  The rifle had to be cocked by pulling the plunger back with your thumb and index finger.  Initially, it was probably a good idea and benefit to me and others that I could not cock the rifle which made it much safer for me to carry the gun through the woods.  When we would get ready to shoot at a squirrel, grandpa would cock the rifle for me.  For the first year he carried me squirrel hunting, grandpa was always there to cock my rifle and always give me the opportunity to shoot the squirrels.

The Christmas when I was six years old, my grandpa ordered a brand new Remington single shot bolt action 22 rifle.  The new rifle cocked automatically when the bolt was pushed forward, but would not shoot until you flipped the safety button off.  The safety on the new 22 rifle was easy for me to push on and off, and grandpa allowed me to practice my shooting accuracy with the new rifle.  Shortly after he purchased the new gun, we went squirrel hunting with both of us carrying our 22's.  After our squirrel dogs treed, we saw the squirrel hugging a limb high in the tree.  Instead of cocking my rifle, grandpa handed me his new 22 rifle and took my old rifle.  He whispered, "just push the safety off and kill that squirrel".  For the rest of the day, grandpa let me hunt with his new rifle.

When we got back home, grandpa asked me if I liked his new rifle.  I told him I loved the gun because I did not have to have his help to shoot it.  He then asked me if I would like to trade my old rifle even for his new 22 rifle.  Grandpa said since he liked my old rifle and I liked his new one that we might as well trade rifles without any boot.  Of course I was tickled to death and was glowing with pride over my new rifle that I could shoot by myself.

At the time I did not understand why he really wanted to trade, but grandpa was my best friend in the world.  Now, many years later, I realize the love my grandpa had for me.  I believe to this day that my grandpa intended for me to have the new rifle when he ordered it.  On March 15, 1964, my grandpa drowned near the Houston area of Smith Lake, and I lost the best friend that I have ever had in my life.  Today, I still cherish the 22 rifle he traded me when I was a little boy, not only because of its memories, but because it was truly a gift of love that I will never forget.  Before it is too late, you need to make a precious memory for a child that will last a lifetime, but be sure those memories are worth being shared and remembered!

Buffalo Herds

Buffalo in the Tennessee Valley

         At the time the first long hunters came into Alabama and Tennessee in the mid 1700's,  they observed huge buffalo herds that roamed throughout the Tennessee Valley.  Many of the Indian trails that crossed the Tennessee River along the Muscle Shoals followed the traces made by the herds of buffalo and elk that migrated to their feeding grounds and salt licks along the same routes for hundreds of years.   The Natchez Trace was said to have been laid out along a buffalo trail that led from the Big Lick or French Salt Lick (Nashville) south into Alabama and Mississippi.  The Old Buffalo Trail, which became known as the Chickasaw Trail and later Doublehead's Trace after the route was upgraded by the Cherokees to a wagon road from the mouth of Blue Water Creek  in Lauderdale County, Alabama to Franklin, Tennessee, was made by the herds of roaming buffalo and elk.

Buffalo herd moving toward the river!

         According to Ted Belue's book The Long Hunt, "James Adair was one of the best-known traders in the Southeast and migrated from London to Charleston, South Carolina in 1735.  In less than one year, he was leading teams of pack-horses with several men from Charleston to the Cherokee and Chickasaw in Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi. From 1738 until 1744, Adair was operating out of north Mississippi where lived and traded.  During this time, Adair made made many notes about the buffalo or "Yanasa" as the Chickasaw called the bulls.  He watched Chickasaw hunters kill buffalo, observed women dressed in buffalo hides and men wearing loincloths of buffalo wool, slept on cane beds draped with buffalo robes, and saw sachems dance wearing ceremonial buffalo headdresses...Buffalo meat, Adair said, tasted like tame beef but was sweeter and coarser grained.  Therein lay a problem, Adair admitted: The buffaloes are now become scarce, as thoughtless and wasteful Indians used to kill great numbers of them, only for the tongues and marrow-bones, leaving the rest of the carcasses to the wild beasts (Belue, 1996).

         Other writers describe the traces made by the migrating buffalo and animal herds moving to and from large mineral and salt licks.  According to Edward Albright's book Early History of Middle Tennessee, the salt licks also attracted hunters and animals alike,..."the region now embraced in Middle Tennessee was indeed a hunter's paradise.  Through its valleys and over its hills roamed countless herds of buffalo, deer, and elk.  Within its forests and canebrakes, bears, wolves, panthers, bob-cats, foxes, and other wild animals in great numbers found a home.  Besides the food necessary for each they must also have salt.  The provision made by nature for this essential was the saline water of the sulphur springs with which the country yet abounds.  In times of overflow these springs left on the surrounding ground a slight deposit of salt, and over this the beasts would tramp and lick until often long trenches or furrows were made, sometimes over several acres.  Thus were formed the "licks" which played so important a part in determining the location of early forts...To this fact, together with the close proximity of...the Cumberland River is largely due their selection as a location by the pioneers.  The big sulphur spring in the bottom now within the corporate limits of Nashville, no doubt determined the location of that city.

       To the licks in the region...came at regular intervals the animals from over a large territory, and these in their journeys to and fro formed beaten paths or trails, all centering in this locality like the spokes of a wheel...all traces led to central licks which spots were destined to become the scene of earliest activity.  Hunters, both Indian and white, roaming at will through the forests came upon these narrow paths, and turning about threaded them to the end.  Here these mighty Nimrods fell upon and mercilessly slaughtered the game, large and small, which was usually found assembled in great abundance. After feeding upon the flesh of the slain animals, they carried away the hides or pelts from which they made clothing for themselves and their families...(Albright, 1909).

Chickamauga Chief Dragging Canoe

         At the Treaty of Sycamore Shoals in 1775 which took the area of middle Tennessee and Kentucky, Dragging Canoe stood and pointed toward Kentucky and said to Richard Henderson, “You have bought a fair land, but there is a black cloud hanging over it.  You will find its settlement dark and bloody.  The buffalo are our cattle".  The Cherokee, Chickasaw, and other Southeastern Indian tribes depended upon buffalo as a primary food source, but the early trade in their hides and the advent of long rifles became their demise in the southeast.  As the long hunters and later the settlers invaded the Cumberland River Valley in middle Tennessee, the systematic destruction of the buffalo became a motivating factor for Dragging Canoe, Doublehead, and other Indian leaders to fight the intruders upon their hunting lands.  As promised, the Chickamauga War became very dark and bloody time for Indian people and settlers.  The Cumberland settlers were claiming the stronghold of the eastern buffalo and converting their last feeding grounds and salt licks to row crops and farmlands.  These factors as well as uncontrolled over hunting finally eliminated the remaining buffalo herds.  

Herds of Buffalo were food for Indians!

         Besides the Indians, the very first groups to hunt the buffalo were the explorers of the Spanish, French, and English.  Later the colonists, long hunters, and American settlers took advantage of the herds of buffalo to eat their meat and to sell their hides to make money.  Large parties of long hunters would come from the colonies east of the Appalachians and hunt the buffalo for several months at a time.  By the 1770's, few if any buffalo remained in north Alabama, but they were still abundant in the Cumberland River Valley and the barrens of Kentucky.  By the 1820's, the buffalo were for the most part killed out of the eastern United States, and shortly thereafter, the majority of the Indian people of the southeast were also removed west of the Mississippi River.  In the end, not only did the Southeastern United States lose the buffalo, but also the Indian nations that had lived in harmony with the land for over 14,000 years. 

Samuel Riley: Was Governor Riley kin to Doublehead?

Samuel Riley

Samuel Riley was the second double son-in-law of Doublehead with the first being George Colbert.  Riley came into Cherokee country as an Indian trader and developed a remarkable relationship with the Cherokee people.  As was the practice with many traders, he took two Indian wives who were the daughters of Doublehead and Creat Priber-Nigodigeyu and Gulustiyu.  He obviously found favor with Doublehead and eventually settled on a tract of land that was given to Doublehead in a secret agreement with the government.  He lived near Southwest Point near present-day Kingston, Tennessee where the Clinch River empties in the Tennessee River in Roane County, Tennessee.  At this location, Samuel operated a ferry that had also been given to Doublehead as a bribe to get him to agree to the treaties of October 25 and 27, 1805, and that bribe cleared the way for a Federal Road through Georgia.  After a United States garrison was established in 1792 at Southwest Point, Riley was hired as an interpreter.   Of course, the 16 children of Samuel Riley and his wives were the grandchildren of Doublehead.  Samuel Riley was granted a reservation for life by the United States Government.

1826 Map of Southwest Point and 

Hiwassee Garrison in East Tennessee

         Recorded December 1816--A list of agents, sub-agents, interpreters, and other persons employed in the Cherokee Agency specifying the amount of compensation, and pay allowed to each and the state or country where born.

Name	Office	State	Amount
Return J. Meigs	Agent	Conn	1920.00
Wm Lewis Lovely	Subagent	Ireland	1100.00
Samuel Riley	Interpreter	Maryland	109.50
Richard Taylor	Interpreter	Cherokee N	109.50
John Hildebrand	Miller	Penn	204.78
John McCarty	Clerk	Virginia	500.00

Samuel Riley sends a letter concerning a conversation he had with John Rogers as found in microcopy 208, roll 3, and number 1729.  Samuel Riley’s letter is dated November 29, 1806, and concerns the annuities and John Rogers.  Riley also discusses John W. Hooker who was the United States Factor at the public store at Tellico in Tennessee.  Rogers told Riley that the government was going to bankrupt the Cherokee Nation by running them so deep in debt the would have to give up their land, but it appears that Hooker refused to go along with the plan.  

I inquired respecting of Rogers conversation against government and was told by two respectable men as follows that Mr. Hooker told him that when he was in the North that in conversation with Mr. (Thomas) Jefferson.  He ask him if he could get the Cherokees to run in-debt to the amount or ten or twelve thousand dollars in the public store.  Mr. Hooker told him for answer fifty thousand, well says he, that is the way I intended to get their country for to get them to run in-debt to the public store and they will have to give their land for payment.  Mr. Hooker’s answer was if that is your determination you must get some other person to keep the store.

I am yours to serve,

Samuel Riley

In 1835, John Riley, the son of Samuel Riley and grandson of Doublehead, made application to the United States Government for compensation for the loss of his one-third interest in his tract of land near the junction of the Clinch River and Tennessee River that was given to him in the secret agreement.  The application was submitted to the Attorney General of the United States for his opinion.  He decided that the secret article, not having been submitted to the Senate for approval, was not to be considered as any part of the treaty; but that, if the commissioners had any authority for making such an agreement, the defective execution of their powers ought not to prejudice parties acting in good faith and relying on their authority; nevertheless, no relief for John Riley could be had except through the action of Congress.  Therefore, the government took the land at Southwest Point that had been given by treaty to Doublehead, John D. Chisholm, and John Riley. 

Samuel Riley's first wife was Nigodigeyu Doublehead who was born about 1764 probably in Tellico Plains, Tennessee.  She married Samuel who was born about 1747 in Maryland and became an Indian trader. Samuel died in March 1819 at Blue Springs in Roane County, Tennessee.  Samuel and Nigodigeyu had five children who were one eighth German, three eighths Cherokee, and one half Scots-Irish:  1) James Riley, born about 1792, married Jenny Shields and they had four children-Lewis Riley, Susan Riley, Malinda Riley, and Nannie Riley.  His second marriage was to an unknown woman and they had one son Jonathan Riley.  James died about 1824 in Alabama; 2) Catherine Riley, born about 1800, married Andrew Lacey and they had six children-Ensley Lacey, Amanda Lacey, Eliza Lacey, Mary Lacey, Alexander Lacey, and Catherine Lacey; 3) Martha Riley, born about 1802, married John Hall and they had three children-Elizabeth Hall, Ellen Hall, and Martha Hall;4) Nelson Riley, born about 1803, first married Mary Cordell and had two children-Martha Jane Riley, and Louisa Riley.  His second marriage was to Elizabeth Thompson and they had seven children-Ellen Riley, Margaret Riley, Julius Riley, Joseph Riley, Mary Ann Riley, Perry Andre Riley, and Charles Riley. Nelson died between 1848 and 1851; and, 5) Madison Riley, born about 1808.

Samuel Riley's second wife was Gulustiyu Doublehead who was born about 1770 in Tellico Plains, Tennessee. She also married Samuel Riley and they had 11 children who were one eighth German, three eighths Cherokee, and one half Scots-Irish:  1) Richard Riley, born about 1791, married Dianna Campbell and had two children-Jennie Riley (born 1817) and Elizabeth Riley.  Richard died April 26, 1824, at Creek Path, Alabama; 2) Nancy “Nannie” Riley was born about 1792 and married John McNary and they had one daughter Margaret McNary (born 1802).  Nannie died before 1805; 3) Mary “Polly” Riley, born about 1793 in Roane County, Tennessee, married Samuel Riley Keys and they had three children-William Keys (born 1790), Isaac Keys (born 1794), and Samuel Riley Keys, Junior (born 1819).  Mary (Polly) died March 8, 1829, in Jackson County, Alabama; 4) Elizabeth Riley, born July 5, 1794, married Isaac Keys and they had three children-Letitia Keys, Nannie Keys, and Isaac William Keys. Elizabeth died March 1857 in Indian Territory, Oklahoma; 5)John Riley, born about 1790, married Susan Walker and they had eleven children-Sallie W. Riley, Rebecca McNair Riley, Felix Riley, Jennie C. Riley, Nannie Riley, Perloney Riley, Susan Riley, Samuel Riley, Malinda Riley, Laura Riley, and John McNary Riley.  John died February 14, 1845, Oklahoma; 6) Eleanor “Nellie” Riley, born about 1796, married Charles Coody and they had ten children-Archibald Coody (1822), Engevine Coody (1824), Richard Coody (1826), Rufus Coody (born 1828), Madison Coody (born 1830), Charles Coody, Junior (born 1832), Sallie Coody (1834), Elizabeth Coody (born 1836), Nancy “Nannie” Coody (born 1838), and Samuel Coody (1840).  Eleanor died June 1851; 7) Lucy Riley, born about 1796, married Owen Brady and they had ten children-Samuel Riley Brady, Elizabeth Brady, Malinda Brady, Charles Brady, Earl Brady, James Monroe Brady, Isaac Lewis Brady, Lucinda Brady, Rachel Brady, and Sallie Brady; 8) Sallie Riley, born about 1798, married William Keys and they had seven children-Lewis Keys, Diana Keys, Levi Keys, Mary Keys, Monroe Calvin Keys, Elizabeth A. Keys, and Looney Keys.  Sallie died about 1871; 9) Louisa Riley, born about 1799, married Dennis Biggs and they had five children-Napolean Bonaparte Biggs, Sallie Biggs, Minerva Biggs, Elizabeth Biggs, and John Biggs; 10) Luney Riley, born November 12, 1800, married Rachel Stuart and they had ten children-Eliza Riley (born 1820), Belinda George Riley, Samuel King Riley, John Riley, Mary Jane Riley, Rufus Riley, Lucy Riley, Sallie Riley, Ellen Riley, and Randolph Riley.  Luney became a judge and died February 28, 1883, Nowata, Oklahoma; 11) Rachel Riley, born about 1801, first married Daniel Milton and they one son John Milton.  She then married James McDaniel and they had three children-Elias McDaniel, Charles McDaniel, and Joseph McDaniel.  Rachel and James arrived at Indian Territory on May 16, 1834.  They were removed in wagons and steamboats by Lieutinent J. W. Harris.  One member of the family died on the way to Indian Territory.  Rachel died after 1851.

The children of Samuel Riley and grandchildren of Doublehead were baptized as Christians and were listed in a “Register of Persons Baptized by the Reverend Evan Jones. A. M. in the Cherokee Nation on the 22nd of April 1805.”

Mary the Daughter of Samuel Riley was baptized by me the day and date above Evan C. Jones.  Richard the son of Samuel Riley was baptized by me the day and date above Evan C. Jones.  Eleanor the daughter of Samuel Riley was baptized by me the day and date above Evan C. Jones.  Elizabeth the daughter of Samuel Riley was baptized by me the day and date above Evan C. Jones.  Catharine the daughter of Samuel Riley was baptized by me the day and date above Evan C. Jones.  Sarah the daughter of Samuel Riley was baptized by me the day and date above Evan C. Jones.  Luce the daughter of Samuel Riley was baptized by me the day and date above Evan C. Jones.  James the son of Samuel Riley was baptized by me the day and date above Evan C. Jones.  Lunithe the son of Samuel Riley was baptized by me the day and date above Evan C. Jones.  Nelson the son of Samuel Riley was baptized by me the day and date above Evan C. Jones.  Louiza the daughter of Samuel Riley was baptized by me the day and date above Evan C. Jones.

With one double son-in-law (George Colbert) and two daughters in the western portion of the Tennessee River territory and another double son-in-law (Samuel Riley) and two daughters in the eastern portion of the Tennessee River territory, Doublehead was able to know what was happening in a vast section of the river valley.  Through these marriages of four of his daughters, Doublehead basically controlled an area of the Tennessee River from Mississippi through north Alabama and into the middle of east Tennessee.  After his assassination in 1807, some 1,131 of his family and loyal supporters moved west of the Mississippi River to Arkansas.

The answer to the title question will have to come from Governor Bob Riley?  The possibilities of Indian blood in the old families that settled Alabama are high.  You can read more about Doublehead and his descendants in my soon to be released book-Doublehead:  Last Chickamauga Cherokee Chief! 

The Gourd

The Gourd

           The Gourd was a Cherokee Indian who first lived on the south side of the Tennessee River near present-day Courtland, Alabama according to Captain Edmund Pendeleton Gaines on December 28, 1807.  However, by the time Anne Newport Royall came through the area in January 1818, she described his home on the west side of Town Creek in present-day Colbert County, Alabama.  Gourd fought with General Andrew Jackson at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend during the Creek Indian War.  He was a member of Doublehead's Chickamauga people and settled on the south side of the Tennessee River along the Muscle Shoals during the 1770's.  He has an island that is his namesake in the Elk River Shoals of the Tennessee River.  Gourd's Island is near the mouth of Elk River and is now under the backwaters of Wheeler Dam.  After the Turkey Town Treaty in September 1816, Gourd left the Muscle Shoals area of north Alabama.

           The Cherokee village called Gourd’s Settlement was at the present-day Town of Courtland in Lawrence County, Alabama. On December 28, 1807, Captain Edmund Pendleton Gaines made this note on his survey from Melton’s Bluff to Cotton Gin Port: “8^th mile…. At 119 chs. Cross the path which leads from the Shoal Town, eastwardly, to the Goard’s Settlement, about 3 miles distance” (Stone, James H., 1971).  Based on Gaines measurements of some 8.7 miles westerly from Melton’s Bluff, then easterly for three miles, Gourd’s settlement was in the center of present-day Courtland, Alabama.

           Gourd’s Settlement was named after a Cherokee soldier called The Gourd. According to Letters from Alabama 1817-1822 written by Anne Royall on January 12, 1818, page 131, is the following: “Guide says Gourd was very kind; he knew him for fifteen years. He helped subdue the Creeks, and made an excellent soldier.” Anne Royall described Gourd’s log house as being on the west side of Town Creek, ten years after Captain Edmund Pendelton Gaines’ account of Gourd's Settlement; however, she wrote her letter after Indian removal from the area and Gourd might have moved to the location described by Royall; furthermore, Gaines was a surveyor for the United States Army and made precise measurements of locations; therefore, he accurately described the location of Gourd's Settlement.

           Anne Royall's description of Gourd's homeplace given on January 12, 1818, is so interesting it is worth repeating.  She was traveling with her guide from near Florence along the south side of the Tennessee River to Melton's Bluff, and her description is as follows:  "About ten o'clock we came in sight of the first Indian farm--but Indian farm no longer!  The smoke was issuing slowly through the chimney. Why, these Indians have been like us!--could not be savage--cornfields--apple trees, and peach trees.  Fences like ours, but not so high--trusted to their neighbor's honesty--perhaps these being more civilized had more reason to fear their neighbor.  Provoked with my guide because he could not tell me the original cause of these enclosures among the Indians--from four to five rails high--this would not do among us--t'would breed a civil war.--There were the lusty corn stalks--looked grayish--some were standing erect, some were broken off at the middle and hung together still, some were prostrate.  The house looked tight and comfortable; the fruit-trees are large, and show age--there the Indians sat under their shade, or stood up and plucked the apples--wonder he did not plant more--suppose he did not know how to make cider.  Blockhead!--better than whiskey.

           My guide says peaches are delightful in this country.  Poor Gourd! That was the Indian's name; had he still been there, I would have called to see him: but I felt no desire to see his successor.  Guide says Gourd was very kind; he knew him for fifteen years.  He helped subdue the Creeks, and made an excellent soldier.  There was a portico over the door--there Gourd used to sit in the warm summer days.  We rode close to the fence, built by his hands, or perhaps his wife's; no matter which it was, it was no less dear!--It was his home!  The sun, at this moment, overcast with clouds, threw a solemn gloom upon the Indian farm.  Nothing moved but the smoke from the chimney--all was silent and hushed as death!--Poor Gourd had to leave his home, his cornfield, and his apple trees.

           There could not exist a greater evidence of unbounded avarice and ambition which distinguished the Christian world, than the one that lay before me.  There was a time when owners of this beauteous country flattered themselves that distance alone would screen them from the intrusion of the whites. Vain hope!"

           Eventually, three Indian roads intersected at Gourd’s Settlement which were the South River Road, Browns Ferry Road, and the Sipsie Trail.  The South River Road was traveled by Reverend Patrick Wilson in 1803 along the south side of the Tennessee River and follows the corridor of Highway 20.  The Browns Ferry Road came from Hunt's Spring (Huntsville), to Doublehead's Town at Browns Ferry, and then to Gourd's Settlement (Courtland).  Sipsie Trail, which followed the Cheatham Road or corridor of Highway 33 from Moulton through Gourd's Settlement to Lamb's Ferry, was an early Indian route from Tuscaloosa to the French Lick (Nashville, Tennessee). 

           A prehistoric village containing an Indian mound was located at the site on the banks of Path Killer Creek which later became known as Big Nance. According to Captain Edmund Pendleton Gaines on December 27, 1807, “we proceeded, same course…6^th mile…At 116 [chaines] (west of Melton’s Bluff) Path Killer’s Creek, 3 chains wide from tops of banks” (Stone, 1971). In 1807 when Captain Gaines identified Path Killer Creek (named after Cherokee Chief Path Killer), he was surveying a line from Melton’s Bluff on the Tennessee River to Cotton Gin Port on the Tombigbee River; therefore, he basically followed parallel to the corridor of the Old Chickasaw Trail to the heart of the Chickasaw Nation.

           According to a February 1829, Lawrence County court record, “a road from Gourd Landing on the Tennessee River to intersect the road from Courtland to Lamb’s Ferry (Sipsie Trail) at or near Gordon’s fence the nearist and best way... Order, 1829, Jury of Review of a road from Courtland to Gourds.”  Gourd's Landing was on the Tennessee River near present-day Spring Creek in Lawrence County, Alabama.  This road intersected portions of both the Sipsie Trail and Gaines Trace.

Charles Melton and Elick Melton signed a letter along with The Gourd requesting Negro Fox to be returned after two Cherokees were killed.  It is important to note that this was the last recorded attack on the Cherokees which resulted in the death of two Cherokee men at the Muscle Shoals.  The killings occurred at Mouse Town near the mouth of Fox’s Creek as a result of leases of Cherokee lands started by Doublehead.  In microcopy 208, roll 7, and number 3533, is a letter from a group of Cherokees signed by The Gourd (Goard), the two Melton brothers, John Lamb, and others.  The letter gives an account of two Cherokee Indians killed at Mouse Town which is at the mouth of Fox's Creek just east of Elk River Shoals dated August 15, 1816.

           James Burleson and seven other white men killed two Cherokees. Hope you will cause whites to give up Negro Fox as he is considered one of our people and we wish to try him by our law.

          Signed by Goard X; Charles Melton (x) William Rains, Issac Wade, Breton Wider, Joseph Slauter, John Lambe, Nelson Bonds, Walter Eavens, Elick Melton, and William Phillips.  Notice the names of the Cherokees listed on this statement.   Lamb's Ferry was named for Cherokee John Lamb who operated the ferry on Sipsie Trail crossing the Tennessee River from Courtland to present-day Rogersville, Alabama.

          In microcopy 208, roll 7, and number 3534, is a continuation of the actions:  The Indians were killed by James Burleson, John Burleson, Robert Thrasher, Martin Tailer, Charles Tailer, John Bird, Edward Burleson, Joseph Burleson. They have left and gone to Madison County. 

          Signed: Thomas Lovell, David Danault, William Fears, Don White, Lemuel Lovell, William Cosby, Rudolph McDaniel, George Cosby, Sam Cosby, Robert W. Woods, Sam B. McClure.

           The incident was recorded on August 15, 1816, when two Cherokee Indians were killed by white people near the head of Muscle Shoals on August 12, 1816.  The settlers in the area sent the following letter from Mississippi Territory to the chiefs of the Cherokees in order for the innocent to avoid punishment.

           To any of the Chiefs or hed men of the Chirokee Nation. Wee feel it our Duty to let you know who commited that offence against your subjects so that the inesant may not suffer. The offence was committed on the twelveth Inst by these under named:  James Burleston, John Burleson, Robt. Thrasher, Martin Tailer, Charle Tailer, John Bird, Edward Burleson, and Joseph Burleson. 

These are all wee have any knowledg of they have left the settlement and gone in to Madison County where they will be delt with acording to law as soon as it can be put in force against them and as for old fox he has went of with those men that committed this offene therfore wee subscribe our names on the other side.

August the 15, 1816

Thomas Lovell, David Devault, William Fears, David White, George Cozby, Samuel Cozby, Robert W. Woods, Samuel Lovell, Samuel B. McClure, William Cozby, Randolph McDaniel

           Additional information is given in microcopy 208, roll 7, and number 3544, dated August 25, 1816, in a letter to Louis Winston.  The letter is, “requesting him (Winston) to have apprehended certain men who murdered two Cherokees.  Two Indians were killed August 12, a few miles above Melton’s at head of Shoals by white men having with them Negro Black Fox who belonged to Cherokee Nation.

         Letter from Mississippi Territory signed by:  Thomas Lovell, David Davolt, William Fears, David White, Lemuel Lovell, William Cosby, Rudolph McDaniel, George Cosby, Sam Cosby, Robert W. Woods, Sam B. McClure informing me that James Burleson, John Burleson, Robert Thrasher, Martin Taylor, Charles Taylor, John Bird, Edward Burleson, and Joseph Burleson were of the number who committed the deed and there were others in party whose names we do not know.  All have gone to Madison County.”

           In microcopy 208, roll 7, and number 3546, a letter from Louis Winston on August 29, 1816, concerning the Burlesons:  “All the Burlisons have absconder others in this country but not this county.”

           Negro Black Fox was probably the slave of the young Black Fox II who was thought to be the son of Chief Black Fox that died in 1811.  The criminals, James, Edward, and other Burlesons, eventually moved to Missouri and by 1820 they were back in Lawrence County, Alabama.  Later after authorities got after them again, James, Edward and other Burleson family members moved to Texas and owned a huge tract of land.  Burleson, Texas was named after James Burleson.  General Edward Burleson fought in the Revolution of Texas and wrote Moulton Democrat in 1887 mentioning Mouse Town and the last Indian fight that occurred there.

           The Gourd along with other Cherokees lived in Lawrence and Colbert Counties at least 15 years and possibly longer.  He and his family were residents along the Muscle Shoals of the Tennessee River of north Alabama.  Not much is known of Gourd's family but some historians think Gourd had at least one daughter named Susie Gourd.  Susie married John Anthony Foreman a Scots trader.  Foreman, born about 1751, was thought to have been born in Scotland with some historians claiming he was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  He married two Cherokee women with Susie Gourd being his second wife.  He and Susie had six children:  John, Sallie, Thomas, Nancy, Richard, and Catherine.


         Read more about Cherokee people in north Alabama in my soon to released book-Doublehead: Last Chickamauga Cherokee Chief.  It will probably be available by February 2012. 

Waterfalls of the Warrior Mountains

Waterfalls of the Warrior Mountains

The overlying layer of sandstone in the Warrior Mountains has given away to erosion, thus creating some 400 miles of rugged sand rock walled canyons.  Plunging into these canyons are steams and creeks creating hundreds of waterfalls.  The winter and spring seasons are the most ideal times to hike into the canyons of the Warrior Mountains to view the many spectacular waterfalls hidden deep within the forest.  Most of our waterfalls are seasonal but during rainy seasons, these waterfalls are perhaps the most exquisite waterfalls and their surrounding scenery found anywhere in the world.  

Kinlock Falls

In addition to the waterfalls, many springs with clear fresh water flowing from limestone crevasses are found throughout the Warrior Mountains.  Many of these springs erupt at the edge of the Moulton Valley where the land abruptly rises from flat land at some 650 feet in elevation to the rim of the hills at some 1,000 feet above mean sea level, thus creating the Continental Divide which separates the waters in north-south directions.  South of the rim, which creates the back bone of North Alabama, has streams of water flowing south eventually into Sipsey River, to the Black Warrior River, and then joins with the Tombigbee River onward to Mobile Bay.  On the northern slopes of the divide, all the runoff eventually flows northerly into the Tennessee River, the Ohio River, and the mighty Mississippi River.

With thousands of years of erosion caused by the runoff of many rainfalls, the valleys of Bankhead have been cut deep through the massive sandstone formations overlying thick layers of limestone.  At the edge of the limestone outcroppings are numerous caves and springs which once provided drinking water to native wildlife, Indians, and early settlers who made Bankhead their home.  Many sandstone bluff shelters are found throughout the Warrior Mountains.  The shelters and overhanging rock ledges provided many early Indian inhabitants a home and protection from the elements.  Probably the most well-known of these protective sites is the Kinlock Rock Shelter located in the southwestern corner of Lawrence County, Alabama.

Over the centuries, the sandstone layers of overlying rock in the Warrior Mountains were eroded away creating the canyons and gorges in the Bankhead National Forest.  These particular canyons are the sites of some one thousand waterfalls; thus, this area is known as the “Land of a Thousand Waterfalls.”  The majority of the falls are seasonal and are most beautiful during the winter and spring months.  Many of the deep gorges in Bankhead range from 60 to 100 feet high with the highest waterfalls some 70 to 100 feet in height.  The following is a brief listing of some of the most beautiful waterfalls in the Warrior Mountains.  Remember, thousands of waterfalls can be found all over the Warrior Mountains and provide wonderful experiences for those who explore her canyons and gorges. 

Kinlock Falls – Kinlock is probably the best known waterfall or cascading waterfall in Bankhead.  Water flows over Kinlock for the entire year, but the many winter rains determine the waterfall’s ultimate crescendo during the spring, thus creating a white cascade on a canvas of green leaves.  Kinlock Falls is located on Hubbard Creek.  To locate the falls, go north at the west end of the Cranal Road. Prior to reaching the Hubbard Creek Bridge, the falls can be discovered some 20 yards to the right of the road.

South Caney Creek Falls –The two beautiful Caney Falls are the most spectacular in the forest with each having a vertical drop of some 30 feet into a huge pool of turquoise water.  These are two of the largest waterfalls in the forest when comparing greatest volume of water.   After crossing Sipsey River going south, you must turn west off Highway 33 onto Highway 2.  Travel west on Highway 2 for 3.8 miles to a USFS road.  There is a steel closure on the right and/or north of the road.  It is approximately one miles out the FS road to the upper falls.  Go downstream less than a mile to the lower falls which is my favorite.

Turkey Foot Creek Falls – Two beautiful waterfalls are located in close proximity to each other on Turkey Foot Creek.  At the Sipsey River Recreation Area on the Cranal Road, travel west along Turkey Foot Creek which enters Sipsey River a few feet of the north side of the west bridge abutment.  As you walk up the creek, look at the Indian mortar and shelter under the north bluff.  Within a half-mile west up Turkey Foot Creek from the Sipsey River Bridge, you will see the first beautiful waterfall.

Collier Creek Falls – Collier Falls are located just east of the Grayson Sawmill lumber yard.  The waterfall was the site of a large gristmill.  Two huge stone columns approximately 20 feet high held the waterwheel and are still presently intact.  From the Grayson lumber yard, travel east about three-fourths of a mile and follow the hollow to the beautiful falls that plunge into a narrow box canyon.

Sow Creek Falls – Sow Creek flows off a rock shelter that completely circles the waterfall.  You can stand in the shelter 20 feet behind the waterfall.  The fall drops vertically approximately 40 feet into a beautiful pool of water.  This waterfall is approximately two miles upstream from Brushy Creek Bridge located on Hickory Grove Road.  The creek flows in from the west, thus falls are about 300 yards from Brushy Creek.  Drive toward Moreland from Brushy Creek Bridge approximately one and a half miles and turn north on the gravel log road.  Finally, one must walk north and travel into the hollow which will also lead to the falls.

Hurricane Creek Falls -- Hurricane Creek starts at the junction of Highway 33 and Forest Service Road 238 just prior to reaching the Hurricane Creek Shooting Range.  It is a great five mile hike down the creek to the large waterfall just prior to the creek running into Sipsey River.  Hurricane Creek has several smaller falls prior to reaching the last and largest waterfall on the creek which drops some 45 feet vertically.  This is one of the most beautiful waterfall in the mountains when the water level is high.

Holmes Chapel Falls – The falls are located about one-fourth mile west of Rush Creek Bridge on the Mt. Olive Road.  There are two routes leading to the falls.  One route is the branch that leads to the falls enters Rush Creek on the southwest side of the bridge.  Another route entails traveling one-fourth mile west of the bridge and stop at the first log road to the southwest.  The falls are located about 200 yards south of the Mt. Olive Road.

Parker Falls – Parker Falls are located in a beautiful canyon through which the Parker Branch flows.  The falls, which are stair steps, are absolutely beautiful.  Parker Falls are in the Sipsey Wilderness near the point where the Winston and Lawrence County lines cross Parker Branch.  The upstream portion of Parker Canyon is rugged, but below the falls lies one of the most spectacular old growth found anywhere in Bankhead.

Indian Tomb Hollow Falls – Three beautiful, but small waterfalls, are located in the southwestern end of Indian Tomb Hollow.  These falls are seasonal but are worth the two mile hike up the canyon. 

Quillan Creek Cascades – Quillan Creek flows through a rugged, extremely narrow canyon which has high vertical sandstone walls covered with eastern hemlock trees.  One could easily throw a rock from one side of the canyon to the other.  Near the middle of Quillian Creek Canyon are a beautiful set of cascades flowing through solid sandstone troughs.  On the upstream side of the cascades is an Indian rock shelter.

Conclusion

The above mentioned waterfalls are only a small fraction of the falls within the canyons of Bankhead National Forest.  Hundreds of small waterfalls plunge to the canyon floors, some ranging as high as 100 feet.  During the wet season which usually occurs during winter and early spring, you need explore many of the waterfalls crashing into the canyons of the Warrior Mountains.  These falls can bring peace, beauty, and serenity to the few who behold the eloquence of the “Land of a Thousand Waterfalls”.

Celtic Indian Intermarriage

Celtic Indian Intermarriage

            Celtic people tried to escape their indentured servitude in the colonies by initially becoming traders of the English.  These Celtic people moved as traders bringing goods from the colonies into and over the Appalachians.  These traders began to intermarry and settle in the Indian nations of the Cherokees, Chickasaws, and Creeks from east Tennessee, northwest Georgia, and northern Alabama.  Through the contacts of these traders, interracial families became a natural process of blending with the native people.

Cherokee Chief John Ross-Celtic Indian

            In the Creek, Chickasaw, and Cherokee societies of north Alabama, interracial marriages of Celtic men and Indian women were commonly acceptable.  By 1800, this was evidenced in tribal leadership of the Cherokee, Chickasaw, and Creek being controlled by Celtic-Indian mixed blood chiefs.  Cherokee Chiefs John Watts, Jr. and John Ross were Celtic and Cherokee.  Chickasaw Chiefs George (Tootemastubbe) Colbert and his brother Levi (Itawamba Mingo) Colbert were Celtic and Chickasaw. Creek Chiefs Alexander McGillivary and William (Red Eagle) Weatherford were Celtic and Creek; therefore, our Alabama Indian societies accepted and many times promoted interracial marriages due to the advantages which were reaped in trade and treaty negotiations.

            Many Celtic indentured servants became traders for the English, carrying British goods from Olde Charles Town throughout the north Alabama area to the Cherokee towns along the Tennessee River and the Chickasaw towns on the upper Chattawatchee (Tombigbee) River.  By the early 1700s, the British had an alliance with the Chickasaws and Cherokees. As the Appalachian Mountain portion of the Southeastern United States became inhabited with Celtic people, intermarriage, many times with multiple Indian women, became common instead of the exception. Many Celtic traders were seeking the companionship of beautiful Indian women as wives and many times would marry these Indian maidens at a very young age.

            One of the better-known Celtic (Scots) persons was James Logan Colbert, who came to the Chickasaw Nation with a large pack train at a young age. Colbert rode with several other pack horsemen through North Alabama, conducting trade with the Cherokees and Chickasaws. “James Logan Colbert...sought refuge among the Chickasaws. He eventually became an influential member of the tribe, proving to be a brave leader in their wars...James Colbert married three Chickasaw women. Two of his wives were pure Chickasaw and the third was a half-breed. His first wife gave him a daughter, Mollie. He fathered five sons by his second wife: William, George, Levi, Samuel and Joseph. James Colbert’s third wife bore him another son, James, and another daughter, Betsy. His sons became legends among the Chickasaws. Their father had tried to live in the ways of the Indians. The sons attempted to copy the life of the white man. George, Levi, and James lived at various times in Mississippi and Alabama. All the brothers seem to have had more than one wife; their daughters and granddaughters were of such outstanding beauty that they wove interesting chapters of romance along the Natchez Trace...The Colbert brothers were patriots, and at least two of them served in the American Army as scouts, guides and leaders of Indian detachments. William was with General Andrew Jackson in his campaign against the Creeks in South Alabama. One source shows George Colbert participating in the American Revolution under Washington. His military record reveals that he fought under St. Clair in 1791, and under ‘Mad’ Anthony Wayne in 1794. He led an expedition against the Creeks in March, 1814, and served as a Captain in the U. S. Army under General Andrew Jackson from November 1, 1814 to February 28, 1815.

            Levi, known as ‘the Incorruptible,’ became the most famous of the Colberts. Itawamba Mingo, as Levi was called by the Indians, was living near his brother George’s ferry in 1805. Later in 1812, he opened his own inn, know as a ‘stand,’ on the Natchez Trace at Buzzard Roost Creek near the Bear Creek Ford in what would become Colbert County in Alabama. In 1817 he moved to the Monroe County, Mississippi area. This was after he deeded his Buzzard Roost Inn to a daughter. She had greatly pleased her father by marrying Kilpatrick Carter, an early white settler.

            In the Spring of 1834, Chief Levi Colbert set out for Washington on urgent matters pertaining to the negotiations for removal of the Chickasaw Nation. This would eventually send them to Oklahoma. Along the way he stopped at Buzzard Roost where he became sick and died. It is not known whether they returned his body to his home at Cotton Gin Port, Mississippi, or if they laid the old chief to rest in the red soil of a county that would one day bear his name.

            James, the youngest of the Colbert brothers, became a leader of great affluence among his people. His properties included a 500-acre plantation worked by over 100 slaves. He used his wealth to help pay the expenses of 50 Chickasaw families when they were forced to move to the Oklahoma Territory in 1837.

            George Colbert, the ferryman, was called “Tootemastubbe” by the Indians. Historians have credited him as being one of two or three who guided the destiny of the Chickasaw during a critical period of their history. He was born in 1744 near the Tennessee River in what would become North Mississippi. In most of the treaties with the white man George served as chief negotiator. History records that he was quite shrewd in this role. He served as Chief of the Chickasaws for about twelve years” (McDonald,  1989).  George Colbert married two of Doublehead's daughter's.  Today, descendants of this powerful Celtic-Indian family still live in north Alabama.

            Not only was Chickasaw society impacted by Celtic intermarriage but also Cherokee lifestyles were rapidly changing because of the influx of Celtic blood.  John McDonald from Scotland became a trader and an agent for the British during the Chickamauga War.  John settled close to present-day Chattanooga, Tennessee near the mouth of Chickamauga Creek and married Ann Shorey, the half blood Cherokee daughter of William Shorey.  John's mother was Barbara Ross and may have been the reason John bought the freedom of Daniel Ross, a captive of Bloody Fellow.  Daniel Ross became a partner of John McDonald and married John's daughter Mollie in 1786.  The McDonald and Ross families were forced to move because of the war that was occurring with the Americans to Turkey Town near present-day Center, Alabama where John Ross was born in 1790.  Even though John Ross was only one eighth Cherokee, he was a Celtic Indian that served as chief of the Cherokee Nation for some 40 years.

            Doublehead’s older sister married John Watts who was Scotch. From this marriage came two notable mixed ancestry Celtic Cherokee people. As stated earlier, their son John Watts, Jr. became chief of the Cherokee Nation. Also their daughter Wurteh Watts married trader John Benge, who was Scotch, and Nathaniel Gist. In 1776, George Gist or Sequoyah was born from the marriage of Wurteh Watts and Nathaniel Gist. Wurteh became the mother of one of the most famous Indian people in the United States — Sequoyah.

            John Benge and Wurteh Watts had three sons — Robert Benge, Talohuskee Benge, and Utana Benge. Robert Benge was known as The Benge, The Bench, Bob Benge, Captain Benge, and Colonel Benge. Bob Benge rode with his great uncle Doublehead and became one of the most feared Cherokee warriors of the Appalachian frontier. Bob Benge was red headed, blue-eyed, fair complected, spoke perfect English, and was lethal as a rattlesnake toward his enemies. Talohuskee (Tahluntuskee) Benge signed the 1806 Cotton Gin Treaty with Doublehead and feared assassination that his uncle Doublehead received. In the summer of 1808 by agreement with President Thomas Jefferson, the Cherokees loyal to Doublehead were given land west of the Mississippi River.  In 1809, Taluntuskee Benge and some 1130 Cherokee left north Alabama for lands west of the Mississippi. This group of Indians became known as the “Cherokees West” or “Old Settlers.” 

            

            Many North Alabama Indian people have mixed ancestry of Celtic and Indian blood lines and are members of the Echota Cherokee Tribe of Alabama. Many of these people do not have the features which meet the expectations of what an “Indian” looks like, but since our Indian people are of mixed Celtic origin, they are not supposed to look like full bloods; however, we have a unique culture here in the Southeast like no other in the world; therefore, we encourage our mixed-blood Indian people to be proud of their heritage no matter what they look like. Probably Mr. John Knox summed up the situation in 1964 as well as anyone. “ A few days ago we were asked, what do you make of all these red-headed, blue-eyed Cherokee Indians you hear about? We gave the usual easy answer: that traders were in the Alabama wilds long before the settlers came. Many became ‘Countrymen,’ married Indian squaws, joined the tribes. Many — if not most of these — were Scots or kindred Gaels.”

            Not all mixed ancestry Indian people had an easy life. Even though intermarriages of our local people basically improved lifestyle, it also created dilemmas and problems in Cherokee society. According to The Dividing Paths by Tom Hatley, “...it is not surprising that at least some village women chose to enter into sexual liaisons and even marriages with colonial traders....In the Cherokee towns as late as the mid-point of the eighteenth century, indigenous women continued to choose to live with colonial traders. However, a gradual change had taken place in the some villages which had witnessed the first interaction between Cherokees and colonists. The slow learning about Euroamerican society — and vice versa — which had brought a degree of alienation in diplomacy and even in trading was also reflected in the politics of gender relationships. Intimate interaction resulted in a rejection by some indigenous women, not of colonial men as individuals, but of colonial expectations of behavior...The intermarriage of Cherokee women and colonial men posed an immediate challenge to these limits. The paradox posed for Cherokee society at large did not stem from these interactions themselves. Traditional lines of authority and governance, except in the most stressful times, were strong enough to have resisted the potential for disintegration growing from relationships between tribal women and colonial men. The real difficulty faced in the villages was due to the children born to bicultural marriages. The conventional solution was consistent with matriarchal kinship: ‘when they part,’ Henry Timberlake observed, ‘the children go with, and are provided for, by the mother.’

            Some children slipped out of the hold of Cherokee mothers...Male children are retrospectively more visible because at least some seem to have followed their fathers into the leather trade — or their mother’s side into warriorhood. The timing of the 1731 Carolina trade statute, which banned tribal or metis participation in colonial commerce, may have reflected the coming of age of a generation of metis youth, and white anxieties about their increasingly high profile in the trade. More direct confirmation of the presence of such children, and their integration into the economic world of their colonial fathers...however, the rules of racial ranking developing in the colonies kept metis individuals on the margin, confined to trading communities far removed from polite towns such as Charlestown, literally middlemen between the world of their mothers and that of their fathers.

            Racial gradations prevalent in colonial society, such as ‘mustee’ and ‘mulatto,’ either did not exist or were subdued among the Cherokees. The most important and lasting distinction was not whether men or women were white or black, but whether they counted themselves Cherokee or not...Cherokee women, however, continued to keep open the door which, in times of war, the warriors wished to slam shut. At least through most of the century, colonists taken captive often had the chance to become Cherokee....but it was not captives or visitors — outsiders to the tribe — who felt the tension of ethnic identity most directly. Instead it was metis children born within Cherokee villages. As the first generation of these children became adults, the middle ground confidently crossed in the first decades of the century by their parents had become a kind of quicksand.

            These abstractions became intensely sharp by the middle decades of the century for young male Cherokee mixed-bloods who had grown up confident in their mothers’ lineages....they aspired to full rights in warriorhood but found obstacles in their way. As raiding became more focused on white settlements rather than on other tribes, metis children confronted profound questions of cultural and personal allegiance. For some mixed—blood men, the tensions of proving their Cherokee allegiance were shown in harsh, hostile acts of cultural disavowal.

            Under growing white-red confrontation, psychological stress could also push Cherokee metis (and their mothers) toward loyalty to the English. Thus “Indian wenches, half-breeds and others” became a familiar line-up of informants to backcountry officials. Though some mixed-blood males appeared as mediators in times of conflict, women much more often played that role, sometimes acting in concert with “war women.” “Half-breeds” caught in the middle were vulnerable, and, like women, were often singled out as victims of violence. Confusion about the victim’s ethnic identity was a common excuse given by Cherokee warriors when non-combatants and allies were killed in war” (Hatley, 1995).

            Regardless of biracial problems seen during the early 1800s with mixed blood Celtic Indian people, they were able to advance to the highest positions in local Indian societies; however, with passage of the Indian Removal Act in 1830, many of our mixed blood Indian people had to make heartbreaking decisions in order to stay in the land they loved, walk the paths of their ancestors, and seek the freedom from bloodshed, violence, and war.

          The primary trade routes traveled by Celtic traders working for the British and later the American government were Indian trails that were also used during removal. These primitive trails meandered across northern Alabama and became major migration routes of the Celtic-Indian families as they travelled into the Warrior Mountains of this area. They brought their agrarian lifestyle into this hill country of the southern Appalachian Mountains that was already home to many mixed bloods. In the Warrior Mountains, they continued to intermarry and raise families of mixed ancestry. At last, Celtic people thought they had found among the Indian nations the freedom they had sought over two continents and two thousand years; but, bloodshed would come again and again. The Celtic-Indian families would again be dominated and driven from their homes. Many of the families of mixed ancestry would trudge further west during the Indian removal of the early 1800s, still hoping for their freedom; but many would remain in their Appalachian homes of the Warrior Mountains, refusing to leave. The mixed families who chose to remain were forced into some 150 years of denial of their true heritage, with many claiming to be Black Dutch or Black Irish. They hid in the coves, hollows, and distant creek bottoms of North Alabama’s Warrior Mountains and eked out survival in the isolation of the hills as their ancestors had done in the Appalachians and highlands of Scotland and Ireland.

            Fearing not only for their personal property but also their lives, the remaining Indian people in much of the Southeast denied their Indian race, held to white man’s ways and religion, and almost lost their Indian and Celtic cultural heritage. As children of mixed ancestry grew older, they were told of their Indian ancestors, but were not allowed to claim their rightful heritage. Since Indian removal, the degree of Indian blood in Southeastern people has steadily diminished and will continue to do so throughout future generations.

            With the passage of Sections 2 through 7 of the Civil Rights Act of 1968, it became legal to be Indian and live in Alabama. Many Indian descendants of mixed Celtic ancestry began to seek and reclaim their Indian heritage, but for many it was too late. In 1972, the Indian Education Act passed, allowing tribes across the United States to teach their cultural traditions. On March 16, 1980, the Echota Cherokee Tribe was officially organized. During 1980s, several north Alabama school systems initiated Indian education programs funded by the United States Department of Education, Office of Indian Education.  Finally we, as mixed ancestry Celtic-Indian people in the Warrior Mountains are still trying to overcome the dual loss of the identity in two ancient societies and assimilate ourselves within a relatively new and unique cultural environment as true American citizens of Indian and Celtic blood.