Historical Scholarship: On Genealogy...

 Genealogical History 

Abstract

This blog investigates the crossroads of African American and Native American histories through the lens of personal genealogical research. The author reflects on their own complex ethnic makeup, tracing their ancestry to different regions and surveying the migration patterns of their lineage, principally the impact of the Tulsa Massacre on their paternal ancestry. With an emphasis on Native American and African American experiences, the blog probes into the intersectionality of these ethnic groups, including the roles of Indigenous peoples in African American societies postbellum, the difficulty of tracing lost family records, and the larger socio-economic factors swaying cultural identity. Through a list of research questions, the author studies how historical events and ethnic merging have shaped their personal journey to realize the roles of Protestant Christianity, economic progress, and the legacy of slavery with Indigenous nations.

Discussion

Curiosity about family genealogy has helped to fuel my passion for history. As an African American woman with a complex ethnic background, I have always been aware of certain facets of my family history. However, there are aspects of my families’ histories that are still very unclear. Both of my parents are native to Houston, as am I. But both had parents who migrated to this area from neighboring states. My maternal grandfather moved to Houston from small town francophone Louisiana as a child with his family, having to perfect his English as it was mixed with his French creole accent. Her mother was a second-generation Texan. The paternal grandparents were from Central Louisiana and Muscogee, Oklahoma, dad’s dad fleeing to Houston with his father, whose name appears on the Choctaw Dawes Roll, after the Tulsa Massacre. His dad’s mother has never been located. It contributes to my curiosity of Native American history and the intersectionality between Indigenous people and African Americans.

Many of the sources that were located for research projects during this course were related to Native Studies, including Natives and Christianity, Roles of Indigenous Women, and the impact of dispossession on Native communities. Some of the more personal research that has been compiled relates to the disappearance of my great grandmother and the social climate of Tulsa leading up to the tragic event. Requests from the Tulsa Library Archives have provided some primary source information, as well as newspaper clippings on the event. However, it has not provided details on residents and their statuses following this occurrence. Additionally, much of the city was destroyed, including businesses and institutions storing detailed records. Census records provide information such as addresses and occupations, but the information provides few leads for this project due to the level of destruction and subsequent restoration of Tulsa. There are some research questions that are guiding this examination, although the sources have not been easy to locate. These questions may help to explain why a man with ¾ Choctaw ancestry would have been affected by the Tulsa massacre.

 A few of the research questions are:

·         How did a Choctaw man and his wife become residents Tulsa’s “Black Wallstreet”?

·         How did the lack of universities in Indigenous territories contribute to Native Americans attending African American colleges from the mid to late 19^th century?

·         How did assuming an African American identity or utilizing these spaces benefit Indigenous people and Afro Indigenous/Freedmen in postbellum America?

·         Was this ethnic mixture and intersection of African and Indigenous present in other Black hamlets in America after the civil war?

·         How did it contribute to the uprising of the massacre, the severity of the atrocity, and the lack of management and identification of victims in the aftermath? 

This is a curiosity that may not ever be satisfied. However, in the search for the details regarding the disappearance of my great grandmother, I am being led to research other aspects of the history of Native Americans, African Americans, and the intersectionality of these two groups, as well as how this subject relates to other cultural facets of our society. Research on the role of Protestant Christianity in uplifting, supporting, and resourcing these communities after displacement and the resulting benefits would contain data able to lend insight into this concept. Also, a comparative analysis on the economic progress of both groups could explain the reason an Indigenous person would assume an African American identity in postbellum America. Lastly, an analysis of comparisons could consider the practices of slavery by the Five Civilized Tribes with other First Nations, their levels of inclusivity and amalgamation with their slaves, and their tendencies toward the descendants of their freedmen.

 

Sources

Littlefield, Daniel F. “Black Africans and Native Americans: Color, Race and Caste in the Evolution of Red-Black Peoples.” Journal of American History, Volume 77, Issue 1. June 1990. Pages 276–277, https://doi.org/10.2307/2078670.

Mulroy, Kevin. “Contested Territory: Whites, Native Americans, and African Americans in Oklahoma, 1865– 1907”. Journal of American History, Volume 88, Issue 4, March 2002, Pages 1547–1548, https://doi.org/10.2307/2700676

Powell, Timothy B. “American Lazarus: Religion and the Rise of African American and Native American Literatures.” Joanna Brooks. Oxford University Press, 2003. Journal of American History, Volume 91, Issue. December 2004. Pages 998–999. https://doi.org/10.2307/3662887.

Smithers, Gregory D. “That the Blood Stay Pure: African Americans, Native Americans, and the Predicament of Race and Identity in Virginia.” Journal of American History, Volume 103, Issue 3. December 2016. Pages 742–743. https://doi.org/10.1093/jahist/jaw364.

Vučković, Myriam. “The Quest for Citizenship: African American and Native American Education in Kansas, 1880–1935”, Journal of American History, Volume 98, Issue 2, September 2011. Page 556. https://doi.org/10.1093/jahist/jar261.