hey there...I am a direct descendant of Elizabeth
Edgell, who I was told (by the record of her obituary written by her husband--a
Forrester) that she was an Indian (another cousin just wrote to me in an email with copy of the obituary)--yet I am having trouble finding out which "tribe" she was from ( I have been told I am part Cherokee, all my life--but I DID find
Owens ancestors on the
Dawes Rolls as Cherokee and Choctaw)~~yet the obit reads "Chichapoo"??? there was no Chichapoo, but the closest I can come to is Kickapoo, which makes no sense to me--they appear to have been VERY resistant to assimilation plus they are from Mexico, and west from here, as well as the Kispoko
Shawnee (
Ohio?), I think--and they (
Shawnee) were all over this area (I am in
West Virginia) in the time-frame I am looking at. I am also told (by more than one person, now) that she was the GRANDDAUGHTER of Mary Ice (an adopted white, in one account, of
German and or
Irish descent) & Pucksinekau (Shawnee--and parents of Tecumseh and seven other children )and in another they say she was Cherokee?? I also read that Tecumseh could pass as white & dress accordingly and walked among the whites, because there are no known real pictures of him , but they( paintings of Tecumseh) were done of another relative that looked NOTHING like Tecumseh--and that Tecumseh himself was part white!!?? (would make sense, if his mother ..Mary Ice, was white, eh?)
All I know is Elizabeth was born June 1838 (time of removal of the Cherokee--Trail where They Cried) yet I did not find Elizabeth on any
Dawes Rolls.
Many of my ancestors seem to have not moved far, from the
Ohio,
Pennsylvania, and West Virginia/
Virginia territories...most of my immediate (yet also distant) relatives appear to have not left here, either...yet I read
West Virginia was mostly a "hunting ground" area (owed to the terrain) for the Iroquios (sp) Cherokee, and other tribes?? I read one story that Tecumseh was born here in
West Virginia area, another he was born in southern Ohio...also, did he have more than one wife?? how many children did he have (I could only find one, who died in 1840).
I think Kispoko
Shawnee makes more sense to me, than Kickapoo, anyhow, because of the geographic location...I am also confused about all the "Cherokee", because they resided mostly in the south, and along the mountains, I think..:(
Indian words and names got so skewed up it looks like..AAARGH!!