Afternoon DOug:

It's been a long time since we communicated. I hope that what I say here will help you out somewhat. The "M" Mullato was used by the census takers and the tax collects instead of and "I"" for Indian becuse Indians weren't a taxable entity but an "M" on the sheets allowed them to tax the property. Slowly, the Native Americans were slipped into the "W" White world and again there were reasons for that. At one point lands were taken away because the were Indians so in order to control the keeping of the land and in order to vote as well as other things, the "I" & "M" slowly became "W" - it was a survival life - and in order to survive, many Native American abandoned their Native Lives for the White world - that's why Native AMerican reserch is so difficult to do

Misty