Genealogy family lore. Every family has a story they’ve heard that was passed down from someone at sometime though the family. These stories get passed down, passed around and every time they do, some nuance gets changed. The memories fade of the “details” and of course there is always some embellishment. Here is the story that was passed down to me by my grandmother and I believed it my whole life only to find out there wasn’t one bit true about it BUT because of research I think I found the source of where it started. Not by whom as that is impossible at this point but how.
I was perhaps 13 or 14 when my grandmother gave me this book, Sacajawea by Anna Lee Waldo. It’s 1342 pages are obviously well worn. My grandmother, mother and I all dutifully read it. I read it cover to cover and you see it is still in my possession. It’s a remarkable story of a remarkable woman. So, why did she give me this book? The story was that my grandmother’s grandmother was an Indian princess and from the Shoshone tribe and we were related to her. That made me 1/16th Shoshone. I will tell you that I wore that badge with absolute honor. She was was history. We were now “bigger” than our simple German roots. We were true Americans.
What do you mean I’m not Shoshone?
Yes, it was total BS. It was our version of a story, that probably millions of people have been told a different version over the decades at this point. I’m guessing a few of those people, like me, got a DNA test done at some point and thought “but where is my Native DNA?”. I was truly bothered by this and so disappointed. I was proud of this history. The truth was it was all just BS. Complete BS and the more often told story is that it was a Cherokee princess and not Shoshone. That was my family version.
Why is this story told and by so many? There are many reasons I’m sure and this article by an actual Cherokee, Orrin Lewis, gives a nice synapsis of possibilities. I’ll never know why or who started this story in my ancestry but I think I found the source that may have started it. Then like the “telephone game” played as a kid, it became what it was when it got me. I’ll tell you the truth is a lot more interesting and fascinating than the mythical story.
My genealogy family lore, I believe, started with my 2nd great uncle David William Weeden and his wife. He was born September 4th, 1847 in Brighton, Ohio. He married Delia Lucinda Moss, born January 28th, 1854 in 1871 per her obituary. I believe Delia was the original “Indian princess” and the reason was financial. Actually, land ownership to be precise.
Not Choctaw, not Chickasaw and definitely not Shoshone
I first find Delia with her parents in an 1870 Illinois census and she is listed as white. She is listed again in the 1880 census as white and living with David in Kansas. Then comes the 1900 census. There are lies and then there are real doozies of lies. This one is off the charts and let me just say there is no Indian princess, no Shoshone and not a bit of truth in the lore that was passed down to me.
The 1900 census has David and Delia living in Chickasaw Nation, Indian Territory with their ten children. They are all listed as Indian with David and he with two of the children born in Chickasaw territory. Delia is truthfully listed as born in Illinois and her father honestly born in New Jersey. David? Well, he says his parents were born in Mississippi. They were both born in New York.
Then comes the 1910 census. Everyone is again being honest. So, why?
This information and Choctaw records lead me to believe that they were trying to get free land and probably some cash. This then became I descended from Sacajawea and an Indian princess 100 years later. The truth is seriously better than the fiction! Now, I think it reprehensible that they were trying to steal what was not theirs and the good news is they were busted.
So, there is my genealogy family lore debunked. David lied on the 1900 census. He lied on the 1902 application to the Five Civilized Tribes to being 3/16th Choctaw. He got a “cousin” and others to lie in sworn testimony that he was Choctaw and he fabricated lies for years only to finally be completely rejected.
