On May 31, 2014, I made the following post on this site: All my life I've been told I have Cherokee ancestry through my Knighten forebears. There are even a few interesting legends about how John L. Knighten escaped the Removal (a decade before he was born) and of family members visiting from the Cherokee … Continue reading The Dangers of DNA Testing
Category: Cherokee
The damage of a "Trail of Fears"
In previous posts I've made mention of my purported Cherokee ancestry, so I'll not revisit those claims, but I want to focus on misguided use of term "Trail of Fears" with a recent announcement from my town as an example:Trail of Fears Haunted Hay Ride: October 26, 2012Let me caveat this by stating that I do not … Continue reading The damage of a "Trail of Fears"
The moral right to lands lost in conquest
I'll not get into an academic discussion of the issue of whether or not various Native American tribes truly own the land their ancestors once occupied. The article below more than sufficiently deals with that, but I'd like to approach it from a layman's perspective.‘Do Indians Rightfully Own America?’:By Walter OlsonBryan Caplan at Econlog revisits … Continue reading The moral right to lands lost in conquest
Cherokee Knightens – Intro
In Morgan County, Alabama legend, there exists the enigma of John L. Knighten, who some claim to be a full-blooded Cherokee who lived from 1849 to 1943. He was my great-great-great grandfather. I don't believe that the legend has been fabricated, but some of the details may have been embellished over the years. The problem … Continue reading Cherokee Knightens – Intro