QUEEN OF EXTRANEOUS INFORMTION

QUEEN OF EXTRANEOUS INFORMTION
Ann in KISMET, Tulane Summer Lyric Theatre, 1982

Thursday, June 14, 2012

My Native American Heritage Redux

   In light of the current Massachusetts senatorial candidate who has been questioned as to her use of "reported" Native American family ties, I am re-posting my blog of  Friday, May 6, 2011.

MY NATIVE AMERICAN HERITAGE

For most of my life, I have heard the stories that through the Bryant Line of my heritage, I had a great, great, great grandmother who was "an Indian Princess." Notice I write "Indian Princess" and not "Indian Squaw" or "Average Indian Tribal Citizen." If there is one thing I have learned through doing genealogical research, it is that hardly anybody is ever related to anybody "average." We all seem to have been descended from lords and ladies and even kings and queens. And this is most certainly the case in the Leigh Line of my heritage . . . is the King of Scotland of 1005 royal enough? Well, back to the Bryants. For most of my life, I would point to my high cheekbones and say with confidence, " It seems that my great great great Bryant grandfather married an Indian Princess." In retrospect, I think I got a good deal of social mileage out of that information, if not the financial opportunity to the largesse of legalized gambling, and I NEVER would have sought special treatment in trying to earn my place in the schools and work places of America based solely on family lore!

Well, as I really got into the research of the Bryant side of my family, I learned the truth. My cheekbones must have looked high due to my fluctuating weight. . . So far, NO Native Americans in my Bryant background. As the newscaster Paul Harvey used to say, "And here is the rest of the story."

In 1830, the U.S. entered into a treaty with the Choctaw Nation, trading 11 million acres (in now Mississippi) for 15 million acres of Indian lands (in what is now Oklahoma). This treaty, which became known as The Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek, opened up the Territory of Mississippi to hundreds of white settlers, many from Virginia and the Carolinas. Both sides of my family came to Mississippi prior to and as a result of the Treaty from "The Delta" to south Mississippi and some on to Alabama and then back to Mississippi.

My ancestor, Lewis Bryant, emigrated from England to America in 1773 at the age of 22. He arrived in Virginia and eventually ended up in South Carolina. He married and had a son, John Lewis Bryant. I am still trying to find John Lewis' birthdate, but I do know he married Cynthia Peacock in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1810. He and Cynthia had several children, the youngest of whom was born in 1822.

John Lewis Bryants made the journey from South Carolina to Mississippi, escourting family members as well as others to the newly-opened territory before the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek. In 1822, John Lewis (an Indian Agent) and his family went to Covington County, MS where he obviously encountered some Indians he couldn't convince as to his peaceful nature, and he was attacked by the Indians who kicked him and "jumped on him" until he was rescued by other travelers. However, it was too late; John Lewis died of his injuries, and he was buried on the the bank of the Tallahala Creek near what is now Runnelstown, MS. Another traveler, Charles Phillips, lost his wife on the journey to S. Mississippi. He and Cynthia eventually married each other and ended up in Covington County, MS with three additional daughters of their own.

Family lore has it that Cynthia Peacock Bryant Phillips began tending to the sick and downtrodden Choctaw Indians in the Mississippi Territory. She became so well loved and well known that the Choctaws gave her a Choctaw name. Some family oral reports claim that she was even present at the signing of the Treaty of Rabbit Creek and is mentioned in the Treaty, which is part of the archives of the United States and Mississippi. So far, I have been unable to find written evidence of this latter claim.

Thus, I surmise that this is the basis of the story of our having an Indian Princess in our family. Our kinswoman, Cynthia, was made an honorary "Indian Princess." Cynthia Peacock's father, Levi Peacock, was born in the Rhine River Valley in Germany, and emigrated to South Carolina in America before American Independence. His daughter, Cynthia Serisitta Peacock, was born in Orangeburg, S.C. in 1783.

Cynthia Peacock Bryant Phillips died in 1876, and is buried in Sanford (Covington County), MS in the Jesse Bryant Cemetery. Her grave is marked. Her second husband, Charles Phillips, is buried on the banks of Covington County's Bowie Creek in an unmarked grave that " is abandoned to civilization," as a kinsman wrote. So, I guess we Bryants are not related to Native Americans. So much for Native American cheekbones. Jetzt finde ich heraus!  [Translation: Now I find out! ]

However, my mother used to tell me that my paternal grandmother, as she was dying of cancer in 1944 (before my birth), had her hair in two long braids, and her face was thin with chiseled cheeks. This grandmother was Nettie Belle Giles Bryant of Hattiesburg, MS. Mama said that with her hair in the braids and her big brown eyes, my grandmother looked just like an "Indian Princess"! Here I go again -- this time I have to look for my Native American roots in the Giles Family!!!  Still looking. 

Ann Bryant Whittemore (New Orleans, LA)
June 14, 2012













2 comments:

  1. Well, she won! Wonder how far I could have gone with my claiming to be Native American?

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  2. I enjoyed your blog. I am from Cynthia by way of Charles Phillips. I had been taught that She was widowed along the trail buried him & came on to Miss. She's my hero...But I thought she came to Miss alone w/FinL & kids in tow. Thank you for your info. Judye Bates Miles

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