Native American question

Factual Questions
1

I’ve asked this on genealogy boards, but I don’t think I’ve asked it here or I’d have the answer by now :wink:

According to our family records, my great grandmother, Julia Vera Childs, was 1/2 Chautauqua Indian. I’ve searched all over the internet, though, and I can’t find anything about a tribe called “Chautauqua.”

Also, I don’t know what half is supposed to be Indian. Her mother’s name was Betsey Haskins, her father was Alexander Child. I’ve been in touch with other Haskins and Child(s) from these families and they disavow any knowledge of Indian blood in the lines.

I did find an old pedigree chart that didn’t identify Betsey by name; instead it just described her as “an Indian maid from New York.”

Anyway, this is what I know:

Samuel CHILD, Jr., born 1/Nov/1762, Weston, Mass., married Abigail SHEPPARD on 8/Aug/1784. Abigail was b. 1766, Weston, Middlesex, Mass. They had Alexander Child who was born 22/Feb/1785, Weston, Middlesex, Mass.; died 4/Aug/1863, Menasha, Winnebago, Wisconsin

Alexander CHILD married Betsey HASKINS, 1813, New Haven, VT. They had Julia Vera CHILDS, born 1/May/1834, Barr, Orleans, NY; d. 7/Jan/1929, Tillamook, Tillamook Co., OR.

Betsey’s father was Seth HASKINS, born Abt 1772, Great Barrington, Berkshire, MA; d. 15/Sep/1819, Corinth, Saratoga, NY. Seth married Lucy LITCHFIELD, b. Abt. 1776.

The rest of the info I have on these families is on my Hodgdon Genealogy Page.

So, is there a tribe called “Chautauqua”? I note that a few Haskins died in Chautauqua, NY. Could they have meant she was a Chautauqua Indian the same way I’m a Salem girl (meaning I just live in the area, it’s not a part of my heritage or cultural identity)? And what about these names and places? I imagine these people looking more like Pilgrims than Native Americans.

Could the whole story just be the family equivalent of an urban legend?

(For a very bad picture, see my
John and Julia (Childs) Hodgdon photo. If you squint and cock your head slightly to the left, she looks Native American.)

Gr8 “I’m just a mutt” Kat

“I hope life isn’t a big joke, because I don’t get it,” Jack Handy

Are we kin? Visit me at The Kat House and find out!
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2

For all its worth, there is a Chautauqua Bl. in Pacific Palisades, a suburb of Los Angeles. You might want to check around LA for tribe names - all that I can remember of LA area tribes are the Tujunga, Chumash and Cahuenga…but Chautauqua certainly isn’t out of the question.

3

According to the EB, Chautauqua County NY is named for a Seneca word for “taking fish.” The Seneca are, I believe, a subset of the Erie Nation of the Iroquois confederacy. The only examples of the word Chautauqua are regional names associated with the far western end of New York (where the Iroquois/Erie/Seneca lived). I suppose the name could have been of a Seneca clan or it could have been attributed by whites to people in the finger lakes region where the name is used for a county, a town, and a lake.

Tom~

4

hey 'kat…do not know much about the Chautauqua people, but I visited your geneology pages and noticed the Bell,Mullins and Bell lines, all of which are known Melungeon surnames here in the South east US

5

…sorry, that was to have read "Bell, Mullins and West.

6

Do you think that through the years someone started misspelling Choctaw? That’s a fairly large tribe and unlike Chautauqua, the Choctaw have the advantage of existing.

7

Or an alternative is that you had relatives who were really into the Chautauqua social movement?

8

The League of the Iroquois was composed of 5 nations, later 6 (Cayuga, Onondaga, Seneca, Mohawk, Oneida, and later Tuscarora). The Erie nation was related to the 6 mentioned but never belonged to the League. The League virtually wiped out the Erie nation in colonial times (1650s). A similar fate befell the related Huron nation.

9

bibliophage, you are, of course, correct that the Erie nation was not part of the Iroquois Confederacy. I was confusing the place of the Erie people who were swallowed by the Iroquois after their defeat with the nation that they had maintained prior to their defeat.

Tom~

10

Wow, write, that’s neat :slight_smile:

I looked up Melungeon and found Melungeon Heritage Page. It also lists Wise as being a common Melungeon or Melungeon related name.

My Grandma Zimmerman (nee Mullins) was born in Oklahoma; her ancestors were from North and South Carolina and Georgia. I’ve always been told she was part Cherokee, but I’ve never been able to prove that, either. At least the Cherokee, as BobT said about that Choctaw, have the advantage of existing :wink: But this Chautauqua conundrum has confounded the family for generations.

BobT, you have a very good point about the possible misspelling. However, since so many of the Haskins kin seemed to have chosen Chautauqua Co., NY, as the place to die, I’m really leaning towards the probability that that was where she was from, not who she was.

Maybe I should start writing back east for copies of censuses to see what the heck they put down under race? (Ah ha! See? Those questions are useful to future generations who are trying to seek out their cultural heritage and understand family history!)

Gr8Mutt :slight_smile:

“I hope life isn’t a big joke, because I don’t get it,” Jack Handy

Are we kin? Visit me at The Kat House and find out!
Join the FSH Muscular Dystrophy Webring

11

Gr8Kat, if you haven’t already done so, you may want to check the Chautaugua County Gen-Web at http://www.rootsweb.com/~nychauta/INDEX.HTM

12

In many cases, particularly with Atlantic tribes, particular bands and concentrations of Indians were referred to by their locations. So you wind up with the Gay Head (Wampanoags), the St. Regis (Mohawks), the Montville (Mohegans). My first guess is that the Chatauqua were a subset of the Senecas, who remain in a wide area of western New York.

There are five federal Indian reservations in Western New York: Tuscarora, Tonawanda, Cattaraugus, Oil Springs, and Allegany, three of which are at least partly Seneca. This page seems to be fairly up to date, with ways to contact the various nations within New York:
http://hawk.hama-med.ac.jp/dbk/iroquois.html

Chataqua appears to be roughly forty miles from both the Allegany and Cattaraugus reservations. You may also want to consider looking into the Tonawandas of Ohio, who do not have federally recognized reservation but are Seneca and are near Akron.