Senator Scott Brown, you can help me with a problem that Ancestry.com is helpless with. This woman had a grandmother who was described in the family (by one of her sisters) as a "Chockie"--a Choctaw. This woman's father said grace before meals by reciting the Lord's Prayer in Choctaw. One of this woman's grandfathers was a volunteer in the Mexican War, a Scot-Cherokee whose height on the U S Volunteer Service discharge was six feet five inches and whose hair and eyes were black. I knew one of his sons (in 1942 and later) and can attest that he was unbelievably tall and dark, dark, Indian looking. And this woman was doubly kin to the Mexican War soldier. This woman had close ancestors, the Cokers, early settlers of Northern Arkansas (see the 1821 or so book by Schoolcraft!), and the Turnbo Papers (online) make it clear that the white Cokers were intermarrying with Cherokees there. Read the story of Uncle Joe's flight from Cherokees who objected to his marrying one too many Cherokee wives, the story of how Poor Joe Hill got its name.
Scott Brown, tell me, Oh Tell Me just what the proportion is in this woman of Cherokee to Choctaw ancestry. Without your race-detecting skill at my service, I may never know. Am I more Cherokee or Choctaw? I'm shorter than Grandpa Glenn by a couple of inches, but taller than most Choctaws I have met. Am I more Cherokee? Only you, Senator, can tell me.
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