Friday, April 6, 2018

Playing Indian

Many people in Appalachia claim Native American heritage.  The Lowe family of Scott County is one of these families.  Family tradition tells of their ancestor Mikel Low's family marrying into a Native American family that was present in the area.  
(Louisa Lowe Adkins, granddaughter of Mikel Low.  Family tradition states that her mother was a full blooded Cherokee Indian.)

Are these claims true?  Jehu Phillips, who was born between 1818 and 1825, was interviewed by a newspaper in Scott County in 1904 and told of what pioneer life was like in the area.  While he remembered Native Americans living in the area, and knew Mikel Low personally, he never draws a connection between the Lowe family and their supposed "relations" to the Native Americans in the area.  
(Jehu Phillips, a Civil War soldier, was interviewed about the pioneer life he lived growing up.  He mentions knowing the Native Americans who lived in the area yet does not mention intermarriage with whites.)
  
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3 comments:

  1. ONovember 18, 2018 at 7:26 PM

    I have an ancestor who was supposed to be a full blooded Cherokee medicine woman and live in Tennessee in the late 1800's, her husband was a white man named Marion Frances “Pete” O'Neal, and her name was Luie Bean O'Neal. If you can fond any more information about her I would deeply appreciate it! Thanks.

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  2. VickiMay 20, 2019 at 11:40 AM

    Jehu probably didn't mention the Cherokee connection because at LEAST 75% of the people in the area of Scott/Anderson/Campbell counties have at least a small amount of Native American ancestry. To him, it would be as common as it would be for us today to mention that a neighbor is of a Christian denomination. It was not unusual and therefor, not worth mentioning.

    Louisa may have been part Cherokee or other Native American. Even before connecting with other family, we had a strong history of traditions that align with those of the Cherokee I know here in NC. (Louisa is my great-great grandmother.) Historians for the Cherokee reservation have confirmed that Louisa's neckerchief is part of traditional wear for certain women. So even if she's not Cherokee, she was accepted by them.

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  3. UnknownNovember 9, 2019 at 9:40 AM

    I've been tracing my geneology for years. Maiden name LOWE. My question is...why would anyone pretend to be native american, considering the era? Weren't they hiding their race? Ashamed to be native?

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