Thursday, January 15, 2009

Ancestors








At the time I stitched this piece (one of my earliest pieces), I had no idea my father had a Cherokee heritage. It wasn't until the death of my mother when I was sorting through her effects that I found an envelope with a check stub indicating a Cherokee allotment payment to my father. Thus began my search for my Cherokee ancestors. I was lucky. There was a great deal written about my particular ancestors. Richard Foreman was a Scotsman from Pennsylvania who was listed in records as being 'an Indian trader.' One of his daughters married Cherokee Chief Bushyhead (so called because he had a shock of red hair as did his father). There were many records regarding my direct ancestor, Richard Bark Foreman, who was a physician and published The Cherokee Physician or Indian Guide to Health in 1849.


The original title is:

The Cherokee Physician, or Indian Guide to Health, as Given by Richard Foreman, a Cherokee Doctor; Comprising a Brief View of Anatomy, With General Rules for Preserving Health without the Use of Medicines. The Diseases of the U. States, with Their Symptoms, Causes, and Means of Prevention, are Treated on in a Satisfactory Manner. It Also Contains a Description of a Variety of Herbs and Roots, Many of which are not Explained in Any Other Book, and their Medical Virtues have Hitherto been Unknown to the Whites; To which is Added a Short Dispensatory. This book was published by Edney and Dedman, Ashville, North Carolina in 1849 and written by Richard Foreman and James W. Mahoney.


My Foremans were leaders on the very sad Trail of Tears.

Richard Bark's half-brother Stephen Foreman attended Princeton Theological School and was a Presbyterian minister. He also worked with Elias Boudinot on the first Cherokee newspaper, The Cherokee Phoenix, first printed in 1828 in New Echota, Georgia.
A nephew, Edward Wilkerson Bushhead partnered with William Jeff Gatewood to establish the first newspaper in San Diego, California: The San Diego Union.

An aside: a relative on my maternal side was the lawyer hired by the Cherokee Nation to bring suit against the State of Georgia for properties lost when the Cherokees were forced from their homes. Another relative on my maternal side was given land in Florida "for driving out the Cherokees" at the time of the Trail of Tears. As William Least Heat Moon wrote in his book Blue Highways, my material and paternal families have been skirmishing ever since!
While digging into my Cherokee roots, I learned that the humorist Will Rogers is also related to my Foreman family and lived for a time with a g-g-g (or maybe more greats!) aunt and uncle.
The research is fascinating and I love all of the puzzle-solving.

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