Purported Choctaw Ancestry

• Examining the Evidence

• The claim of Choctaw ancestry in the Edwards line is one that has persisted now for over a century but which has, to this day, never been proven. It was said by his daughter and grandchildren, some of whom applied for Choctaw citizenship under the Dawes Act at the turn of the last century, that MD Edwards was 1/2 Choctaw, presumably through his mother, the identity of whom is also unknown. I have largely given up on determining the validity of this claim but I thought I would lay out the facts as I have discovered them and attach the relevant documents for the sake of completeness.
  
  My grandfather was always told that he was Choctaw on his father's side. He also told me he was instructed not to disclose this outside of the family, growing up in the Jim Crow south where such claims could be used as a means of depriving the family of all manner of rights, civil and legal, due to the one-drop rule which could be applied to native people as well as those with african ancestry. Of course grandpa died never having the ability, or even the interest in verifying this claim, as it was something he found somewhat shameful and unappealing, a sentiment common to people growing up in the time and place which he did.
  
  We first find Meredith Edwards in 1824 in the Arkansas territory where he was granted a trading license by George Gray at the Sulphur Fork Red River Agency. This was 2 years after Congress eliminated the factory trading system, where trading was done with natives by the government directly, and after which time trade with the indians became much more an entrepreneurial endevor. However, to even consider working as an independent trader, one would need to either speak the language and understand the customs of the tribe they were trading with, generally through familial connection - or marry a native woman who could translate and fascilitate the trading transactions. A third option might include being raised by a successful trader, but there's no indication Meredith's father ever worked as a trader or lived within the Choctaw Nation, or in close proximity to it. We also know pretty definitively that his wife Sarah/Sally was not Choctaw and he likely met her after the license was issued, making familial connection more likely, in my estimation.
  
  After 1828, the US government uprooted the Cherokee and Choctaw from their old-new homelands granted to them in Arkansas and forced them to relocate for the final time to Indian Territory in modern-day Oklahoma, and the removals of the remainder of the southeastern tribes commenced over the next several years. By the time removals are actively underway, we find Meredith living in Vineyard township in Washington county, Arkansas. This location, previously possessed by the Cherokee, still hugs the border of Indian territory/Oklahoma today - but closer to the Cherokee nation than the Choctaw, which lies further south across the border.
  
  Additionally, several enrolled tribal members appeared to offer legal testimony, in the form of sworn affidafits, attesting to Meredith and his children's acceptance as Choctaws within the community. If it were the case that Edwards was a half-breed, it would have been through his unknown mother, as matrilineal cultures like the Choctaw identified people as belonging or not based on their mother's place in the community. This social acceptance, however did not translate into legal recognition of citizenship, which was pretty narrowly defined by 1900 as having been party to a former treaty or having been listed on one of the prior tribal rolls created to satisfy such treaties. A family living outside the boundaries of tribal sovereignty and accepted as white - with US citizenship - would not have any incentive to identify themselves as indian in the prior decades - especially during the removal period. It wasn't for another ~70 years that such claims would have any benefits whatsoever and infact would have been an unwise decision to voice publicly, especially to government agents. Still, in the numerous affidafits in their casefiles, neighbors and acquiantances indicate that the family had identified as Choctaw and been recognized by many within the tribe as Choctaw for decades before the Dawes Act.
  
  Reading through the case files, it is impossible to disregard the numerous inconsistencies contained in Martha's testimony and likewise, in that of her witnesses. We know that Meredith was in Arkansas prior to removals, yet nearly everyone's testimony claims they were originally from Mississippi and came to the territory after or during removals. I have never found any indication that Meredith ever lived in Mississippi and we find him in Vineyard, where all of his kids were born and raised, in 1830 and nearly all the remainder of his life. It's unclear when he married Sally Blagg, but their first surviving child was born in 1827, so I'd assume it was ~1826. Martha however claims to have been born and raised near Fort Gibson in the Indian Territory, nearly 60 miles from Vineyard. Oddly, this is in the Cherokee Nation, not the Choctaw, however that kind of fluid movement was not uncommon in the territory for that time period - but the census records contradict it nonetheless.
  
  With the documentary evidence being what it is at this moment, I would say it's 50/50 in my mind whether Edwards was ancestrally Choctaw or not. Some of the indications are interesting and certainly point to it as a likely possibility, but I wouldn't feel comfortable claiming it's accurate unless and until further evidence in support of the claim is unearthed.