Re: Chief Pushmataha - MS,AL [More Blather From Guy]
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In reply to:
Re: Chief Pushmataha - MS,AL
Jeanette Lott 5/11/10
"...Supposedly my grandfather was an Indian chief...Push-ma-da-ha...." (attributed in 1973 to my grandfather, Guy C. Hodges, b. 1901)
Hello Jeanette, and thanks for the quick response.I've since re-read through e-mails from other members of my family.Sadly, no data that can be "bagged and tagged;" everything is undocumented "oral family tradition."
My grandfather's mother (Harriet Saphronia Hart, b. 1867) was known as "PaPoo," and grandfather's father -- Henry Key Hodges (unbroken Anglo descent since prior to the Rev War) -- was called "MaMoo" ... I would have thought those nicknames would have been reversed, but they aren't.Any idea if they are just wierd family nicknames, or Choctaw-related?
I doubt we'll ever document Native American descent because all records list race as "White" ...
My second cousin wrote me saying, "I have always known about our Indian ancestry.I remember my grandmother [Harriet Saphronia Hart Hodges] talking about it, even though I was just 9 when she died [1946]....we were always close to Uncle Wiley [my grandfather's brother] and aunts ... and they all talked about their mother being half-Indian.They used to say that when their mother got older, she looked like a full-blooded Indian...."
I have photos of Harriet Saphronia Hart Hodges and her two sons (my grandfather and his eldest brother) ... they all look full-blooded Native American; whereas the other siblings look European.IF she were half-Indian, it would be either through her father, Joe Hart, or her mother, Mary Barlow [m. abt. 1888].
My first cousin writes that around 1965-68], "...Grandmother [wife to Guy Hodges ("PoPo")] said his sister said her mother's dad was Indian.[This would be Joe Hart... conflicting data.]Grandmother said it was common knowledge amongst PoPo's siblings, but not to mention it to him because he would get mad and deny it."(I also remember my grandmother warning me not to ask PoPo if he was part Indian!)
She continues, "...I would sit with PoPo and talk.a year or so before he died, I decided I HAD to hear it from him..... He never got upset and said, "Supposedly my grandfather was an Indian chief.I have been told that at one time he was written up in a history book, either Push-ma-da-ha or Push-ma-ha-ha, or something like that."He accented the 1st and 3rd syllables.(Again, this was around 1973 and virtually no one had ever heard of Pushmataha then.)
My grandfather, "PoPo" [paw-paw], had three brothers.He and his eldest brother, Wiley, look very dark and are short and thin; their two other brothers are each about 6 inches taller and Anglo-white.When I was a kid in the 1950s I used to think he looked like Tonto.
Regarding DNA testing, mine tracks my father's lineage which is Norman-Irish (viking DNA) ~~ no Native American.
Okay, that's probably too much information, but thanks for letting me talk!
Kind regards,
--Guy
More Replies:
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Re: Chief Pushmataha - MS,AL [More Blather From Guy]
Jeanette Lott 5/12/10
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Re: Chief Pushmataha - MS,AL [More Blather From Guy]
Guy Power 5/12/10
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Re: Chief Pushmataha - MS,AL [More Blather From Guy]