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Post by deerfisherman on Mar 28, 2004 2:04:30 GMT -5
After reading all your posts, I feel really dumb.  However, I have a question. My ancestor was reportedly a full blooded Black Hawk indian. His name was William M Washburn born 10/4/1836. Is there anyway I could go about proving this? Is there a list somewhere? ;D He came to KY from NC. Thanks |
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Post by Jeffrey on Mar 28, 2004 17:09:50 GMT -5
Deerfisherman,
I'm not really very good at the genealogy stuff, but my advice would be to go to google.com and then type in "William M. Washburn" and take a look at the hits you get. It's important that you put the quotation marks around it so you don't get a load of unrelated junk. Then play with it a bit, try "Washburn, William M." and a few other things.
About him being a "Blackhawk," that may have gotten a little twisted over the years. "Black Hawk" is a legendary Sauk warrior from this "Black Hawk War" that we are so interested in. There also was an individual named "Black Hawk" up in the Winnebago tribe in Wisconsin, and then there's another "Black Hawk War" in Utah in the 1860's. As far as I know, there is no tribe of "Blackhawks," although I could be totally wrong, not being a native American scholar. Tell us how you heard about the ancestor.
--Jeffrey Chown
--P.S. you're supposed to end posts with your name.
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Alex
New Member
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Post by Alex on Mar 28, 2004 20:21:22 GMT -5
Deerfisherman, You have chosen one of the most difficult genealogical pursuits, by attempting to trace you native american heritage. You must understand, that the indian was born, lived and died, with little documentation of his life. No birth certificate and no death certificate. I agree with the other poster, that the term Black Hawk Indian is incorrect. There has been at least two indian leaders that I am aware of that had the name of Black Hawk, one was Ma-ca-tai-me-she-kia-kiak, or Black Sparrow Hawk, who waged war against Illinois, Michigan Territory (Wisconsin) and other Militia (as well as regular army) . The other was Black Hawk was a Ute Chief and warrior, who made war on the Mormons in Utah historytogo.utah.gov/blackhawk.html But I am not aware of a group called "Black Hawk Indians" I suspect that your ancestor may have been Sauk (Sac) or Fox, but thats difficult to determine as well, due to there being many tribes in the Illinois region alone, including Sac, Fox, Winnebago, Kickapoo and Illinois, which was a loose confederation of sorts. I might suggest attempting to get a copy of the Dawes Commission reports, this was a documentation of Half Breed Indians, or making a careful study of documents relating to the Black Hawk War of 1832 in Illinois and Wisconsin. There is a publication called Whitney's Black Hawk War, which contains the names of many indians who had some exposure to the report writers of the day, but this is a long shot. Good Luck! Alex |
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Post by Jeffrey on Mar 28, 2004 22:35:21 GMT -5
I followed Alex's suggestion and looked in Whitney, and there are three Washburn's listed as militia volunteers. It's a longshot, but one of them may have married a Winnebago or Sac just after the war, moved to North Carolina and had the child, William in 1836. Seems counter-intuitive, however, because most of the itchy-feet frontier types tended to move west rather than east.
--Jeffrey Chown
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However, I have a question. My ancestor was reportedly a full blooded Black Hawk indian. His name was William M Washburn born 10/4/1836. Is there anyway I could go about proving this? Is there a list somewhere? ;D He came to KY from NC. Thanks