A Scots Cherokee? Possibly...

Great Grandfather Henry Francis Somers

Indications are I'm Scottish through my mother's family line (the Lawson's) and the oral family history from my father's side handed down from my Great Grandfather Henry Francis Somers to his son, my Grandfather, William Henry Somers, and to my father, Jesse Cecil Somers, is that we are descended from both the Scots and the Cherokee.  So, I'm sharing these informative excerpts and resources for the Somers family researchers.

• The Cherokee Indian Nation (Scottish Tartans Authority):

It may seem strange to link tartan with some of the great tribes of north American Indians and you could be forgiven for querying the link. It is however, part and parcel of the legendary global spread of the early Scots adventurers who permeated all walks of life and all cultures. The modern appeal of tartan as a unique identifier with those adventurers - whether the links are by nature or nurture - is a fascinating phenomenon.

It has been widely reported that historically there has always been a great affinity between the Scots and the North American Indians and the reasons suggested have been the similarities between their cultures and the fact that, generally speaking, if the Scots wanted to settle on Indian territory, they tended to ask, rather than take!

Someone who has studied the matter in great detail is our good friend James "Al" Bullman of Franklin, North Carolina. He's been a student of things Scottish for decades and is a Chevalier of the Grand Priory of Scotland and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries (Scotland). He's also a past member of the boards of the Council of Scottish Clans and Associations (COSCA); Clan Rose and the Scottish Tartans Society, USA, of which he was Scottish Games Chairman. He is a lecturer at college level on Scottish history and the history of tartan and is the founder in 1988 of the original Scottish District Families Association. Even more importantly, Al is also a past vice-principal Chief of the Echota Band of the Cherokee Indians in Alabama.

Learn more here.

Blue Ridge Mountains

• The Scots-Irish and Cherokee Connection (Part 1) - (Journey Home Genealogy)

From the 1770s, a strong connection existed between the Cherokees and the Scots-Irish. As waves of Scots-Irish settled on the frontier, they lived, traded, fought and married the Cherokee. Millions of North Americans have Cherokee heritage because many mixed-bloods “passed for white” or blended into African American families.

By the time of removal in 1838, the Cherokee had thoroughly adopted white ways. They became Christians, developed an alphabet, printed a newspaper, held slaves, lived in towns, owned farms, and discarded the clan system. This created records.

Read more here.

See also:

• The Scots-Irish and Cherokee Connection (Part 2) - (Journey Home Genealogy)

• The Scots-Irish and Cherokee Connection (Part 3) - (Journey Home Genealogy)

Image from http://npshistory.com/

• Traders and Invaders, Assimilators and Destroyers: The Scots and Irish Among the Cherokee (http://npshistory.com/) : 

European historians often have made the observation that most of Napoleon's greatest victories as well as his greatest defeats involved the Russians. In fact, Napoleon left instructions that he wanted his tomb constructed of a special red marble and the only place in which that red marble could be found, ironically, was in Russia. Just as the Russians were major factors in determining Napoleonic history, a similar statement might be made concerning the Scots and Irish in regard to Cherokee history. The Scots and Irish were definitely instrumental in most of the greatest and in most of the worst moments of the Cherokee. In fact, James Mooney, the noted ethnologist who helped preserve much of the Cherokee history and culture, states that families who have made Cherokee history were nearly all of mixed descent, especially the Scots and Irish. [1]

Learn more here.

• Scotland and the American Indians (Electric Scotland)

In 1964 the principal chief of the Creek Nation of Oklahoma, who boasted the surname McIntosh, attended the annual gathering of his clan in the Highlands. To everyone’s surprise, he appeared in full Native regalia. The Plains Indian headdress, beaded shirt, and moccasins contrasted sharply with the kilts, sporrans, and dirks. To a bagpipe audience, he explained his pride in his dual Creek-Scottish ancestry.

The story of these Scoto-Indians is a fascinating one. Like their French and Spanish counterparts, the Scots fur traders arrived in the West largely as single men. Like the other Europeans, they soon aligned with Native women, usually "in the fashion of the country." As historian Sylvia Van Kirk has noted, this form of "country marriage" facilitated trade because the Native wives usually taught their husbands the tribal language. The Montreal-based North West Company actively encouraged this policy, whereas the HBC discouraged it, because of expense, until the 1 820s. Eventually, however, all the fur-trade enterprises acknowledged the key role that Native wives played in their operations.

In Indian country these unions were considered as binding as Christian church ceremonies. Later, however, if a trader returned to Britain, he often "turned off’ his country wife to her family, although he usually maintained a minimum of economic responsibility for her and the children. For example, Sir George Simpson, head of the Athabasca District of the HBC and one of Canada’s most powerful figures, left his country wife to marry his cousin in London in 1830.1. G. Mactavish, head of York factory for most of the 1820s, William Conolly, chief factor in charge of New Caledonia, and countless other Scots followed along similar paths. The same situation occurred in the South Atlantic region. One scholar has estimated that in late eighteenth- to early nineteenth-century Georgia, Indian women raised about four hundred mixed-blood offspring by themselves.

But not all Scots fur traders left their Native consorts. Alexander Ross remained devoted to his Indian wife, as did Angus McDonald, Donald A. Smith, John McLoughlin, and a number of others who stayed with their Native or mixed-blood women for life. Whichever arrangement prevailed, however, the end result was to produce a number of Scoto-Indians.

Read more here.

See also: 

• Scots and the American Indians Resource Page (Electric Scotland)

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Happy hunting! May the good Lord bless our efforts as we seek to learn more about the men and women who paved the way for our generation! I pray their sacrifices will be honored by their descendants and that we will rejoice when we meet them in Heaven before our Lord and King Jesus Christ. Amen.