History question -- Tribes in WA, TX & NV?

[Hana]

I'm trying to trace what a family story means but don't know enough history. My great-uncle, Wayman Hughes, was a terrific stonemason and builder who traveled during the depression for work with his daughter (he was divorced and had custody.) He lived in Texas but sometimes apparently traveled as far as Washington State for work. I was told that he, like my grandfather, Warren Hughes, told his kids that we have Native-American ancestry (my grandpa said Blackfoot, but others in the family also said Cherokee).

Wayman did something that seems unusual to me (at least for someone Anglo back in the '30s to do), when he traveled. He left his daughter, Josephine, with Native-american families in Texas, Washington State and Nevada. I don't know if they were in villages or reservations. I'd guess reservations. She got the impression that they were family, perhaps some distant cousins, but wasn't able to ask before he grandmother died. (Her grandmother thought they were Cherokee but her alzheimers was pretty bad by then, so unsure.)

You can see why I'd like to follow this story but wouldn't know where to begin. Does it even make sense that any tribe would have villages or reservations in those particular states? The only tribe I could think of that might would be Cherokee because of being dispossessed. Otherwise, wouldn't Nevada and Washington State have totally unrelated tribes? Am I even asking the right questions?

It's not like I have names or dates to begin with. It could even be that my cousin misunderstood and only Wayman traveled out of state while Josephine remained in Texas. I suppose it's also possible that, like some other family members on that side, Wayman was a bit eccentric and paid some babysitters in an Indian village to watch Josephine while he traveled, just telling her that they were relatives to make her feel better, but that seems rather far-fetched as he did have lots of other family.

Any historically relevant thoughts or speculation on this family story?

[Bill Childs]

Hana,
By that late date, we were scattered all over the country. Have you ever considered that the people he parked her with were relatives?
I personally think you're generally looking in the wrong direction, geography-wise, but I offer my opinion.

If you goto genforum.com 's Hughes family forum and in the 'search this forum' window, type in:

trader

or in the Davis family forum, type in:

nathaniel (if that doesn't 'bring-up' that Indian Trader, try 'trader'

or

floyd
davis
lewis

or in the Floyd family forum, type in:

preston
lewis
harrison

or on any of those forums, type in:

indian

just for starters.
But just because it's printed, doesn't make it true.
Do a little research and apply a critical, 'means-test' to each step.
Always ask yourself if what you read or other people say, is grounded in any fact that you can cross-check as a 'fact' .
....
Bill

[Hana]

Originally posted by Bill Childs
Hana,
By that late date, we were scattered all over the country.

That's what I was afraid of but thought I'd ask just in case there was some clue there.


Have you ever considered that the people he parked her with were relatives?

Because that's what I'm hoping, I thought I'd try to consider if there were reasonable alternatives, as it's hard to be objective.


Originally posted by Bill Childs

I personally think you're generally looking in the wrong direction, geography-wise, but I offer my opinion.

Thought I'd try looking at the other end, where people ended up, to leave no stone unturned, as I got stuck and stayed stuck at the other end. I'll try some other trader searches as suggested, as clearly we have a lot of relevant surnames. (I did try combos such as Hughes and trader on Google and such quite a bit.)
Any particular reason why you're suggesting Davis, Floyd and Lewis in my case? (Guessing because they were active or well-known traders. Lewis sounds like a slightly familiar name but the others dont.



But just because it's printed, doesn't make it true.
Do a little research and apply a critical, 'means-test' to each step.
Always ask yourself if what you read or other people say, is grounded in any fact that you can cross-check as a 'fact' .
....

That I do know. There is lots of incorrect stuff on the LDS site for instance. Some things I'm just not sure about.

For instance, a researcher who seemed pretty experienced insisted that my Richard Emery Hughes (the one I'm stuck on) is the same as his Hembree Hughes.)

And the family members who've done some research insist that our Richard's father is a Captain Richard Hughes who was married to Letitia, and born about 1750, died 1822, leaving a will. But no one can show me that Richard's middle name.

My impression is that my family researchers got to Union Co., found a Richard Hughes who had a brother named Jefferson Hughes (our Richard names one of his sons Thomas Jefferson), and because this second Richard is around the right age (b. ~1790) and has a well-off old man who was a Captain, decided he must be our ancestor. I found about half dozen Thomas Jefferson Hugheses about the age of ours in the right county (born October 1825 in Cross Keys, Union Co.) There were LOTs more Richard Hugheses. Especially if you add in variations such as Hughs or Hues.

There are many unexplained oddities with our Richard Emery Hughes. For instance, a guy who seems to be him is on the Buncombe Co census (1840?) as EH Hughes, with the right wife, Jane, and mother-in-law Elizabeth, and right kids. So what's with that name spelling?

What I think is the OTHER Richard Hughes has a middle initial H. (Could be Hembree, of course, but then where does EH come from? And the name Emery is that name that gets passed on in the family, not Richard. In fact TJ's sons who are in the right spot to be named after the grandfathers are named Andrew and James.)

And there are Buncombe Co Hugheses one of whom I've spoken to who have a family bible that has the father as Richard Emery Hughes but says the mother is Mary Bobo instead of Jane or Jensy Brandon, but with mostly the same kids. (We assumed she died and he remarried.) One of the kids in our family bible is given Bobo as a middle name but no mention of Mary in our family history, and those are the kids who stayed in Buncombe (after Union) and didn't move to Texas with our lot. (Btw, TJ's sister, Martha's descendants got the same family NA stories that we did.)

From TJ Hughes on down I've got lots of info but Richard hasn't been definitely connected to any siblings or parents.

If it was proveable from that will of Captain Hughes, or something else, that he's our Richard's father, then there is plenty of known history from there on back, and it would take our Hugheses out of the running for NA ancestry. I just haven't found any facts to prove the leap.