Native American Physical Features

[Terri McAdams]

My fathers mother passed away back in 1983. I can remember that she always said that she was Blackfoot. When i first started researching this and found Blackfoot in Dakota I thought that I had been misinformed until I found this site. Both of my Grandmothers parents supposedly were Native American. However, I have heard stories that her mother actually lived on a reservation as a child. One of my fathers cousins told me that she remembered her grandmother drawing things in the sand and telling her Native American stories but at the time she was quite young. My grandmothers father never wanted them to mention the Native American heritage and I am not sure why. I was told that when one of his sons was going to apply for social security he talked him out of it. Another time my Grandmother reportedly received a letter that she and her children were intitled to some land somewhere. Again he discouraged her and she must have thrown the letter away. This was years ago. Possibly in the 1950's or 1960's. I was told that certain tribes carried certain features. I have never,until now, seen anyone that had the same physical features as our family on any of the other Native American sites. My family is very petite with tiny facial features. My Grandmother had an upturned nose as I do. My great grandmother really had the upturned short nose. Could anyone tell me if this is true about the different tribes having different features? The names that I am looking for are: Goforth,Spears,Stallians,Thomason,Reed, and Keith. Thank you in advance for any help you may be able to provide. One more thing if these surnames do not belong here;any idea where they may belong? I know for sure that the Goforths were in the Carolinas at one time. When I find them in the 1800's along with the other family names they are in Tennessee.

[This message has been edited by Terri McAdams (edited 03-27-2002).]

[Linda]

Welcome, Terri. Thanks for posting. The story about your great grandmother being on a reservation is a mystery. It couldn't be anything Saponi related, since their reservation in Brunswick County, VA was lost in the early 1700's. There also wouldn't be any land claims along those tribal lines. On the other hand, TN has seen lots of Saponi/Blackfoot people. There are some here who can tell you about that. Tom's family derives from there and they've called themselves Blackfoot Cherokee. The Mahenip Band of the Saponi, now in Missouri, migrated through TN, I believe. Perhaps some of the TN people will recognize your names.

I found in my own family that tales about the native ancestry in the family from the in-laws got pretty outlandish. Maybe figuring who's saying what will help sort it out.