native.BrokenClaw.net

The Otoe-Missouria genealogy database includes members and descendants of the Otoe-Missouria Tribe of Oklahoma, who purchased land and established their last reservation in the Cherokee Strip of what is now north-central Oklahoma in 1881. The database also includes other members of families who married into the Otoe-Missouria tribe. This database is an extension of my research of our own family genealogy of Dewey W. Dailey.

For the spelling of surnames, I tried to use the most common or most recent. However, one surname requires special note: Robedeaux. I recognize that descendants today use several different variations of the name, but to simplify searches in this database, I spelled them all in this way.

My research is conducted primarily online. I do not live in Oklahoma, so I do not have personal access to interview tribal members or to do research at the tribal office or local libraries. Consequently, it’s doubtful that I could answer anyone else’s inquiries with information which is not already posted here. However, I welcome your additions to the genealogy database. Those who wish to add their family to the database, or contribute additional information about someone already included, please use the Comment form at the bottom of this page. Keep in mind that any additions should follow these guidelines:

1. The genealogy must include at least one of the alloted tribal members.
2. Please include as much specific data as possible, including dates of birth and death.
3. Unless you send me digital photocopies of documents, digital photos of tombstones, etc., the source will be noted as family history.

By default, I protect the privacy of anyone whose birth date falls after 1930 (the last published census) and who does not have a date of death recorded in the database. However, I will gladly hide or remove other individuals on request.

A narrative of the tribe’s migration is given on the History page, but it is significant to relate their movements to the concurrent governmental changes. Place names in this database use the official designation in effect at the time. In other words, a family may have one child born in Indian Territory in 1889 and another child born in Oklahoma Territory in 1891, even though they were, in fact, born at the same location.

• 1854 - Otoe-Missouria reservation is established at the Big Blue River on the border between Kansas and Nebraska Territories, primarily Gage County, Nebraska Territory.
• 1861 - Kansas Territory becomes the state of Kansas.
• 1867 - Nebraska Territory becomes the state of Nebraska.
• 1881 - Otoe-Missouria reservation is established in the Cherokee Strip of Indian Territory.
• 1890 - Part of Indian Territory becomes Oklahoma Territory.
• 1907 - Oklahoma Territory becomes the state of Oklahoma.

After allotment the Otoe-Missouria Reservation was officially abolished by Act of Congress, and the land was incorporated into Noble and Pawnee Counties. Nevertheless, the tribe continued to refer to the land as the Reservation. In this database, for tribal members born within those counties, I list their place of birth as the Reservation, without regard to actual municipal boundaries or property lines.

Dates of birth were obtained from several sources: the US censuses, the tribal censuses, the Social Security Death Index, cemetery surveys, and published obituaries. Quite often these sources contradict each other. During the annual Otoe-Missouria Encampment of 2007, I surveyed the entire tribal cemetery and recorded all legible graves markers. For the purpose of this database, the dates inscribed on the grave markers take precedence above all others. For other persons, if no precise birthdate was available, I used the age on the census. For individuals with no age documentation, I estimated the birthdate from the age of parents, spouse, and/or children, in order to put them in historical context for the indexes. Additional sources are cited on the References page and are duly footnoted in the genealogy database.

Most Otoe-Missouria did not use surnames until the late 1800s when the tribe was moving to Indian Territory. For individuals who had no English name, for the purpose of this database I spelled their Indian name without hyphens. For female spouses where the maiden name is either unknown or nonexistent, I used the woman’s Indian name as her surname for indexing purposes. Obviously Indian names are unique to each individual and have no connection with other members of their family.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 2nd, 2007 at 12:00 pm and is filed under genealogy, otoe-missouria. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.