Gonna Bury the Hatchet in Southwestern Oklahoma’s Beautiful Red Clay

I am Old and Tired – Gonna Bury the Hatchet in Oklahoma’s Red Clay Soil.

Further internet research came up with the following -- https://jogg.info/pages/72/files/Estes.htm --

They say & do the same things I have tried and failed to say & do. But at least the truth has been shared in a professional manner. I never knew exactly how to it up.

NOTICE

I have finally found a research paper that is FANTASTIC!

https://jogg.info/pages/72/files/Estes.htm#_ftn135

I always had problems with their original paper using Y-chromosome and mtDNA only, as only an extremely small percentage of the population could carry Native American DNA, since the native DNA would have been lost through the generations. After reading this, I don’t see much of reason for me to continue my research project. They’ve done an excellent job. As I have said many times, people said they were “Portuguese” for fear of being labeled “Negro”. My ancestors always said they had Native American blood, and NEVER claimed Portuguese or Gypsy ancestry. That is why I have kept writing all these years. I was protesting being called “Portuguese”. I felt that label prevented us from being Federally recognized as the “Western Catawba Tribe” here in Oklahoma back at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. So this is the end of my research. No one cares about anything I have written, anyhow. My war against the Portuguese Identity is over. Some folks will ALWAYS believe their (and unfortunately mine as well) ancestors were Portuguese rather than African or Native American. It doesn't matter that I have no Portuguese or Gypsy blood whatsoever -- they'll always claim otherwise. When my great-great-great-great-grandpa passed away in 1806, among his belongings was listed many blacksmith and farming tools, a few animals and other belongings, as well as “one tomahawk”. Today, as a proud Oklahoman who can trace his ancestors in this state back to 1832, and on what would have been dad’s 106th birthday, I symbolically bury it.