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ArchivesRe: cherokee name
in reply to a message by Hutchcraft
Here's your first problem, there's no /b/ in Cherokee, so no possible name baba. The next problem is that no current Cherokee dictionary search (including other word lists) contain anything starting waka or waga. Finally, there is no Cherokee by this name (Rhodes, Baba, Wacca etc) on the Dawes Rolls. My hunch would be (based on the name, the migratory route and general trend in such cases) that rather than Cherokee, she was African American. That doesn't help resolve the meaning of her name though.
This message was edited 1/31/2020, 5:23 AM
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That’s interesting and it makes sense to me. It wouldn’t surprise me to take your slave with you as you migrated. Sounds terrible by today’s standards, but there must have been a relationship outside of slave-master. I would like to think he didn’t abuse her, but back then spousal abuse was a way “to keep your wife in line” White or black. I don’t mean to sound indifferent but that’s the way things were. Life was harsh and cruel. Be thankful we live in a better and more understanding society today.
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That's not what I mean. the Dawes lists does include former slaves who were officially included in the tribes population (all the "Five civilised tribes" in the Dawes list had slaves who were sent to the reservations with them and later counted as "Cherokee freedmen" etc.), and there is still no waca baba included in this list either. What i mean is individuals and families with an ancestor who was African American, often found it more socially acceptable (and even fashionable, as it still is today) if grandma/grandpa was "Cherokee" rather than a former slave. Within a couple of generations, no would remember the real story. The migration of Waca Baba "from either NC or VA through KY and IN where they settled in Southern IL in Williamson and Franklin Co" is typical for former slaves and their descendants. Remember also, native Americans and their freed slaves on reservations needed special permission to leave, whereas former slaves still in VA or NC, were not so restricted.
This message was edited 3/11/2020, 7:39 AM
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Let's, look at what you have been told, and what we know, 1. Wacca Babba migrated from either NC or VA to IL via IN. But the Cherokee and their slaves were forced to move to Oklahoma, not IN, and few if any would have been granted permission to leave for IL. 2. Waca Baba does not appear to be a Cherokee name, nor a Cherokee version of another name. Ultimately we don't know where it comes from. It could be African, in which case this was probably not her "official" name in the US, just what her immediate African family called her. 3. Many other families in the north with an African American ancestor, retconned their origin to make them "Cherokee". After all, even the oldest, most establishment families in America might have one or more native Americans in their lineage (real or not). Of course it turns out the founding fathers of some old southern plantation-owning families were African American, but that's something forgotten, not recounted with pride.
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