OUR CHEROKEE INDIAN GRANDMOTHER NELSON
Speculation about the existence of Cherokee blood through the Nelson line
According to Nelson family legends passed down from generations, and corroborated by genealogical research, including our treasure in Mansel Nelson's history book, we believe that our immigrant grandfather, Abraham Nelson, perhaps originally from Scotland, and as a young man of about 18 years old, arrived in Orange County, near present day Hillsborough, North Carolina, about 1750. We know from grave stones and land records that Abraham, his father, Thomas, and other relatives who later came to that place, were buried in the New Hope Presbyterian Church Cemetery there. Abraham fathered children, but there is no known documentation regarding his wife-our first American grandmother.
There is an old family legend which keeps surfacing, that Abraham Nelson was shipwrecked off the Atlantic coast of North Carolina, was rescued and cared for by a Cherokee Indian maiden, who became his wife and our grandmother. We have heard this story from different Nelson family sources over the years. For example, Price William Nelson, born in 1855, in his autobiography refers to himself as a "half-breed Indian." Jeanne Russell Worthen, (whose mother was Ida Amanda Nelson) heard the shipwreck story while attending Brigham Young University in Utah. However, other Nelsons, when the legend is discussed, are offended at the idea, possibly because of prejudices.
It will be difficult, if not impossible, to prove in this life whether our Nelson grand-mother was actually Cherokee. In the first place, marriage between whites and Indians was illegal in the 1700s in North Carolina, so there would have been no legal documentation. Other church or civil records have not yet been found, although there are those who are still looking for them.
However, some of us have wondered that if we actually had a Cherokee grandmother Nelson, what would she have been like, what were her beliefs, and how could we benefit by this knowledge.
There are now many excellent histories written about the Cherokee Indian people, and considerable early (prior to 1800) research is now available in libraries and on the Internet. A very well-researched history is The Cherokee People, by Thomas E. Mails, first copyrighted in 1992, published by Marlowe & Company. Rev. Mails, a retired Lutheran minister and artist who lives in Lake Elsinore, California, has written best selling books about other Native American tribes, including the Apaches, Pueblos, etc.
Regarding the origin of the Cherokee tribe, in his book Rev. Mails quotes many early historians, including John Howard Payne, who documented interviews with several elderly Cherokees in 1835, trying to ensure he was talking to elders whose beliefs about where the Cherokees came from were not influenced by Judeo-Christian teachings. Another historian extensively quoted by Rev. Mails is James Adair, who in 1736 was a trader to the Cherokees in North Carolina and believed, as did Payne a century later, that the Cherokees had a "...development that associates them with the Hebrew people."
According to Rev. Mails, "Payne's recorded Cherokee history comes close to duplicating what is written in the first five books of the Bible. The exception is that Cherokee informants-who described events such as the creation story, flood, expulsion from Eden, tower of Babel, Abraham, crossing of the Red Sea, Moses, the wandering in the wilderness, and the construction of the tent of worship and the sacred ark-shaded them with words and meanings unique to the Cherokees."
These histories also document the fact that Cherokees were still living in their ancestral home lands in North Carolina near the place where our Nelson ancestor, Abraham, may have shipwrecked and at the time he supposedly landed. The famous "Trail of Tears," when thousands of Cherokees were forced to walk to Oklahoma, happened after 1838.
Without any contrary information, we could assume that our legendary Cherokee grandmother was typical of the women of her tribe. Rev. Mails' describes Cherokee women of the time as: "...mild mannered, amiable, modest, and industrious. Physically and temperamentally, the mature Cherokees made a favorable impression." He writes that Cherokee women were "...well featured and of erect carriage, they were of modestly robust build, and had a superior and independent bearing." Rev. Mails further writes, "Exceptional beauty was common among young [Cherokee] women, and women in general had extremities that were small, delicate and slender," and "Cherokee women had a sense of self-worth and dignity that undoubtedly showed in their character and appearance, and proved so attractive to European and American traders that in early historic times they coveted Cherokee women as wives."
From Rev. Mails' chapter on Ancient Religious Beliefs of the Cherokees, we find that Cherokees in ancient times: "...worship of one Supreme God and the absence of idolatry among the Cherokees...the nation had been divided into at least two sects regarding their beliefs about divine beings. The first sect believed that more than two beings came down from above and formed the world. The other sect said there existed above three beings who were always together and of the same mind. These three sat on white seats above, and all prayers were directed to them. They created all things, were acquainted with all, were present everywhere, and governed all things. They had messengers or angels, who came to this world and attended to the affairs of men." Another historian quoted by Rev. Mails, Lucy Wahenauhi, said that the Cherokees also "...believed in an Evil Spirit, and to his malicious influence they attributed all trouble, calamity, and sickness."
Rev. Mails also records that: "According to Payne's informants, the Chief Supreme Being believed in by the Cherokees of the 18th century was the same Mysterious Being whom the more ancient Cherokees had said was both God and King, appearing sometimes on earth as a man. Except for someone specially consecrated for the purpose, this being's name was to be spoken only on an appointed holy day. It was Ye ho waah, [Payne's English spelling of the Cherokee pronunciation of the Holy Name-amazingly similar to the sound of the name of the Hebrew God, Jehovah] and He [Ye ho waah] gave a certain hymn to the Cherokees that could only be sung by selected persons on occasions of the greatest solemnity."
In Rev. Mails' book there are many more similarities documented between the Cherokees and their ancient Hebrew ancestors who worshiped Jehovah, as recorded in the Book of Mormon. If she was truly a Cherokee Indian maiden, our Nelson grandmother was not a pagan savage we should be ashamed of. Through her veins coursed the blood of Israel, and if the old legend proves true, we should be honored to claim the Cherokee Indian maiden as our earliest American grandmother.