In a newspaper article in Taney county, it describes Elizabeth Lewallen Bilyeu, daughter of John & Hannah Lewellen, as a Cherokee woman. This was during the Bilyeu/Meadow trial. Has anyone been able to prove Native American connection? My father said we were Native American. I know our ancestors stayed in Missouri rather than moving to Oklahoma when the Dawes Commission forced moved Native American. After forty plus years of trying to find a roll number i am just so confused. My family has to have Native American blood, because it shows. I know we came from Tennessee to Missouri and for a time moved to Arkansas, as many Native Americans did, then back to Missouri and then migrated to Oklahoma. I really believe our family may be Creek or Choctaw. I do know Peter Bilyeu married a full-blood Shawnee but the Shawnee tribe will not accept this as proof to enroll because each generation was supposed to enroll and I cannot find proof. It is said that when the Quoin Miller Roll was taken in Missouri that and our ancestors would not claim Native American blood because they would have had to relinquish their citizenship and relocate to Oklahoma, which we did eventually anyway.
