Letter: Family history

Dear Editor:

About the same time Native Americans from the southeast part of the United States came passing through Missouri on foot by soldiers, the state of Missouri made it illegal for native people to live here.

In 1830, the Indian Removal Act and 50,000 native people were sent to Oklahoma. I have a copy of my great-great-grandmother’s birth certificate. She was born in 1836 in North Carolina. This tells me my great-great-grandmother and relatives were forced off their land and walked to Oklahoma. Many died. This tells me her parents had to carry her to Oklahoma. She lived to be 94 winters in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. I do know many native people dropped of the Trail of Tears under the cover of darkness. They hid their identity.

My great-grandmother was born in 1878 west of Sikeston, 20 miles. Some of our tribal history I’m not allowed to speak of.

Johnny Mott

Sikeston, Missouri