My
Native American Side
I know
very little about my
Choctaw side of the
family, except for some
facts I have learned
since I got on the
Internet. My maiden name
is Snead. The Sneads are
intermarried with the
Apeha family, full-blood
Choctaws,who was part of
the "Trail of
Tears" of the Indian
Removals of the 1830s.
William Apeha's name was
originally Apeha, but he
was forced at some time
to take an English name,
so he took William for a
first name. He married
Sukie Bohanan.
There
were three
half-sisters,Sallie,
Amanda, and Sarah. Sallie
and Amanda had the same
mother, Sukie Bohanan.
Amanda and Sarah had the
same father, William
Apeha. Sarah's mother
name was Hoblatona.
My great-grandmother was
Sallie. She is listed on
my grandfather's birth
and death certificates as
Sallie Apaha, although I
have been told that Apeha
was not her father, so I
have no idea who he was.
My
great-grandmother,
Sallie, married Benjamin
Snead, son of riverboat
captain, John Yates
Snead, who was born in
1819 in VA., and died in
1892 in Paris, TX. They
had one child, my
grandfather, Thomas
Kendrick Snead. Sallie
died when T. K. was small
and he married her
half-sister, Amanda.
After he and Amanda died,
Ben's brother, Thomas
Gilbert Snead married
Eugie Stanfield to help
him raise Ben's five
children.
I don't
speak the Choctaw
language, but wish I'd
had the chance to learn.
My grandfather Thomas,
spoke English with a
broken accent. I remember
seeing him once for a
week when my mother took
us on a long greyhound
bus trip from AZ to Fort
Towson, OK. to visit my
grandparents and our dad.
He taught us kids how to
count to ten in Choctaw,
but I soon forgot. I
guess it was because I
was young and wasn't
interested at the time.
He told
us he had been prominent
in the Choctaw Indian
Affairs, and served as
deputy sheriff and was
the constable at Fort
Towson,and showed us the
gun that he had used.He
married Louemmie Smith,
and if she was any
Indian, I don't know, but
she was darker than me.Of
their children was my
Dad, Henry Doyle Snead,
who was a farmer, and
married my mother, Lorene
Harrington. That makes me
1/8 Choctaw.
It wasn't
until I was a grandmother
that I wanted to learn of
my Ancestors, when my 1st
grandchild, Alan, started
asking me questions that
I couldn't answer.
I have learned a lot, but
I am always serching for
more.
This page is dedicated to
my great-grandmother,
...Sallie...
She was
Choctaw and I would love
to have known her...
~Bessie~
Genealogy
Native
American Section-Poetry
