Does anyone know what happened to the native americans who branched off the trai

Question:my fathers family is from st. louis, missouri. my great-grandmother was a full bloodied Cherokee and she came from somewhere on the east coast via the trail of tears. but a small tribe supposedly branched off and instead of going to oklahoma they went into kansas and missouri. does anyone know what happened to them? i'd like to find out where my great-grandmother came from and to do that i need to find infomation on the others.

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: my fathers family is from st. louis, missouri. my great-grandmother was a full bloodied Cherokee and she came from somewhere on the east coast via the trail of tears. but a small tribe supposedly branched off and instead of going to oklahoma they went into kansas and missouri. does anyone know what happened to them? i'd like to find out where my great-grandmother came from and to do that i need to find infomation on the others.

Trying to find what groups may have split off from the main ones and then trying to find whether your great-grandmother was in a group would be a HUGE undertaking. I really think it would be impossible and not give you the info you're trying to find.

Instead, gather everything you know about your great-grandmother's children, husband, and HER specifically. Then work backwards as far as you can.

Have you found her full name? (if not, try her death certificate, cemetery records, will, children's birth certificates, her marriage license, etc. etc.)

Have you tried looking for her in a US Census? If you don't have online access, your local library probably does via Ancestry.com.

Familysearch.org has a good outline of how to start your research:
http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Home/Wel...

Also, ancestry.com has a good article outlining Native American research:
http://www.ancestry.com/learn/library/ar...

I hope these suggestions will help you find her history!

Gene-e gave a great answer. But I'd like to add that if your ancestors "branched off" from their tribe, they made that decision for not only themselves but for their descendants. As Cherokee are tribal people and stick together, those who chose to not stick with the tribe are no longer Cherokee. Sure, they may be Cherokee by blood but when they gave up their Cherokee citizenship, they became Americans and forever gave up their and their descendants rights to belonging to the Cherokee Nation. This is no different than a German, Irish or Spanish ancestor leaving their country to become American. It does not mean that their descendants don't have that ancestry (assuming in fact that they do and it can be proven), they just aren't German, Irish or Spanish citizens anymore. Their descendants would be looked at as outsiders, worse American, if they were ever to go to Germany, Ireland or Spain.