American history has always been a passion of mine. My latest novel, The Refugees: Family Threads Book One – 1630 to 1846,  due to be published November 24, 2026, by Black Rose Writing, follows my mother’s side of the family. During my research, I uncovered some unpleasant facts regarding my ancestors and Native Americans. Unfortunately, more unsettling information is being dredged up during my research for Book 2 of the Family Threads trilogy, The Rovers.

UNPLEASANT AMERICAN HISTORY AND NATIVE AMERICANS

A direct descendant of mine, William McKee, arrived in the area of Gunter’s Landing (now known as Guntersville), Alabama in 1819. My extended family has had a presence there for 207 years.

Basically, the yahoo sailed down the Tennessee River on a flatboat, landed at Gunter’s Landing, and squatted on Indian land. Then, once the Indians had been chased out, he bought the land he had been living on outright.

The Cherokee had settled along the Creek Path (a Native American trail) and the Tennessee River as early as 1784. The Creek Path Town (Kusanunnahi) was located some six miles southeast of Gunter’s Landing. The town had a population of around 400 people. In 1820, the residents built the Creek Path Mission School and invited white missionaries to run it.

At the same time, my ancestor was making a home for himself and his family, Catharine Brown and her brother, David Brown (their father was mixed Cherokee and white), who lived in Creek Path, were making history of their own.

Catharine:

• Was born around 1800 and admitted to the Brainerd Mission School (near Chattanooga, TN) in 1817.
• Within a few weeks, spoke and wrote English fluently, writing many long and beautifully phrased letters. Before, she had only uttered one-syllable English words.
• Converted to Christianity and taught at the newly opened Creek Path Mission School.

David:

• Was born around 1806 and admitted to the Brainerd Mission School in 1819 and converted to Christianity.
• Attended the Foreign Mission at Cornwall, Connecticut, and then Andover Theological Seminary, where he studied Hebrew and Greek.
• Was a scholar, translator, and advocate, helping translate the New Testament from Greek to Sequoyah’s alphabet and writing an official compilation of Cherokee laws. He sent Sequoyah’s alphabet to the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Washington, D.C.

The Creek Path Mission was closed in 1838 when the Cherokee were expelled from the area.

UNPLEASANT AMERICAN HISTORY AND DISEASE

Catharine died at age 23 in 1823 and David at age 23 in 1829, both of tuberculosis. Tuberculosis was most likely present before the arrival of the Europeans on the North American continent. However, H.L. Rieder has this to say:

The available data suggest that tuberculosis became a major health problem in some tribes with increased population density and cultural changes after increased contact with European civilization, paralleling the deterioration in living conditions after relocation of the tribes to reservations. By 1900, tuberculosis had become one of the most serious health problems among North American Indians.

Oh, and by the way, my ancestors helped wipe lots of Native Americans out with smallpox and measles.

LAST THOUGHTS ON UNPLEASANT AMERICAN HISTORY

After reading about Catharine and David, I began to think about how we wasted talent in our country’s early years. Had these two individuals been 1) males, 2) white, and 3) rich, what would they have been allowed to accomplish had they lived longer?

Yet, as a society, we determined it was crucial to limit their horizons. Basically, they needed to be deported from their homeland so it could be the white man’s homeland. This act is now known as the Trail of Tears.

Hopefully, we can learn from these defining moments in the past and ensure that every talent in our country is nurtured and cultivated. Without doing so, we won’t make it until our 500^th anniversary.

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