WHITETOP LAUREL BAND OF CHEROKEE

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THE METIS HERITAGEOF THE SIZEMORES

The Story of theWhitetop Laurel Bandof Cherokees

Whitetop Mountain, located at tristate VA, NC, TN border.

In the late 1830's, Sizemores are said to have taken in Cherokees whoescaped the Trail of Tears. This is the point at which many may haveliterally become Cherokee. Mom Feather, Chief Elder of the Southern Band ofCherokees informed me that Sizemore is a well-known Cherokee name and thatthe Sizemores and other Indian families in Eastern Kentucky were known asthe Stick People. This name was given, according to legend because largepiles of sticks high in the Appalachian ridges were used by Sizemores tohide large numbers of Cherokees who escaped the horrible Trail of Tears inthe 1800's. Evidently they later mixed with these Cherokees, which may havebeen the founding of the Whitetop Laurel Band of Cherokees.

This legend is evidenced by the fact that many of our family stories andtrees trace back to a 2,000 member "Whitetop Laurel Band of Cherokees",which existed for at least a decade. The band was founded sixty years afterthe Trail of Tears, and nine years before the Eastern Band of Cherokees in1905. The same number of Sizemores, 2,000, applied en masse for membershipin the Eastern Band of Cherokees in the early 1900's but were denied for

various reasons. Those who made the decision to reject the Sizemore claimswere clear in their statement that Sizemores were Indians, but since none oftheir ancestors had willingly registered in any Cherokee census, they werenot accepted.

The multi-volume book series, Cherokee By Blood documents this story whichappears to be the primary source of the "White Top Cherokee" oral traditionin our family. Vol 1 page 171 bears the testimony of Whitetop Chief WilliamH. Blevins:

"The word 'Chief' in my application, means that I am chief of the White TopBand of Cherokee Indians, an organization of the principal Cherokee Indiansliving about White Top, and was perfected about ten years ago. We organizedso as to demand our rights in a body. We thought we had not been gettingthem before. In 1896, we wanted to go to the Indian Territory, and organizedfor that purpose. When the band was first organized there were about 2175, Ibelieve. They were all Sizemore descendants. No one else was allowed tobecome a member if it was known. I have read the Decree of the Supreme Courtof the United States referred to in my application, and have it at home. Myfather, Armstrong Blevins, I do not think was a party to the treaty of 1836and 1846. I am putting my own interpretation on the decree."

(Thanks to our relation Bill Fields, editor of Under One Sky, the Melungeoninformation magazine for contributing this)

This documentation does not however, explain the later infusion of the word"Laurel" into our modern Sizemore family trees. But we do

know that theWhitetop Laurel Creek runs off of Whitetop Mountain, and is a favoriterecreational spot of fly fishermen and kayakers.

One claim for membership in the Eastern Band of Cherokees stated thatSizemores were their own tribe in and of themselves, known as "Sixemore" -probably due to the Whitetop membership requirement that one should be ofSizemore relation. Another said that "Old Ned" Sizemore came from theCatawba Nation, a claim that would not preclude his descendants from laterbecoming Cherokees, as Cherokees took in the remnants of many defeated bandsand tribes. Another family tradition in one of our lines says that thesurname was created due to poor translation (or anglicization)of theCherokee word "Esiyah", which means literally "large child". The name wasgiven to a Cherokee man who was very good with children, and is reportedlyfound on the Dawes Rolls. The same family line is related to Sizemores inSouth-Central Ohio, near the town of Pedro, that still speak fluent Cherokeeand take part in the traditional corn dance.

Some family trees indicate Whitetop Cherokee roots as early as the time ofCheif Redbird (whom Redbird Creek and the Redbird Mission is named after),George "All" Sizemore, Aggy Shepherd, Rhoda Sizemore, and "Old Ned" EdwardSizemore, all of who lived in the 1800's in Leslie, Maggofin and ClayCounty, Kentucky. These Sizemores migrated from Tennessee, Virginia andNorth Carolina prior to this time, and many lived in the Whitetop Mountainborder area of Virginia/North Carolina. But for the most part the timeperiod in which they lived does not coincide with the stated lifespan of the

Whitetop band.

Following is an excerpt from an article on the George All Sizemore and AggyShepard connection to the Creeks and the Whitetop Laurel Band of Cherokees."The marriage of George "ALL" Sizemore to Aggy Shepard originated from araid of Indiams on the white mans camp where they captured a white girl. Inretaliation, the white men followed and rescued the girl and captured anIndian girl who was later given to a white family to raise (Aggy). Aggy isthought to have been a Creek Indian. George lived in both the white man'sworld, and the Whitetop Cherokee tribe throughout his life."

"The Indian Chief for whom Red Bird Creek in Clay County was named is knownas member of the Whitetop Laurel Band of Cherokees from North Carolina. Hewas a great hunter and allured by the game in this remote region. He finallytook up residence on the creek that bears his name at the mouth of JacksCreek in this county. He came to his death by the abarice of the "paleface". There lived with him a crippled Indian named Willie. This man dressedthe skins which Red Bird brought to their wigwam and looked after theculinary department of their house. Some hunters from North Carolina, greedyand unscrupulous, came to the wigwam and murdered Willie. Then they secretedthemselves and awaited the return of the brave chief who had long beforeburied his tomahawk and for years had been living in peace with the whiteman, and as he approached his crude castle the bullet of an assasin laid himin the dust. They threw his body into a hole of water nearby which is stillcalled "Willie Hole", and from which John Gilbert and others took him andburied him. One tradition is that he was sitting on the bank

of a creekfishing when he was shot and that he fell into the creek."

(Reprinted in Kentucky Explorer, Volume 11, March 1997. Recorded in the1870s.)