Cecilia,

Regarding your statement:
Some of the first settlers of Osceola were the "more white parts" of mixed families with branches who were "more Cherokee" and thus had been forced out of Tennessee on "The Trail of Tears."

Can you provide more about this or point me to sources? In my experience, probably 95% of persons who claim Cherokee ancestry can provide no credible evidence to support the claim. Therefore, I am always interested and excited in finding the other 5% who really did have a connection to the Cherokee Nation.

"Cherokee" is not a 'race of people', of course, but instead is a a nationality. There were some number of Cherokee who abandoned the Cherokee Nation and their Cherokee citizenship and became US citizens.

At the very least, there must have been economic ties between Cherokee citizens in the Cherokee Neutral Lands (southeast Kansas) and the northeastern Cherokee Nation (present Oklahoma) before the Civil War.

Any help in find direct or indirect sources would be appreciated!

Ken