Minnie (Davis) LaCount was a Chickasaw woman who was a patient inmate at the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians. She was admitted to the asylum from the Union Agency in Indian Territory on September 27, 1905, and diagnosed with chronic dementia. She died there on July 5, 1906, and was buried in the Canton Hiawatha Cemetery at the asylum, tier 5 plot 5 according to government records.
She was married to Benjamin LaCount, who by all records seems to have taken care of her, spending much time and money recouping her land allotments that had been usurped by others. This is not the issue, but if interested, a complete record of these court proceedings can be found on the media tab under the title Minnie LaCount Court files.pdf. Their marriage on July 27, 1899, was attested to by an ordained minister, a county judge, and a court clerk, all in the Chickasaw Nation.
Initially, on GENI, she had been connected to incorrect parents, this has been corrected but admittedly I did not delve further into the family, but it leaves a lingering question....
According to 1890 census records attached to her profile by/on FamilySearch, both she and her parents were "Black". She is also identified in Chickasaw records as being a 1/4-blood Chickasaw Indian. Being 1/4 blood herself means that one parent must be 1/2 blood. But if that is the case, which parent, as neither are currently identified as such? In an unverified photo of Benjamine LaCount, now on his profile, he does not appear to be Black. He was not Indian as he does not identify on the Dawes Roll (1887) as a Chickasaw Freedman. He, in fact, was granted a Dawes Enrollment Card #752 as a Chickasaw by intermarriage, confirming that it was Minnie who was Chickasaw.
To me, this would not be surprising given that the origins of the Chickasaw tribe were in the northern Mississippi and Arkansas area, and the 1890 census referenced was taken in Kimbrough Township, Lincoln County, Arkansas, which also shows both parents having been born in Georgia. Nor is it surprising that this couple lived in Arkansas in 1890 given the forceable westward migration of the Indians and their families in the 1820s through the 1850s. Further, there is no record of anyone of this name owning slaves in the 1860 Slave Schedule of the Chickasaw District, Indian Territory, which precludes Benjamine LaCount's parents as being slave owners.
The issue I'm dealing with, what I think is important to know, is this: Was Minnie (Davis) LaCount what we now have come to know as a Black Indian? And if so how do we prove it, where are the documents? It is said that the Freedmen of the Five Civilized Tribes = Black Indians, but I don't know that to be true.
"There's never been any stigma about intermarriage", says Stu Phillips, editor of The Seminole Producer, a local newspaper in central Oklahoma. "You've got Indians marrying whites, Indians marrying blacks. It was never a problem until they got some money."
Wikipedia contributors. "Black Indians in the United States." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 23 Feb. 2024. Web. 8 Mar. 2024.
There is significant internet research on this topic, but nothing I can find on this particular family. The question ties directly to both the new DNA project and the current GENI project Black Indians - A Hidden Heritage @ https://www.geni.com/projects/Black-Indians-A-Hidden-Heritage/31169. And with all due respect, I think we need a better research effort, better sourcing please, than Find a Grave!