Tayanee ‘Tiania’ Scraper

Tiania was a Cherokee woman

Biography

(daughter of Cabin Smith and Jennie)

buried in Scraper Cemetery, Scraper Hollow, GoingSnake District, I.T. Tiania’s Cherokee name was Tayanee, also written, Dar-ya-ni. (Dinah-Dianey-Tiana)

More about Tiana’s father, Cabin Smith (Cabin Smith Report) Tiania and family came across the Trail of Tears, 1838-39. They were believed to have been in the Richard Taylor detachment. Tiania Scraper had her daughter and 4 sons along with her on the trail, Sally, George, Archibald, Otter, and Charlie. George was married and had his wife & son along with him (Willis, George's first born son, did not survive the Trail of Tears).

Archibald was about 17 years old and was a scout on the trail. They arrived in March 1839, at the old Baptist Mission on Spring Creek. According to family history, Tiana and the Scraper family began life in the new territory by building a cabin, planting crops, and setting out to make this new land their home. They settled in a beautiful hollow about 15 miles east of Tahlequah and about 7 miles southwest of the new Baptist Mission. Before long the crowded conditions in the cabin prompted the Scrapers to build a larger cabin, this one of the 'dog trot'style, the two sections being separated by a porch in the middle.

By 1851 Tiana was believed to have passed away, but her family continued to prosper and each of her children had built separate cabins for themselves all within a mile or two of each other there in what had come to be known as 'Scraper Hollow'. George and his wife Louisa had six children by this time and stayed in Scraper Hollow until the mid 1860's when they moved to Cooweescoowee District and settled along the Verdigris River. Later they moved to Vinita where George was a Cherokee Nation District Judge for many years. Scraper Street in Vinita is named after George.

Archie had married Nellie McIntosh and had two daughters by 1851. Nellie was a half-sister to George's wife Louisa and probably came on the Trail of Tears with her sister and the Scrapers. Archie built a cabin above the big spring (Scraper Spring) about a mile north of the original Scraper cabin near the Scraper Cemetery, and it was here that his children were born and raised. He later built a large 2-story log house across the road to the west. This 2-story house was where Archie took his friend Zeke Proctor to nurse wounds from the shoot-out at the Whitmire Schoolhouse. The house was riddled with bullets from the fight that broke out when marshals came looking for Zeke. Zeke had slipped out the back and escaped. Archie bought Zeke as much time as he could before surrendering so that his family, who were in the house, would not be harmed. Archie & Ellis Foreman were arrested and taken to Ft. Smith. According to the Drennen Roll of 1851,

Otter Scraper & his father 'Deesugawskee' or 'The Scraper', were living in the same residence in Goingsnake District at the time. Family legend suggests that Deesugawskee may have come to Indian Territory on the Trail of Tears with another wife (other than Tiana) & family and settled in Delaware District. Possibly he stayed with his son Otter in Scraper Hollow part of the time and stayed with family in Delaware District or elsewhere at other times. Otter later married Sallie Fishinghawk, had a couple of children, and moved to the Wauhillau area. His daughter Jennie was a wife of the famous Cherokee Ned Christie.

Little is known about Charley Scraper. After leaving Scraper Hollow he moved 9 or 10 miles west to the Welling area where he lived out the remainder of his life. He refused to sign the Dawes roll, because he understood all too well that it was another attempt by the white establishment to steal land and rights from the Indians (a neighbor signed him up anyway). He was assigned an allotment of land several miles away on the far side of Tahlequah, but may have never seen it as he died a year or two later. Howard Walkingstick recalled hearing of Uncle Charley, that he was a good, kind man, and that apparently he had never married.

Sallie Scraper married Watie Cummings(also known as Coming Weight). By 1851 they had 3 children and were living in Scraper Hollow. She died during the Civil War.

She passed away about 1851.

Source: https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Smith-87365