The Tulsa World newspaper carried news of the Cherokee Tribe receiving payment for their land known as the Cherokee Strip.  I read the article and commented to my grandfather, Perry Holt, “The Cherokee are receiving money for their land that was not adequately paid for by the federal government.”  He remarked, “I am a Cherokee Indian.”  He then told me how when as a boy, his grandmother had talked about her father coming to Oklahoma from Arkansas and receiving his land.  She told him how her house burned, destorying the letter with the written record of her mother and father’s roll numbers.

I began my research at Tahlequah, Oklahoma in the very building my great, great grandfather constructed for the Cherokee Nation.  I searched through the roll books and found William and Sarah Jones’ roll numbers.  I then asked about the land that the number represented.  The reply was, “You will have to go to Muskogee to the federal building to find that out.”  My grandfather and I made the trip to Muskogee, and upon our request to see the original records, the office clerk produced the books.  We knew for sure that this was the right William Jones.  We found that soneone in the past had turned this land over to Rogers County for delinquent taxes.  There were two allotments of twenty acres that were never to be sold for taxes.  This land should have gone to the living family.  The numbers were 26177 and 26178, and the land was located north of the town of Collinsville, Oklahoma.  The irony of this is, the grandson of the people of the above numbers is buried here, even though he was never a resident of this town.  Wayne and Virginia Holt are buried in the Collinsville Cemetary.

My Grandfather Perry filed papers referred to as Proof of death or Heirship, which I still have.  He sent these papers to Cherokee Per Captis Payments.  The department stamped the paper November 21, 1962 and returned them.  The report was that these numbers could not have belonged to William and Sarah Jones because Perry ahd claimed them to be full blooeded Cherokee Indians.  The old records that my grandfather and I saw are now being reported as closed to the public.

My interest was never the monetary value to be received from this research, but the fact that the stories my grandparents had told me were true.  I have returned to the beautiful Ozark Hills to write my story because it is within an hour drive of Gilbert, Arkansas, where my family tree took roots and grew.