Joe Keen

Joe was a Countryman in the Choctaw Nation

Now, Joseph was a blacksmith and farmer. He worked as a blacksmith and also worked 10 acres each for Mingoes Mushulatubbee and Folsom. He married a Choctaw bride who is never mentioned on a single piece of paper even while they were having children and paying taxes. That being said, his own mother was Choctaw but he was raised culturally white, and his brothers married Choctaw ladies as well. There was enough of a Choctaw heritage that one of our Keen relatives (Rufus, a barber in Jackson, Ms, USA) was used as an interpreter for the Choctaw whenever they came to Jackson, Ms for some time into the 20th century.

Link to Joseph and family on Armstrong Roll - Choctaw Nation Countryman

Culture and Heritance

Native Americans did not have the same ideology regarding race as modern folks. In Choctaw traditions inheritance of moiety, etc. was matri-linear. So, a white male could marry into the Choctaw Nation. This was similar to other tribes, noting the mixed-blood Creeks and related Red-Stick Chieftans discussed earlier. Prior to the placement of 'blood partitioning' to determine rights to tribal lands, etc. there was not the idea of race among the Native Americans as we see in European skin colour and physical-based criterion. Inclusion and degree of acceptance was based on cultural kinship more than physicality or blood proportion.

A tangential jump to Choctaw Countrymen

A brief synopsis of aspects of mixed-blood children of White Choctaw 'Countrymen'. See link:

Countrymen mixed-blood children link

In depth discussion on Mississippi Territorial Militia in the Creek War; Tom and David's 1812 service records

The following link includes excellent information on the actions of the Militia groups including Nixon's Regiment in Perdido, fighting the Creek warriors one on one in the great swamp. David Keen is noted with Captain Roberts in Perkin's battalion in 1814 (Perkins' was from the Northern Alabama region, which was part of Mississippi territory as well, it was positioned between the Elk River i.e. the 'Intruders' where Joseph Keen had lived per Elk River petition in 1809, and the Tensaw-Tombigbee area; but since Zecharrah and Bushpo as well as Joseph and Josiah, had been all over the entire region this may or may not be the same David as on the previously noted petition in Amite county - 1812; but Bushpo and Zecharrah had been to Fort Mims and back, as well as in the other areas as noted above with Joseph and Josiah, etc. We also see David on a petition with Josiah in 1815, so this is likely either the same David or a very close relative), and Thomas Keen is noted with Lt. Colonel Nielson's Amite County Detachment as one of Captain David T.W. Cook's 'Volunteer Riflemen'. Any which way you want to examine it, the Keen family was actively engaged in the early Mississippi Territory, and also within the Choctaw nation, as we shall demonstrate in the near future.

1812 Military history of Mississippi including the Creek War link

David Keen's 1812 service record: