Is Richard Earl Hunter, Sr Cherokee indian?

Question

I was always told my grandpa was Cherokee. He passed before I was born. He resided in Kill Devil Hills NC. I have always hit a road block on who his relatives were.

Comments

It is important to find sources for every profile you add. Others trying to help get hints from them.

Maybe if you search laterally (siblings and their family) other clues might pop up.

Answer 1

There's nothing in the records to suggest that he was. Richard was born in Virginia.  HIs father Franklin was born in Virginia.  According to the 1910 census Franklin's father Joseph Cephas Hunter was born in Virginia in 1869, and both of his parents were also born in Virginia, a place the Cherokee never lived.  "United States Census, 1910," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MPLC-8H7 : accessed 21 October 2020), Joseph C Hunter, Western Branch, Norfolk, Virginia, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 82, sheet 10B, family 207, NARA microfilm publication T624 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1982), roll 1638; FHL microfilm 1,375,651. 

 Franklin's mother Ida Pierce/Pearce was born in North Carolina in 1881 and her parents were also born there.   Ida and her family were from Gates County, North Carolina, which is hundreds of miles from the Great Smoky Mountains where  the Cherokee lived.  "United States Census, 1880," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MC6T-V4F : 20 August 2017), Ida W Pearce in household of John Pearce, Hunters Mill, Gates, North Carolina, United States; citing enumeration district ED 59, sheet 213D, NARA microfilm publication T9 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), FHL microfilm 1,254,964.

Edited:  I have added some souces in the profile comments for Richard and Franklin.

Comments

Thank you so much for your help!

I have heard some small undocumented tribes would follow the Cherokee and claim themselves as such. Again, there would be no proof of this as far as my family was concerned. Thank you!

Answer 2

One way to find out is to trace his ancestry back to the time period 1898-1914. This was a census of Native Americans. Read more about it at the National Archives:

https://www.archives.gov/research/native-americans/dawes/tutorial/intro.html

Since you are hitting a road block this may be difficult. When I can't find a relative with a fairly common name, sometimes I do trees for all the Richard Hunters to rule some out by process of elimination. It isn't proof, but it can narrow down the options.