THE FOLLOWING IS A LETTER FROM G. CARLYLE HINSHAW, A CONSULTING GEOLOGIST AT THE BLUE JACKET EXPLORATION, CORRECTING INFORMATION THAT WAS PRESENTED IN THE NOV. 28 PAGE ABOUT BLUE JACKET. SCCPSS IS GRATEFUL FOR MR. HINSHAW'S CONTRIBUTION IN MAKING OUR REPORT AS ACCURATE AS POSSIBLE.

Dear Dr. Lockamy and Mr. Reginald Smith;

I am seventh generation descendant of Chief Blue Jacket, have read the following webpage about him on your URL:; http://www.savannah.chatham.k12.ga.us/Students/
Native+American+Heritage+Month/Blue+Jacket.htm and want to point some serious inaccurate parts of his biography as published by the Savannah-Chatham Public School System, My great grandmother was Emma Bluejacket and her father, Henry Bluejacket,, was a grandson of Blue Jacket. Enclosed is the published version of the research paper of Carolyn D. Rowland, et. al.  I was involved by helping collect DNA samples of direct male descendants of Chief Blue Jacket for that project, beginning in 2002.  Also, I am listed as one of Dr. John Sugden's contributors in the acknowledgements section of his book, Blue Jacket, Warrior of the Shawnees.  Another of your sources for this webpage, Bill Sloat, interviewed me for his newspaper article.

What I have done is include the text of your webpage below and insert some corrections in red print with documentation. In your article, the changes themselves are very minimal but their significance are somewhat monumental to living Bluejacket descendants. On their behalf, I request you to make the recommendations requested in the red print.

Yours very truly;
G. Carlyle Hinshaw
1713 Baron Dr
Norman OK 73071
(405) 363-4584
bexploration@swbell.net
[BS & MS in Geology, Kansas State University, 1960, Consulting Geologist currently conducting tribal lands mineral assessments for the Alabama-Quassarte Tribal Town (Muscogee Nation) and the Ponca Tribe of Oklahoma]

Blue Jacket or Weyapiersenwah (c. 1745 – c.1810) Dr. Sugden missed Blue Jacket's birth date considerably but has the place right. It should read "c.1737" Sugden missed THE OHIO COMPANY PAPERS, 1753-1718, by Dr. Keneth P. Bailey (Associate Professor of History, Humboldt State College) Edward Brothers, Inc., 1947. Bailey included records of registered Pennsylvania traders that show Blue jacket trading different Blue Jacket transactions recorded for pelts with those traders at lower Shawneetown where the Scioto River empties into the Ohio. In 1750, he would only have been five years old according to Sugden and probably was at least a teenager, hence the use of c. 1737. Shawnee chiefs-to-be, Cornstalk, Hardman and Silver Heels also traded with the same houses as Blue Jacket, as did the sister of Cornstalk and Silver Heels, Nonhelema, known as the Grenadier Squaw, Sugden uses a death date of c. 1808 and that is better supported than 1810. I recommend c. 1 737 - c. 1810.  was a war chief of the Shawnee people, known for his militant defense of Shawnee lands in the Ohio Country. Perhaps the preeminent American Indian leader in the Northwest Indian War, in which a pan-tribal confederacy fought several battles with the United States, he was an important predecessor of the famous Shawnee leader Tecumseh. Biography Blue Jacket was a legendary Shawnee war chief. Since 1877, decades after his death, a famous story about him has circulated and been made popular by authors such as Allan Eckert, but also caused widespread debate. Little is actually known of Blue Jacket's early life, which may be why there is so much confusion about his identity. According to the legend, a young man named Marmaduke Van Swearingen, wearing a blue coat, was captured and adopted by the Shawnee around the time of the American Revolutionary War. His younger brother, Charles, watched him being taken but was not taken himself. The legend also claims that years later, after earning the trust of the Shawnee and rising to the position of war chief, the white man, now viewing himself as an Indian, killed his brother in battle. Despite the persistence of this tale, many questioned its authenticity. Academic historians, such as Blue Jacket biographer John Sugden and the late Francis Jennings, considered Eckert's books, which are billed as history, to be works of fiction. In 2000, DNA testing of the descendants of Blue Jacket and Van Swearingen gave additional support to the argument that Blue Jacket was not Van Swearingen. According to Sugden, nothing in the contemporary historical record indicated that Blue Jacket was anything other than a Shawnee Indian by birth. In the early months of 2006, a DNA test, using more modern equipment and techniques then the previous test, was completed by researchers based at Wright State University and Technical Associates Inc. According to them, the story is "without merit." The researchers tested DNA samples from four men descended from Charles Swearingen, Blue Jacket's supposed brother, and six who are descended from Blue Jacket himself. They concluded that the DNA "argues strongly against the idea that living individuals with those surnames share a common male ancestor in recent history." In May 2006, the results will be opened to a group of Ohio scientists, and a scientific paper will be published in September 2006. There is one complication, however, in the tests. All of the DNA came from descendants of George, the chief's only known son. Since the research paper by Rowland is now published, this paragraph should be totally re-written.  Bill Sloat was the one who stated that Blue jacket only had one known son and that is woefully wrong. I have included documentation of this family from Blue Jacket Genealogy to fill you in on that. Blue Jacket's second wife, Metis. Baby, left Ohio in 1843 for Kansas Territory with their son James Bluejacket and his family and she died shortly after arriving at the Shawnee Kansas Reserve on the Kaw River. Put Bluejacket after George and strike ", the chief's only known son." If Blue Jacket was not George's actual father, however, all of the work is useless. This sentence should be struck as George is well documented as being the second son of Blue Jacket and Ms Baby. See the enclose genealogical document. Struggle for the Old Northwest Blue Jacket participated in Dunmore's War and the American Revolutionary War (allied with the British), always attempting to maintain Shawnee land rights. With the British defeat in the American Revolutionary War, the Shawnee lost valuable assistance in defending the Ohio Country. The struggle continued as white settlement in Ohio escalated, and Blue Jacket was a prominent leader of the resistance. On November 3, 1791, the army of a confederation of Indian tribes, led by Blue Jacket and Miami Chief Little Turtle (Michikinikwa), defeated an American expedition led by Arthur St. Clair, governor of the Northwest Territory. The battle, known as St. Clair's Defeat, was the crowning achievement of Blue Jacket's military career, and the most severe defeat ever inflicted upon the United States by Native Americans. Traditional accounts of the battle tend to give most of the credit for the victory to Little Turtle. John Sugden argues that Little Turtle's prominence is due in large measure to Little Turtle's self-promotion in later years. Blue Jacket's triumph was short-lived. The Americans were alarmed by St. Clair's Defeat, and raised a new professional army, commanded by General Anthony Wayne. On August 20, 1794, Blue Jacket's confederate army clashed with Wayne at the Battle of Fallen Timbers, just south of present-day Toledo, Ohio. Blue Jacket's army was defeated, and he was compelled to sign the Treaty of Greenville on August 3, 1795, ceding much of present-day Ohio to the United States. In 1805, Blue Jacket also signed the Treaty of Fort Industry, relinquishing even more of Ohio. In Blue Jacket's final years, he saw the rise to prominence of Tecumseh, who would take up the banner and make the final attempts to reclaim Shawnee lands in the Ohio Country. Blue Jacket has Shawnee descendants to the present day. Source Sugden, John. Blue Jacket: Warrior of the Shawnees. University of Nebraska Press, 2000. ISBN 0-8030-4288. Sloat, Bill (Apr. 13, 2006)."Blue Jacket was Indian, not white, DNA shows". Cleveland Plain Dealer. Bailey, Kenneth P., THE OHIO COMPANY PAPERS, 1753-1817, Edwards Brothers, Inc., Ann Arbor MI, 1947, LCCN 47003520. THE PORTRAIT OF BLUE JACKET IS FICTIONAL AS THERE ARE NO IMAGES OF HIM IN THE RECORDS. MANY AUTHORS AND ARTISTS HAVE PAINTED WHAT THEY LIKE TO SHOW HIM AS IN THEIR MINDS. CARLYLE HINSHAW