Don ‘Little Cloud’ Davenport - Founder of the Black Native American Association
I am a Seminole with Muskogee Creek/Chickasaw, and African (Nubian/Sudan) Ancestry and of the Bird Clan. I was born in Jackson, Michigan which was on one of the routes of the Underground Railroad where slaves fled to Canada.
My mother is Decilla Ann Davenport, Seminole/Creek/Chickasaw and African-American. Her mother Estella Eastman was born at the Crow Creek (Brighton) Reservation in Florida and was given permission to marry my grandfather Ganer Proudman Knight, Chickasaw/African-American (Sudanese). My Grandfather was accepted by the Tribal leaders to live among the Seminoles where he sired two sets of children born by two sisters Lulu Eastman and my grandmother, Estell Eastman. Together there were three daughters: Rose, Mary, Decilla and three Sons: Anderson, George, and Charles(Columbus).
My grandfather was born on Christmas Day, December 25, 1896 and was a medicine person among the indigenous people. Part of his spiritual teaching was African and Seminole and it was through his teachings that I learned to respect nature and the ways of my people, both Indian and African. My Grandfather’s grand father was an African from Lower-Sudan (Sudanese) and was a direct descendant of the Ancient Nubian Empire.
According to stories told by my grandfather’s grandfather who had been captured by the Arabs, sold into slavery and was taken to the Coast of West Africa to be brought to the New World for the Slave Trade. He escaped from a slaveship and stowed-away aboard a British vessel to the Bahamas Islands where he lived underground in Nassau. In 1818 he immigrated to lower Florida, along the shores of Lake Okeechobee at what is known today as “Indiantown,” and lived among the friendly Black Muscogulges until he met and fell in love with a Creek/Chickasaw women named Koot. They married and had sixteen children.
I learned from my grandfather that some of his uncles left Florida for the Caribbean Islands and Brazil with one brother living as a doctor passing as white. His sisters were all married into various tribes.
I inherited a Walking Stick that maps out my family history with symbols and markings, which explain my ancestry from the Nubians-Sudanese to settling in Florida. The Stick is several hundred years old.”
Mi Takuye Oyahsi,
All My Relations
Very interesting article! I commented about this on my blog, “Black History Quiz.”