Nancy Otahki Bushyhead

• General Notes
  • http://rosecity.net/tears/trail/otahki.html
    
    The story of Otahki is not a legend. Her English name was Nancy or Nanny Bushyhead Walker Hildebrand. Some history books list her as the daughter of Jesse and Eliza Wilkerson Bushyhead, other books list her as a sister of Jesse Bushyhead. Recent research suggests however, that she was the sister of Reverend Jesse Bushyhead, an ordained Baptist minister.
    
    She was married to John Walker, Jr. while living near Cleveland, Tennessee. Since Walker was married already to a woman named Emily Stanfield Meigs, Otahki was a second wife and continued to live with her brother, Jesse Bushyhead. She was the mother of two children by Walker, Ebenezer and Sara, both of whom made it to Oklahoma.
    
    It should be noted that plural marriages were not illegal at this time, and such arrangements were not unknown among the Cherokees or whites.