Cherokee Heritage — Alice and the Watkins Line

Michael Jared Dutton's Cherokee heritage traces through his great-great-grandmother Alice, who married John Andrew Watkins. While Alice's maiden name remains unknown, her Cherokee identity is clearly visible in family photographs and is corroborated by documented mixed-blood Cherokee communities in Washington County, Virginia.

The Watkins family itself had connections to the Cherokee dating back to at least 1791, when a Claiborne Watkins was present at the Treaty of Holston between colonial settlers and the Cherokee nation.

Alice and Andrew had about ten children together, including Mary Elizabeth (who would marry Eugene Dutton), Nan, John, Preston, and others. Alice endured tremendous hardship in her life, but she persevered and her descendants carry her heritage forward with pride.

This heritage represents an important thread in the complex tapestry of Appalachian history — where indigenous, colonial, and frontier cultures intersected and blended over centuries.