Ventura, CA, Friday December 10, 2004

Eleven DNA specimens (seven from Blue Jacket descendants and four from Swearingen descendants have been received by Technical Assoc., Ventura, CA and the necessary separation, etc. of DNA from these male descendants is in progress. Final analysis will await Marc Taylor's return to the lab from a trip he is on and he wants to personally do the final analysis himself. The results will be sent to Dr. Krane who, along with Carrie Rowland (center of photo) will write the report.

Who was Blue Jacket?

Little is known of Blue Jacket's early life. In 1877, decades after his death, a story was published claiming that Blue Jacket was in fact a white man named Marmaduke Van Swearingen, who had been captured and adopted by the Shawnee around the time of the American Revolutionary War. This story was popularized in books written by Allan Eckert, and remains well known in Ohio, where an outdoor drama celebrating the life of the white Indian chief is performed year after year in Xenia, Ohio.

Despite the persistence of this tale, many have questioned its authenticity. Academic historians such as Blue Jacket biographer John Sugden and the late Francis Jennings consider 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 indicates that Blue Jacket was anything other than a Shawnee Indian by birth.

more: http://www.answers.com/blue%20jacket

DAYTON DAILY NEWS, APRIL 15, 2006

Blue Jacket was all Indian, study says

By Benjamin Kline

Staff Writer

FAIRBORN — Research into the genetic family trees of the Shawnee Chief Blue Jacket and the white settler Marmaduke van Swearingen has concluded they were not the same person, as has been popularly thought since the 1800s, a Wright State University researcher said Friday.

"I can say with confidence that Blue Jacket was not Van Swearingen," associate professor of biomedical sciences Dan Krane said.

Krane and an associate, Carrie Rowland, have been alloted 15 minutes to present their findings at the Ohio Academy of Sciences meeting at the University of Dayton next weekend. They also get to place an article in the Ohio Journal of Science detailing their research.

A 19th-century writer apparently created the controversy in 1877 when he said Blue Jacket was actually van Swearingen, a white Shawnee captive who grew to be a noted warrior. In a dramatic twist, the chief was said to have killed one of his white brothers in the great Indian victory over the U.S. Army along the Wabash River in today's Mercer County.

Robert Van Trees, 88, of Fairborn, an amateur historian, has been a tireless enthusiast in the collection of DNA that enabled Krane's research, spanning seven or more generations of van Swearingen and Blue Jacket descendants.

The study focused unsolicited attention on the Greene County outdoor theater production of an action play called Blue Jacket.

"The Blue Jacket people are happy to know they have a direct line back to Blue Jacket and that he was a Shawnee," Krane said. "Now they have proof through their shared DNA."

The results were known in 2000, but DNA testing has advanced since then, Krane said.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2000 or bkline@daytondailynews.com.