Tsonga,
I have some of the same questions for someone who I believe is my great-great-grandfather. Oral history states that my great-grandmother Sarah Partee Reed was also of Native American ancestry. One elderly relative says Cherokee, but I can't find anything to substantiate her claim. Having very scant information, I haven't really had the drive and "ammunition" to research the small, Native American side of my genealogy.

Nevertheless, there's a man, James Partee, who I believe was Sarah's father or uncle for several reasons, listed in the 1880 Panola Co., MS census, and his race is reported as "I" for Indian, birthplace Virginia. Interestingly, he's the only person reported as "I" in 1880 in Panola County. Partee was the surname of the enslaver, so it seems to me that since James had been enslaved and had retained Squire B. Partee's surname, then he was not of full Native American ancestry??