Marriage of Benjamin Cleveland and Venzelda Ford

From URL:  http://www1.odcr.com/detail?court=019-&casekey=019-MLI+2700064

I'll let you decide, BP, as I see two different spellings of her name:


Do you know of supporting documents? Just a thought. I'm at work now, or would look up on Ancestry. 
_______________

9:15 p.m. UPDATE

The 1930 Federal Census finds Cleveland and Venzella living at 1245 S. Owasso Av., Tulsa.  Ages 29 and 24, he is a porter at a "service station."  And yes, her name is spelled: VENZELLA (which means nothing because mistakes are frequent in census records). Someone gave her birthplace as Kansas. 


Then, found a 1953 Pasadena City Directory listing for Venzella. Sadly, she's listed as a widow to Cleveland:

Name: Venzella G Benjamin
Gender: Female
Residence Year: 1953
Street address: 670 Casitas av
Residence Place: Pasadena, California, USA
Occupation: Beauty Salon Operator
Spouse: Cleveland Benjamin
Publication Title: Pasadena, California, City Directory, 1953



 An enlarged image:


And in 1962 the county of Los Angeles has her listed in voting records:

Name: Mrs Venzella Benjamin
Residence Year: 1962
Street address: W
Residence Place: Los Angeles, California, USA
Party Affiliation: Democrat


Lastly, is this:

Name: Venezuela Ford
SSN: 500-26-9381
Last Residence:
90044 Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA
BORN: 11 Jun 1905
Died: Nov 1983
State (Year) SSN issued: Missouri (Before 1951)
___________________________


SPOKE TOO SOON, B.P. - This just popped up. She's in the middle of the right-hand column as Venezuela Ford:

Name Venezuela Ford
Birth Year abt 1905
Age 1
Gender Female
Residence Date 27 Oct 1906
Residence Place Oklahoma
Tribe Creek


Source:  Ancestry.com. U.S., Native American Citizens and Freedmen of Five Civilized Tribes, 1895-1914 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013.
Original data:
Final Rolls of Citizens and Freedmen of the Five Civilized Tribes in Indian Territory (as Approved by the Secretary of the Interior on or before Mar. 4, 1907

I haven't enough fingers and toes to count all her name variations. I'll let you choose, B.P., as to which one we use on her Findagrave Memorial page. 

A Legal Injustice Made Right

          Big news. Descendants of enslaved people once owned by members of the Cherokee Tribe have had their citizenship rights restored by a federal judge. The Freedmen are again lawful and equal citizens of a sovereign nation. 

          In 1866, as part of a treaty with the U.S., the Cherokee Nation agreed to give its former slaves citizenship. You will recall that a war had just ended. A war where one side fought to preserve its right to enrich themselves from the labor of humans they bought and sold. That side lost. 

          Yet in 2007 Cherokee citizens voted to remove membership privileges from the Freedmen--its name for those who descended from enslaved Cherokees. 

          This from a tribe that itself has had numerous treaties broken by our U.S. government for 200+ years. 

          Freedmen fought in the courts to restore their citizenship. A ten year battle that ended this week. 

          Judge Thomas F. Hogan wrote in Cherokee Nation v. Raymond Nash: 

          "The Court finds it confounding that the Cherokee Nation historically had no qualms about regarding freedmen as Cherokee 'property' yet continues, even after 150 years, to balk when confronted with the legal imperative to treat them as Cherokee people. While the Cherokee Nation might persist in its design to perpetuate a moral injustice, this Court will not be complicit in the perpetuation of a legal injustice."