Fostering Cultural Studies
In 1922, Milam privately funded Emmet Starr's research of Cherokee genealogy and history, which resulted in the 1917 publication of Starr's Early History of the Cherokees . Milam, an avid bibliophile, amassed a collection of over 1600 volumes about Cherokee and Native American history and culture.
Inspired by the inventor of the Cherokee syllabary, Sequoyah and his quest to unite Cherokee factions, J. B. Milam funded an expedition to Mexico to find Sequoyah's gravesite. Cherokee and non-Cherokee scholars drove from Oklahoma to Eagle Pass, Texas in January 1939. They discovered what they believed to be his grave near a spring in the Mexican state of Coahuila; however, they could not conclusively prove the grave belonged to Sequoyah.
Read more about this topic: J. B. Milam
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