My great-grandmother also thought our Indian blood ties were Cherokee. She did not really know what type of blood there was. Actually, the predominant Indians in the Ohio River Valley areas were Shawnee(OH/KY/WV), Wyandotte(KY/OH/IN), Ona(IN), Mingo(originally part of the Iroquois nation who allied themselves with the Shawnee & resided near them), Delaware( originally from PA, OH - also allies of the Shawnee), and Cherokee under the leadership of Cherokee leader Dragging Canoe (NW NC, WV, TN, KY, OH). The best way to begin is to trace your family like any white line by following the census, wills, marriage, birth, family bibles, land records, taxes, etc. Read histories of the various nations in the state archives, libraries. Become familiar with the Draper Papers. Your local library may have some of the Calendars in book form or microfilms. Most state libraries or archives have portions of his collection. It is a MUST when researching early KY/IN/WV/TN/NC, etc histories. Most of my father's ancestors resided in Hancock county and there are many blood tie stories in Hancock Co., but very little documentation. Ask for Any stories from as many family members as poss., write them down, then use them as the basis for your beginning search. Remember, where there are stories, there is a small kernal of truth that has been obscured by time and embellished stories of sometimes epic proportion. Read the historical novel series by Alan W. Eckert and the Indian Blood Series by Pangburn for a start. then try to amass ANY colonial/19th century letters and journals in book form. These are best found in archives or private collections like the Filson Club. There is a good chance, however that if your ancestor's father was from SD her was Sioux or part-Sioux. Learn about the history of these people as well and try to trace the Adkins family on a census starting in IN & going back to SD and from there as far back as possible. Always begin with the census. It isn't 100, but it's a good compass. Also, take advantage of your local Mormon Family History Center in order to use their CD-Rom genealogy database and rent films & fiche from the Salt Lake City library, the largest genealogy library in the world with a fascinating Native American Collection. Good-Luck!